The anniversary is coming! No matter how VfL Wolfsburg performs. At the end of the coming season, VfL can look back on 25 years of the Bundesliga! In one piece. Of the current Bundesliga clubs, only FC Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt can claim that. But only Leverkusen and Munich have never been relegated from the upper house. 25 years of the Bundesliga – before the anniversary comes, we’ll take you on a little journey through time. Match day after match day. In the last second division season.
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25 years – not a very big anniversary in many areas. Rather unusual in the Bundesliga. Exceptionally consistent. Because only eleven clubs from a total of 56 Bundesliga clubs since 1963 have played more than 25 seasons in a row in the upper house.
The little VfL Wolfsburg. For a long time he was number 5 in the north – behind Bremen, HSV, Braunschweig and Hanover. Feared in the Oberliga, but in the 2nd Bundesliga the team from Elsterweg was only six years of its history, in the Bundesliga the wolves were not known at all. Wolfsburg stood for Volkswagen. Period. Until there with a trainer Uwe Erkenbrecher, manager Peter Pander and officials like Wolfgang Heitmann and Manfred Aschenbrenner Visions and in 1992 he was promoted to the 2nd division.
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A single-digit position was the goal of VfL for the 1996/1997 season. A decidedly cautious and perhaps also realistic view after a troubled 18 months, in which only Gerd Roggensack led VfL into the 1995 cup final as the successor to Eckhard Krautzun, who had made it to the quarter-finals. The semi-final 1-0 at the higher class 1. FC Köln through a goal from Siggi Reich remained the highlight under Roggensack.
In the league, he had not been able to stabilize the club, which was sniffing promotion until shortly before the end of the season. Roggensack had already been replaced by ex-HSV professional Willi Reimann in October 1995 after a home 0: 5 against Bochum. The gnarled Hanseate was able to advance a well-known team on paper with his stoic manner, so that they remained unbeaten 14 times in a row in the second half of the 95/96 season. Then it went into a very special season.
The third day of the second division season 1996/97
What was like that before: A landslide after heavy rains in the Spanish Pyrenees killed more than 70 people. VfL landed their first mandatory victory – in the DFB Cup with 4-0 against the amateurs of VfB Leipzig, where today’s Dortmund coach played Marco Rose in midfield. Sven Ratke (puzzling complaints, dizziness) and Michael Spies (groin) were still absent, as they had been since the beginning of the season, and Mathias Stammann was still not fit again after a knee examination. The Wolfsburg professionals had completed a performance test the week before the third matchday, the results had given coach Willi Reimann confident. The search for a striker seemed to be coming to an end. A day before the game, the WAZ reported that the newcomer should come from Bulgaria. It was the Bulgarian international Peter Mihtarski, who should come to the audition first. Crazy coincidence: In 1996, Hertha were opponents of VfL on the second match day, on match day three it was against Leipzig. Just like this season. Except that VfL didn’t even have a win back then and VfB is not the same club as RB Leipzig.
The game: In the cup game, striker Stefan “Fritze” Meißner was outstanding, in the point game he was missing because of his suspension from the game against Berlin. So Roy Präger went back to the attack, whose place in midfield was taken over by Jens Keller, whom Jann Jensen pushed as a central defender in his first starting eleven after a break of more than a year. Matthias Maucksch made it 1-0 with a penalty kick (of all things against his former Dresden coach Siggi Held), Piotr Tyszkiewicz made it 2-0 shortly after the break. The victory with the Saxons for the Brazilian Franklin (Bittencourt), the father of the Bremen professional Leonardo Bittencourt, was deserved, but also fought for. Keeper Uwe Zimmermann in the box had to clear up some dangerous scenes, Leipzig’s Lindner hit the bar with a free kick after 79 minutes. Wolfsburg had their first win of the season and made a set in the table.
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The statistics
VfB Leipzig – VfL Wolfsburg 0-2
(18. August 1996)
VfB: Kischko – Edmond, Schößler, Lindner – Däbritz, Heidrich, Banic (51st Pinder), Shala, Hoffmann (51st), Fuchs – Weichert, Franklin.
VfL: Zimmermann – Maucksch, Tomcic (76. Lüttkenhaus), Jensen – Probst (46. Kapetanovic), Ballwanz, Deering, Dammeier, Keller – Tyszkiewicz (70. Kleeschätzky), Präger.
Referee: Strong (Landshut). Viewers: 6100.
Tore: 0: 1 (30th) Maucksch (penalty kick), 0: 2 (51st) Tyszkiewicz.
Yellow cards: Bancic, Lindner, Franklin / Probst, Jensen.
WAZ player of the game: Zimmermann.
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The table of the 2nd league 96/97 after matchday 3
1. Fortuna Cologne 7: 3 7
2. 1. FC K’lautern 4-0 6
3. SV Slap 4:2 6
4. FC Gütersloh 2-0 5
5. Stuttgart Ki. 4: 2 4
6. Carl Zeiss Jena 4: 3 4
7. FSV Zwickau 4:3 4
8th entry Frankfurt 3: 2 4
9. VfLWolfsburg 3: 3 4
10. Mainz 05 2:2 4
11. Hertha BSC 2:3 4
12. VfB Oldenburg 3: 3 3
13th VfB Leipzig 4: 5 3
14. Uerdingen 3:5 3
15. Unterhaching 1:1 2
16. VfB Lübeck 1: 3 2
17. Waldh. Mannh. 3:5 1
18th RW Essen 1:10 0
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In an AZ / WAZ series, we trace the path to promotion – follow it match day after match day parallel to the new Bundesliga season. We don’t yet know what the end of the season will be in 2021/22; all the fans know what was the end of the season in 1997. But some were still young then, some not even born.
You can take part in this journey through time. Feel free to send us emails if you also like photos (as files, no originals, please; to [email protected]) with your special memories of games, or post them on the corresponding match day in the sports buzzer post that will appear at Facebook.
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