It’s almost Christmas, which means we’re all getting some more quality time with the people we love – and perhaps also the things we love. Yes, it’s time for another installment of my Championship Manager 99/00 blog career!
This latest chapter will see us go through the second half of the 2000/2001 season with Bayer Leverkusen. If you want to catch up with the story so far, you can revisit Part 5 here.
FEBRUARY 2001
When the half-time whistle blew on our Bundesliga campaign, we were in 3rd place – six points adrift of leaders Bayern München. Play resumed in February with an away game against mid-table SC Freiburg, who had earlier this season knocked us out of the DFB-Pokal Quarter Finals.
SC FREIBURG 2-0 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 18)
Our old foes outsmarted us again, getting goals in either half through left-winger Levan Tskitishvili and striker Uwe Wassmer. And as per usual, their captain Richard ‘No’ Golz kept another clean sheet and was voted ‘man of the match’. That fella’s starting to annoy me.
Champions Dortmund overtook us in the top three after their 1-0 win at Hamburg. We would travel to the Westfalenstadion to challenge them later in the month… but before then, we had back-to-back home games against bottom-half outfits.
LEVERKUSEN 0-0 1860 MÜNCHEN (Bundesliga – Match 19)
16 shots, 7 on target… no goals. We’d forgotten how to finish.
Kirsten also forgot to control his emotions in the 73rd minute, when he was dismissed for pushing 1860 München defender Roman Tyce. The referee evened things up by issuing a couple of late bookings to Gerald Vanenburg, but we still lost more ground on the top teams.
Oh yes, and our number 1 Massimo Taibi would have to sit out the visit of Nürnberg after hurting his thigh in training.
LEVERKUSEN 3-1 NÜRNBERG (Bundesliga – Match 20)
Stand-in goalkeeper Holger Hiemann had an early mare after just three minutes, failing to stop Nürnberg’s Markus Grasser from cancelling out Andri Sigþórsson‘s even earlier opener. Not to worry, as Siggi restored our lead in the 27th minute before completing his hat-trick in the second period. Right-winger Bernd Schneider also deserved credit for assisting all three of Andri’s goals.
Nürnberg midfielder Uwe Beer damaged his shoulder late in the first half after colliding with Michael Ballack. I’m sure Uwe was drowning his sorrows come full-time.
Attention now turned to our meeting with Dortmund, who tried playing some tricks on us in the build-up by offering us £18million to sell Zé Roberto. Naturally, Bayern München made a similar offer. Ain’t that cute… but my nan’s still not for sale!
DORTMUND 1-1 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 21)
Dortmund’s approach to this match was probably, “If we can’t have your player, you can’t have ANY players.” Their defender Christian Wörns was sent off after 37 minutes for a two-footed lunge on Sigþórsson, who later had his knee smashed in by Karsten Baumann. We responded by crippling their right-back Evanilson for four months.
By the 69th minute, Carsten Ramelow – who would be suspended from our next match – had decided it was time to play football. A magnificent half-volley put us on the verge of victory… at least until Baumann salvaged a draw for BVB nine minutes later. Dortmund and Leverkusen thus shared the points, but I doubt they’ll share Christmas cards any time soon.
Another international break was now upon us, which meant two things:
1) We had an opportunity to calm down after almost starting World War III in Dortmund.
2) More injuries – this time to Ballack, Emerson and Adam Ledwon! At this rate, I’ll be playing freaking Frank Juric in midfield! (Yes, Jukebox is still plodding along in our reserves.)
LEVERKUSEN 2-1 DUISBURG (Bundesliga – Match 22)
The first half of this match really was ‘The Ulf Kirsten Show’. Almost everything happened for the evergreen frontman between the 15th and 34th minutes. Kirsten scored one penalty, had another saved by Gintaras Stauce, had a goal disallowed, got booked for protesting, and then found the net again from a Stauce parry to make it 2-0. Now breathe.
In the second half, Duisburg boss Friedhelm Funkel channelled his inner Marcelo Bielsa and called on his Spies – striker Uwe Spies, that is. A fantastic solo effort in the 58th minute halved our deficit to leave us on edge for the final half-hour. We held on, though, and spirits remained high going into our next Champions League match.
LEVERKUSEN 0-1 ARSENAL (Champions League – Phase 2 Group A, Match 3)
For once, I was disappointed to see Arsenal win a match. The only goal in a cagey affair came midway through the first half, after Goran Vlaovic broke through our defence to bury Nwankwo Kanu’s through-ball.
A flicker of hope emerged for us just before half-time, when the Gunners’ midfield general Patrick Vieira picked up a couple of bookings and was sent off (no surprises there). We couldn’t make the most of our man advantage, as Arsenal keeper Shay Given denied Thierry Henry an equaliser against his old club.
Arsenal thus consolidated 2nd in the group behind Real Madrid, whose 3-0 thumping of Feyenoord continued their impeccable record. We surely needed to win the rematch at Wembley to have any realistic chance of going through to the Quarter Finals – and we would have to do so without the suspended Jens Nowotny.
MARCH 2001
The Arsenal reunion would follow a league meeting with Bielefeld, who were in last place with two wins from 22 games.
BIELEFELD 0-1 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 23)
I think Oliver Neuville is broken. For those who haven’t kept score, Neuville hadn’t troubled the scorers since October. That’s nigh on five months without a goal – from someone who got 22 last season! Oli struggled again here, missing the target three times, hitting the woodwork once, and drawing just one save out of Marco Sejna.
It was another of those games where the opposition goalie saved almost everything we threw at him. Indeed, if Zé Roberto hadn’t squeezed a ‘Hail Mary’ ball from Ramelow into the net in stoppage time, we would have drawn 0-0. As it was, we strengthened our grip on a top-four league placing… but if we could barely beat Bielefeld, what hope did we have of upsetting Arsenal in London?
Well… there was one thing. I’d recently binned off the 4-4-2 diamond, but having noted that Huddersfield had won 3-0 at Highbury using the same tactic, I decided to give it one last shot.
ARSENAL 0-0 LEVERKUSEN (Champions League – Phase 2 Group A, Match 4)
I’d love to know what Steve Bruce got right with Huddersfield, because all the tactic change did for me was allow Arsenal to pepper shots at Taibi. Massimo the Magnifico saved nine of them on his way to a clean sheet, but at the other end, we continued to struggle. 0-0 draw it was.
Real Madrid secured their Quarter Final place by beating Feyenoord 3-1. Arsenal were now odds-on favourites to join them, and defeat at the Santiago Bernabéu the following week would seal our fate.
While I tried to figure out how we could possibly salvage anything from another frustrating season, Zé Roberto gave me another headache by straining his groin. And he timed it perfectly to coincide with a tricky home game against 6th-placed Hertha! [Sigh]
LEVERKUSEN 4-1 HERTHA BSC (Bundesliga – Match 24)
Football is bonkers, and so am I. Come half-time, I was a furious man, as Hertha led 1-0 through Hungary midfielder Pal Dardai, who’d scored from what proved to be their only shot of the entire match. I was also a desperate man, as I switched to a 4-3-3 with Kirsten, Neuville AND Henry playing up front together.
Firstly, Robert Kovac headed in a Neuville corner after 56 minutes to equalise. Then came a four-minute spell in which Kirsten annihilated the Berliners with THREE goals, including a penalty. Schneider took our celebrations too far by headbutting Hertha’s skipper Kjetil Rekdal, copping a red card and a seven-match domestic ban… but what can you do?
Leverkusen thus leapfrogged Kaiserslautern into 3rd, with Dortmund just two points ahead. Granted, Bayern were another seven points clear at the top, but with Giovane Elber back to his stunning best, the title race was pretty much over already.
Our Champions League campaign would be pretty much over if we lost against Real Madrid in midweek. And even if we did pull off a shock at the Bernabéu, we also needed Feyenoord to get some sort of result at home to Arsenal. Get those tissues ready.
REAL MADRID 3-1 LEVERKUSEN (Champions League – Phase 2 Group A, Match 5)
Real Madrid were so confident of victory that they left most of their best players at home and fielded four ‘greys’ – and their belief wasn’t misguided. Though Kirsten cancelled out Josemi’s early opener, Los Blancos’ new £2.1million signing from Elche found the net again early in the second half. His ‘grey’ strike partner Miguel Ángel Izquierdo also scored shortly afterwards, and it was all over for us.
With our continental elimination confirmed, we faced another trophyless season. All there was left to aim for was the Bundesliga – and anything but victory at 9th-placed Frankfurt would surely end any realistic hopes of even threatening to overtake Bayern.
FRANKFURT 1-1 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 25)
Well… Bayern won again, we dropped more points at Frankfurt, and the gap was now at 11. Bachirou Salou put our opponents ahead after 28 minutes, but Ballack got us back on terms just three minutes later. The rest of the game was categorised by strong defending… and yet more blanks fired by Henry and Neuville.
LEVERKUSEN 2-0 FEYENOORD (Champions League – Phase 2 Group A, Match 6)
There was nothing at stake here, but at least we went down swinging. Schneider got us up and running with an excellent strike in the 32nd minute (shame we won’t see him again until May).
Then, after 65 minutes, a miracle happened. Neuville SCORED!!! (Okay, it was only a penalty, but don’t let little details get in the way of a good story.) We thus secured 3rd place in Group A ahead of Feyenoord, whose Ghanaian defender Christian Gyan received a late red card for a dangerous foul on Schneider.
LEVERKUSEN 2-1 WERDER BREMEN (Bundesliga – Match 26)
Neuville also found the net against Werder Bremen… but he was cruelly denied after Sigþórsson was ruled offside. Otherwise, it was a good afternoon’s work for Siggi, who struck in either half to help us recover from an early Torsten Frings opener. Meanwhile, Bayern surprisingly got tonked 3-0 by HSV, meaning that we, Kaiserslautern and Dortmund could all gnaw into their sizeable lead.
APRIL 2001
Obviously, Bayern awaited us in our very next match! Having lost our previous three meetings with Ottmar Hitzfeld’s giants, hopes weren’t exactly high. Nevertheless, I took a big risk by dropping Sigþórsson and reinstated Kirsten, knowing that he would either net a hat-trick or get into a fist-fight with Stefan Effenberg.
BAYERN MÜNCHEN 1-0 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 27)
Neither of those things happened, but the result really wasn’t a surprise. From the 16th minute, when Roque Santa Cruz volleyed in a long ball from Bayern’s big summer signing Sol Campbell, the hosts were in full control.
At half-time, I thought, “Screw it,” and switched to the 4-3-3 that had served us so well against Hertha. Not that it did us any good against Oliver Kahn, as the big Bayern goalkeeper was truly unstoppable against our attacking trident. Defeat was inevitable, and we were trailing by 11 points again.
Bayern faced another big title match the following week when they went to 3rd-placed Dortmund. Meanwhile, we hosted a mediocre 1.FC Köln side – and I decided to test out this 4-3-3 lark from the outset.
LEVERKUSEN 4-0 1.FC KÖLN (Bundesliga – Match 28)
How’s it taken me THIS long to figure out that 4-3-3 = goals? This system turned Henry back into the master marksman we all know and love, as he beat Robert Enke twice inside the first six minutes. He then rounded off a stunning hat-trick in the 40th minute, which – combined with Ronaldinho’s free-kick three minutes earlier – effectively killed the game off before half-time.
4-3-3 also equals yellow cards, apparently. We received four of them (also all in the first half), and both Nowotny and Kovac would have to serve bans against Kaiserslautern. Incidentally, we were now behind the 2nd-placed Red Devils only on goal difference after they lost 3-0 at HSV, while Dortmund slipped to 4th despite securing a 2-2 draw with Bayern.
KAISERSLAUTERN 1-1 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 29)
This result helped neither team, but I can’t complain – and Otto Rehhagel probably won’t either. A nervy match caught fire when wing-back Marco Reich put Otto’s men ahead after 53 minutes, only for Kirsten to equalise seven minutes later. Despite losing skipper Ciriaco Sforza to a broken toe, Kaiserslautern finished strongly, and Taibi needed to be at his best to secure us a point.
Two days later, Dortmund toiled to a goalless draw at our next opponents Greuther Fürth, while Bayern put four goals past a sorry Werder Bremen side. Leading by 11 points with only 15 left to play for, the championship really was FCB’s to lose now.
LEVERKUSEN 2-1 GREÜTHER FURTH (Bundesliga – Match 30)
We made much harder work of lowly Greuther Fürth than we should’ve. A rout had looked likely when Emerson’s rocket breached their defence after just three minutes… but we badly underestimated the Kleeblätter’s resilience.
After successfully repelling several Leverkusen attacks, the visitors hit us on the break in the 63rd minute through in-form striker Nico Patschinski. Three minutes later, though, the very out-of-form Neuville finally ended his six-month league drought with a hopeful effort that somehow paid off.
It hadn’t been pretty, but we had won at least. Unfortunately, so had all the other teams in the top four, including Bayern, who were now just two points away from winning a record 16th German championship.
SCHALKE 04 2-2 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 31)
That’s two points dropped, and that’s Leverkusen officially out of title contention. To be honest, we paid the price for a shocking first-half performance in which we conceded goals to Portuguese youngster Sergio Pinto and veteran midfielder Olaf Thon. Henry pulled us level with a couple of excellent strikes in the 73rd and 78th minutes, but that’s another season in which the BayArena trophy cabinet will be left unfilled.
Even if we had completed the comeback, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Bayern rubber-stamped the title with a 4-0 thrashing of Nürnberg, meaning that Bundesliga fans would have to look elsewhere for some end-of-season drama.
Three games to go, and three more Champions League places left to fill. Things were looking good for Kaiserslautern and Dortmund, while we occupied the final berth – three points ahead of HSV, whom we would play on the final day. Hertha were also realistically in the hunt, but VfB Stuttgart needed three wins (and a minor miracle) to qualify.
MAY 2001
Things were also interesting at the bottom, with six teams still battling to avoid relegation. In that pack were Wolfgang Wolf’s Wolfsburg, who were four points clear of the drop but could hardly afford a late-season slump. Even with Emerson suspended and Neuville injured, we were expected to cause them more worry at the BayArena.
LEVERKUSEN 1-0 WOLFSBURG (Bundesliga – Match 32)
Forget about worrying Wolfsburg… this lot worried ME for 90 minutes! In the 17th, Ronaldinho somehow escaped with only a yellow card following a careless two-footed lunge on a visiting player. Ron wasn’t sent off but I subbed him off at half-time, reinstating Schneider after his lengthy league ban.
Come the interval, we held a narrow lead courtesy of Sigþórsson’s sweetly-struck 44th-minute free-kick. We really should have built on that lead, but Kirsten had a horror show up front, failing to score from EIGHT attempts. Thankfully, Wolfsburg rarely troubled Taibi in goal, and we squeaked out a win.
That win took us to 3rd ahead of Kaiserslautern, who had surrendered 2nd spot to Dortmund following a 1-0 loss at the Westfalenstadion. More significantly for us, we now had a six-point advantage on both HSV (who lost 1-0 to DFB-Pokal winners SC Freiburg) and Hertha (who saw off Duisburg 2-0).
That meant we could secure a top-four finish with a point at VfB Stuttgart. Die Roten could no longer qualify for the Champions League, but they would still have a chance of making it into the UEFA Cup if they won.
VFB STUTTGART 2-2 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 33)
Disaster struck in the opening seconds, when Robson Ponte held back Stuttgart winger Christian Ziege in our penalty area. The hosts’ 35-year-old captain Krassimir Balakov confidently buried the penalty, which was enough to send his team into half-time with a lead.
Then came the Bayer fightback midway through the second half. Sigþórsson took it upon himself to decimate Die Roten’s defence, first with a header from Neuville’s cross, and then with a breathtaking solo goal. Siggi was now on 13 goals for the season, drawing him level with our leading scorer Kirsten.
Alas, Andri’s brace wouldn’t get us the win. Stuttgart were gifted a second penalty after 75 minutes, when Nowotny backed into Manel. As old man Balakov was now on the bench getting a well-earned rest, Pavel Kuka stepped forward this time to equalise. The Czech forward also went for a winner four minutes later, but Taibi’s catch got us the point we needed.
Kaiserslautern won 2-0 against Nürnberg and regained 2nd from Dortmund, who were edged out in a 3-2 thriller by Wolfsburg. Though Kaiserslautern now had a single-point advantage on us and Dortmund, it was still anyone’s guess as to who would finish 2nd and qualify automatically for the Champions League.
In the bottom three, it was another story. 1860 München, Greuther Fürth and Bielefeld all had relegation confirmed with a game to spare.
Before our season-ender against Hamburg, it was announced that Kirsten had agreed to stay on for another year. Having shown that rumours of his demise were greatly exaggerated, Ulf would now continue to set an example for our younger strikers.
Henry could learn a thing or two from Kirsten about professionalism. The Frenchman was fined for misconduct and would have to watch our last game from the stands.
LEVERKUSEN 2-0 HSV (Bundesliga – Match 34)
It might have been the final weekend, but our players didn’t treat this match like a holiday. Nowotny, Emerson and Stefan Schnoor were all booked in a goalless first half – the latter for a crunching tackle that injured HSV winger Bernd Hollerbach’s ankle.
Then came the second half. As Hamburg grew frustrated over wasted chances, Kirsten punished them with a cool low strike that confirmed him as our top scorer on 14 goals. He then selflessly set up Ronaldinho’s third of the season as we FINALLY got one up on our old nemeses!
Unfortunately, Kaiserslautern also finished strongly, winning 3-1 at Bielefeld to confirm themselves as runners-up – and Champions League group-stage entrants. As for last season’s champions, Dortmund threw everything at Stuttgart but could only manage a 1-1 draw, which meant…
And just to tie everything up in a bow, the three clubs promoted from the second division were TeBe Berlin, Aachen and Dresdner SC.
SEASON REVIEW
I won’t lie; that was a frustrating season. We really did look like serious challengers at times, but our mentality and wastefulness kept letting us down.
Yes, were unlucky to lose to Freiburg in the DFB-Pokal Quarter Finals. At the same time, though, only reaching the second group phase of the Champions League simply isn’t good enough.
While we had definitely shored the defence up over the summer (conceding a joint-league low 26 goals – as few as Bayern and Dortmund), our attack really suffered. We ranked only 8th in the Bundesliga on goals scored, while Neuville went from a 22-goal beast to a mere kitten with just eight to his name.
There’s definitely a lot of quality in this team, and we’re probably two or three big signings away from something really special. The Bayer board are promising a big war chest, which I will make full use of before the 2001/2002 season.
My round-up of our leading players from 2000/2001 begins with Zé Roberto, who had another productive season on the left wing. There’s no doubting the 26-year-old’s technical qualities, but his lack of versatility means he might struggle to stay in the team if I switch to the 4-3-3 long-term.
One player who’ll definitely be a key man at Leverkusen for the long haul is captain Nowotny. Yes, he does love a booking, but Jens is the glue that holds our defence together. He is also the newly-voted German Sweeper of the Year (surprisingly, our right-back Schnoor came 2nd in the voting).
But our Fans’ Player of the Season is resurgent club legend Kirsten. After I signed Sigþórsson as his long-term replacement, the 35-year-old proved that class is permanent by finishing ahead of Andri as the club’s top scorer. Time might catch up with Ulf sooner rather than later, but the attacking workhorse deserves another shot at glory.
| GOALKEEPERS | APPS | CON | ASTS | YC | RC | MOM | AVE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Holger Hiemann | 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.81 |
| Massimo Taibi | 45 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6.96 |
| OUTFIELD PLAYERS | APPS | GLS | ASTS | YC | RC | MOM | AVE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Ballack | 32 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6.66 |
| Thomas Brdaric | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.00 |
| Ersin Demir | 14 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.50 |
| Emerson | 35 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 7.34 |
| Vratislav Gresko | 23 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6.65 |
| Markus Happe | 42 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 7.00 |
| Frankie Hejduk | 16 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6.56 |
| Thierry Henry | 23 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7.43 |
| Torben Hoffmann | 21 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 6.81 |
| Ulf Kirsten | 38 | 14 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 7.29 |
| Robert Kovac | 40 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 6.92 |
| Adam Ledwon | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.50 |
| Zoran Mamic | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.50 |
| Mario Nacev | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.00 |
| Oliver Neuville | 41 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7.17 |
| Jens Nowotny | 45 | 2 | 2 | 17 | 0 | 2 | 7.44 |
| Robson Ponte | 45 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7.11 |
| Carsten Ramelow | 39 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 6.72 |
| Ronaldinho | 34 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 6.88 |
| Bernd Schneider | 30 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6.30 |
| Stefan Schnoor | 36 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 7.06 |
| Andri Sigþórsson | 37 | 13 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 7.35 |
| Darioush Yasdani | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6.50 |
| Zé Roberto | 31 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 7.55 |
| Boris Zivkovic | 42 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6.76 |
It’s another tale of “so near, yet so far”, which might as well be the Fuller FM motto! Can I make it third time lucky at Bayer Leverkusen? I’ll now take a short break for Christmas, but please join me again on Monday 6 January, when I’ll start the final season of this CM99/00 adventure.
In the meantime, feel free to give feedback through leaving a comment below or tweeting me @Fuller_FM. Lastly, may I wish you all the best for the holidays – and for the new year.
Fuller FM 
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