1985/1986 Bundesliga season

The 1985/86 season ended with a real nightmare for Werder’s fans. But until we get to the end, we must make a little stop to the 4th match day.

On 31 August 1985 Weserstadion was the host of the big nord derby: Werder – Hamburg. Before the game, Werder was in first place with two wins and a draw while Hamburg layed in the 8th position with a win, a draw and a defeat. The taste of victory against Hamburg is much sweeter for Werder fans and the goals from Frank Neubarth and Thomas Wolter led the way to celebrations as Werder won the match with 2-0. The players involved in that game where:
SV Werder Bremen: Burdenski – Pezzey, Kutzop, Ruländer, Okudera, Schaaf, Sidka (88. Ordenewitz), Meier, Votava, Völler, Neubarth (76. Wolter).
Hamburger SV: Stein, Plessers, Kaltz (73. Balzis), Jakobs, Schröder, Kroth (67. Thomas von Heesen), Lux, Magath, Rolff, Wuttke, Gründel.
Below are the highlights of that game:

And now to the 33th match day: Fight, drama, tragedy! Werder Bremen throughout most of the 1985-86 season looked like the sure champions, standing at the top the league table in 31 of the 34 rounds. Holders Bayern were trailing Bremen by four points for twelve consecutive games, they won all of their games but so did Werder and the points difference thus remained the same all those months and it really looked as if Werder were winning the league for the first time in 21 years. Then, ten days before the two top teams were to meet in the Weserstadion, Bremen unexpectedly lost 0-1 at Uerdingen while Bayern won very convincingly 3-0 at Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion. Suddenly only two points were separating the two arch rivals, on the next weekend, both teams drew so the constellation before both sides were to meet was that Werder could seal the Bundesliga title if they would win. With a draw, Werder would remain at the top with a two points lead and would only have needed a draw in the last game of the season. The goals difference between both teams was pretty close (Werder +43, Bayern +45).

This game had plenty of goal scoring chances but it was the day of the goalkeepers Jean-Marie Pfaff and Dieter Burdenski. Bayern played very clever over long parts of the game while Werder somehow felt the burden of being the favorite. Werder only really came into action in the second half, when Bayern needed some luck to avoid conceding a goal. Whenever Klaus Augenthaler was on the ball, deafening whistles from the Werder crowd were heard, of course nobody had forgotten that Augenthaler’s foul had (allegedly) put Werder hero Rudi Völler out of action for five months. But Augenthaler was cool and did not hide. Bayern started very concentrated and determined, Udo Lattek had added a third forward with Roland Mathy instead of left wingback Holger Willmer. For Willmer, Sören Lerby played a similar role to the one he played in Denmark’s national team, in a defensive left-sided midfield position, often dropping back to the full back position. Just like Augenthaler, the Werder side also was under huge pressure, accumulating a number of loose balls due to their nervousness. Roland Wohlfarth hit the post from the outside right position which increased Werder’s nervousness. Bayern on the other hand played without fear. At the middle of the first half, Werder slowly gained some advantage, Johnny Otten shot from full speed but Pfaff popped up, boxing the ball over the crossbar. Then came a series of four corners for Werder, Meier and Burgsmüller beat the off-side trap but Pfaff had rushed out of his goal grabbing the ball. Shortly before the break, Augenthaler brought down Norbert Meier just outside the penalty box which got him booked, but the freekick was harmless. During the first half, Werder generally showed concern of conceding a goal while Bayern played with content and routine.

In the second half, Werder intensified their efforts but they just couldn’t get past the brilliant Jean-Marie Pfaff. Frank Neubarth tried it with a torpedo header, Norbert Meier with a chip – all to no avail, as Pfaff was already there. Naturally Bayern tried to exploit Werder’s increased pressure with fast counter attacks but Bayern too didn’t hit the goal as Dieter Burdenski was in fine form. Roland Wohlfarth missed the goal with his head and his feet, Augenthaler tried it with one of his famous distant shots, but Burdenski’s sheet remained clean. Reinhold Mathy was on the way towards the Werder goal, but Bruno Pezzey grabbed his shirt. This got Pezzey booked but Lothar Matthäus failed to score from the ensuing freekick, as Burdenski parried. With twelve minutes to go, Rudi Völler had his sensational comeback. Otto Rehhagel was determined to decide the championship in this game, he didn’t want to wait another week and Völler’s presence was probably more intended to boost Werder’s morale and to decrease that of the Bayern players. Dozens of photographers surrounded him, big applause from the stands and his teammates. The finish of the game was very hectic and dramatic but no goals were scored. Then, one minute before the final whistle, Rudi Völler squeezed past Sören Lerby into the Bayern box from the right side, Völler chipped the ball and the it apparently hit Lerby’s arm. Völler immediately protested, a scream of outrage from 40,000 throats! Völler and his fellow Werder teammates demanded a hands penalty and FIFA World Cup referee Volker Roth wasted no time: penalty! It took some time before the penalty could be executed, then Werder’s standard penalty taker Michael Kutzop took the ball and proceeded to walk to the penalty spot. This was Bremen’s eighth penalty that season and Kutzop had converted all previous seven penalties with ease. So in the moment of the penalty call, this was expected by almost anyone in the stadium as being equal to Werder winning the game and thus the Bundesliga. Kutzop looked as cool as ever, taking the spot in his usual casual way, but in the moment he hit the ball, something went wrong, the ball flew towards the right goal post but then just slid past the post behind the goal, Pfaff didn’t have to interfere. What a tragic miss! Shock and horror in the stadium, among the Werder players and on the Werder bench. Silence in the Weserstadion, and also in the city center, where the game had been broadcast on a giant screen, then cheers of joy and relief among the Bayern players, managing director Uli Hoeness and coach Udo Lattek and of course among the Bayern fans in the stadium. Their chances of defending the Bundesliga championship unexpectedly remained intact. Since the game was broadcast live on television, viewers could watch the slow motion of Lerby’s alleged hands and it soon became obvious that Lerby had not handled the ball, that he had no intention of committing a foul at all. It would of course have been very bitter for Bayern to have lost this game and thus the championship due to a bogus penalty!

The players that took the field where:
SV Werder Bremen: Burdenski – Pezzey, Kutzop, Okudera, Otten, Schaaf, Meier (77. Völler), Votava, Wolter, Burgsmüller, Neubarth.
FC Bayern München: Pfaff – Eder, Pflügler, Augenthaler, Matthäus, Nachtweih, Lerby, Mathy, Dieter Hoeneß, Michael Rummenigge, Wohlfarth.

The highlights of that game can be seen in the 2 video below:

Werder still had big hopes of sealing the championship the next weekend, as they ‘only’ needed a draw at fifth-placed Stuttgart, while Bayern were hosting their old rivals from the 1970s, Borussia Mönchengladbach, who were ranked fourth. Stuttgart was fighting to keep their UEFA Cup rank and thus playing them away wouldn’t be an easy task for Werder. Bayern’s opponent Gladbach however was already sure to play in the UEFA Cup thus they had nothing to lose in their game at Munich’s Olympiastadion. Stuttgart’s situation was the opposite to Gladbach’s, they were especially motivated, because: 1) Werder had humiliated them 6-0 in the first leg before the winter break and, more importantly, 2) Stuttgart had to face Bayern in the German Cup final a week after the finish of the Bundesliga, and in the case of Bayern winning the league, they would have automatically started in the Cup Winners’ Cup, regardless of winning the Cup or not, and the CWC was considered more prestigious than the UEFA Cup those days. Thus Stuttgart definitely needed to win anyway to assure their partaking in international competition the next season.

Werder’s traumatic experience in the final minute of the game vs. Bayern was extended to the complete Stuttgart game. Bayern were finishing off Gladbach with a 6-0 rout with Lothat Matthäus already having scored in the first minute, thus there was no doubt that Werder definitely needed a draw to win the title, a loss would not do. But the Werder players obviously were still traumatized because of Kutzop’s penalty miss, the championship which for such a long period of the season looked like theirs without question was suddenly out of reach, as Stuttgart scored after 22 minutes and added a second goal shortly after the break. In Munich, Bayern scored goal after goal against Gladbach, and Werder was almost paralysed by this situation. Only in the last minutes did they get a grip on the game and in the 79th, veteran Manfred Burgsmüller scored Werder’s first goal with a poacher. Now they had eleven minutes left scoring a second one and thus getting the desperately needed draw. These final eleven minutes must rate as some of the tensest ever played in a Bundesliga game, it was unbelievably nerve-wrecking for the countless Bayern fans, too, who were listening to the radio report from Stuttgart’s Neckarstadion in agony and fright, as Werder constantly attacked the VfB goal. When the final whistle was blown, the celebrations in Munich’s Olympiastadion knew no limits, fans, players and Bayern officials hugging friends and strangers in ecstasy! Bayern had managed the unthinkable, having caught Werder on the home stretch.