It’s time for some more Championship Manager 99/00 action, folks! I’ve made it halfway through my third and final season at Bayer Leverkusen, and a new calendar year kicks off with ‘Die Werkself’ still in the hunt for all three major trophies.
If you’ve not read Part 8 yet, you can go back there and see how we fared in the final few months of 2001. Once you’re ready, we’ll move on into 2002…
JANUARY 2002
It’s January, and you know what that means, folks! Yep… the transfer window was closing, and this was another opportunity for me to not spend anything before it slammed shut!
In truth, I didn’t need to go out and buy anyone during the mid-season break. Okay, so we were still a fair way off Bundesliga leaders HSV, but I was satisfied with the depth and talent we had in our squad. And even if I did want to strengthen any positions, I wouldn’t have had the money, ‘cos I’d spent most of that in the summer, remember?
So yeah, deadline day on 15 January came and went without incident. Then, on the morning of 16 January, came a phone call from Turin…
If anybody had offered me £15.75million for Zé Roberto while the window was still open, I probably would’ve taken it. The Brazilian left-winger could be deadly on his day, but his lack of versatility meant gametime had become harder to come by since I adopted the 4-3-3 as my go-to formation. It was no accident that Ronaldinho had recently usurped him on the left side of our midfield.
Anyway, we returned from our mid-season break by visiting Duisburg, who were in the relegation zone, not to mention struggling with injuries and suspensions aplenty. As far as we were concerned, Markus Happe and Stephane Henchoz made welcome returns to the defence, but midfielder Martin Jørgensen and striker Ulf Kirsten were injured.
DUISBURG 0-4 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 17)
Welcome back, Oliver Neuville! In one spectacular half of football, the enigmatic striker netted a hat-trick to QUADRUPLE his Bundesliga goal haul for the season. Neuville also set up a 13th-minute goal for Robson Ponte, who later returned the favour to bring up brilliant Brazilian’s 14th season assist.
Obviously, there were no goals to report in the second half. We had done our job with aplomb, so we could now coast through the remaining time and consolidate a top-three placing.
Wait… hang on. You know I mentioned Happe was back?
Despite that, I was certain the first month of the new year would end on a happier note for us. There were only three matches played across the Bundesliga in January, so surely Neuville’s hat-trick would make him a shoo-in for Player of the Month, right? RIGHT?
Nope. In their infinite wisdom, the DFB’s awards committee gave the Player of the Month award to… 19-year-old Nürnberg midfielder Uwe Beer. For the record, Nürnberg were thrashed 4-0 at Hertha, and Beer played only the final 20 minutes of a match that was effectively already over.
Good job there, DFB!
FEBRUARY 2002
The Duisburg game was our third successive away fixture – but we weren’t even halfway through what would be an extended road trip! Five more away games would follow in February before the BayArena hosted Hertha on the 23rd. Hopefully the groundstaff would have dusted off the cobwebs by then…
FRANKFURT 1-2 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 18)
Gabor Kiràly’s grey sweatpants were no match for our front three. The Hungarian goalkeeper was first beaten after 20 minutes, when Kirsten’s flick-on was volleyed in by Thierry Henry. Two minutes into the second half, Neuville fed a lovely ball into the area for Kirsten, who needed two attempts to beat Kiràly and double our lead.
Meanwhile, our goal lived a charmed life, as Frankfurt hit the woodwork on a couple of occasions. Holding midfielder Jens Rasiejewski did find the net after 79 minutes, but a full-on fightback never happened from the hosts.
HSV stayed ahead of us – if only by a point – after being held 0-0 at Nürnberg. Dortmund could also only draw against Werder Bremen, so they were actually behind us on goal difference by the time we visited the Westfalenstadion.
DORTMUND 2-1 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 19)
Our first league defeat since September… but it had started oh so well when Juan Pablo Angel put us ahead after just seven minutes. Right-back Boris Zivkovic turned into the devil in the 25th minute, when he injured Fredi Bobic before fouling Michael Tarnat in the penalty area. Lars Ricken converted the spot-kick, and our lead was gone.
This was another bitter encounter, with the referee issuing eight yellow cards (four to each team). The decisive moment where the scoreline was concerned came early in the second half, when a magnificent solo strike from Argentine forward Francesco Guerrero broke our hearts.
We dropped down to 3rd, and Dortmund regained the lead following Hamburg’s latest goalless draw at VfB Stuttgart. The top two both won their matches the following weekend, putting pressure on us to do the same at second-from-bottom Aachen.
AACHEN 0-2 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 20)
A week before this game, my assistant Roland Koch said that Torben Hoffmann had been excellent in training and deserved a run in the first-team. I’m glad I listened to Roland, because the centre-back scored our opener after Aachen’s keeper parried Andri Sigþórsson‘s free-kick. Hoffmann’s strike midway through the first half was complemented by Henry early in the second as we strolled to victory.
It had been a miserable day for Aachen, who lost midfielder Waffi Douaydari and winger Bernd Rauw to injury before half-time. When a third player – left-back Henri Heeren – hurt his thigh late on, the ‘Kartoffelkäfer’ had to finish with 10 men. They also went bottom of the Bundesliga, thanks to TeBe Berlin’s 2-1 win over Nürnberg.
Having taken our frustrations out on the division’s worst team, we now prepared to face the leaders again – this time in the DFB-Pokal. Could we exact revenge on BVB and move within 90 minutes of a major trophy?
DORTMUND 0-0 LEVERKUSEN [4-2 PSO] (DFB-Pokal – Semi Final)
[Sigh]
We had our fair share of chances in normal time and extra-time (as did Dortmund), but Jens Lehmann was like a yellow wall in front of the BVB goal. Even after two hours of trying, nobody could find a way past either him or our goalkeeper Massimo Taibi, so penalties beckoned.
Both teams converted their first two spot-kicks, but things went wrong for us in the third round. Ponte’s effort was clawed away by Lehmann, putting Jens Nowotny under huge pressure to score our fourth penalty after Guerrero had given the hosts a 4-2 lead. Our captain buckled, and another Lehmann save sent Dortmund through to a Final meeting with HSV, who saw off Stuttgart 2-1 after extra-time.
So the Pokal was out of our reach, and it looked like the Champions League was as well. That basically left the Bundesliga as my final opportunity to end my three-year reign at Leverkusen with a trophy. We would need to put everything into our remaining 14 fixtures, that was for sure.
WOLFSBURG 0-4 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 21)
Following our cup exit, we furiously set the hounds on Wolfgang Wolf’s Wolfsburg. Neuville opened the scoring after nine minutes, and had it not been for a valiant display by home keeper Georg Koch, that wouldn’t have been our only goal of the first period.
All those missed opportunities were long forgotten come the final whistle, as we destroyed our opponents in the second half. Ponte firstly banished his Dortmund demons before Henry headed home from a Jørgensen cross and then Sigþórsson struck direct from a free-kick. 4-0, and poor Wolfsburg looked every bit the relegation fodder.
Meanwhile, the leaders went head-to-head in Dortmund, where right-back Evanilson earned the hosts a potentially crucial 1-0 win over HSV. We remained three points behind Dortmund, but we also went a point ahead of Hamburg into 2nd.
And so, after eight straight matches on the road, we were finally back at home sweet home. We were still unbeaten in league matches at the BayArena this season… but could 7th-placed Hertha ruin that record by replicating their opening-day heroics?
LEVERKUSEN 1-0 HERTHA BSC (Bundesliga – Match 22)
That was a struggle, I won’t lie. Hertha were on top for much of the first half, and Taibi had to be constantly on guard to keep their striker Markus Beierle quiet.
Though we went more attacking in the second half, it wasn’t until the 81st minute that we really looked like breaking the deadlock. Hertha sweeper Raphael Wicky was accused of a penalty-area foul on Neuville, who duly punished him from the spot. Taibi then tipped away a free-kick from Kostas Konstantinidis to keep our noses in front.
There was some very good news at Aachen, where bottom played top – and the final score was 0-0! That meant…
When it came to Europe, though, our situation was a bit more precarious. Having lost our first two matches in Phase 2 of the Champions League, we had little option but to go for broke at home against Juventus.
LEVERKUSEN 0-2 JUVENTUS (Champions League – Phase 2 Group D, Match 3)
[Sigh] We all know how deadly Javier Saviola is on CM99/00, right? The 20-year-old Argentine tore us apart here, bringing up his 25th and 26th goals of the season for the Old Lady. Firstly, after 32 minutes, he burst through our defence to finish Alessandro Birindelli’s killer pass. Saviola’s second came just before full-time, direct from a free-kick after Nowotny had pulled on Gianluca Zambrotta’s shirt.
It could have been oh so different if Angel had converted even one of the four chances he had before Saviola’s opener. Or if Ponte’s 35th-minute equaliser hadn’t been called back for an offside against Henry. Or if a sudden severe snowstorm had struck northern Italy and grounded Juve just before they flew out to Germany.
So that was three defeats from three games. Were we to also lose at the Delle Alpi the following week, our elimination would already be confirmed.
MARCH 2002
The race for Bundesliga glory gathered pace on the first Saturday of March. Dortmund were beaten 2-0 at home by a resurgent Bayern München, which meant the defending champions were now only five points off the lead.
It also meant that pole position up for grabs when we hosted HSV on Sunday. A point would be enough to move us above Dortmund on goal difference, but if Hamburg prevailed, they would be on top.
LEVERKUSEN 1-0 HSV (Bundesliga – Match 23)
Ulf Kirsten, you beautiful old man!
This was an incredibly tense match in which both teams gave their absolute all. There were plenty of shots at both ends, but Taibi and his Hamburg goalkeeping counterpart Hans-Jörg Butt were almost unstoppable.
When it came to aggression of a different kind, we had FIVE different players go into the book. HSV were slightly cleaner in that regard, though their left-winger Dimitrios Grammozis was booked twice late in the second half. The foul that led to his dismissal was on Ponte in the penalty area five minutes from time.
Kirsten now had the chance to put us top of the table. Alas, Butt kept out his penalty… but Ulf would get his revenge in the closing moments. As full-back Stefan Schnoor sent a last-ditch cross into the visitors’ box, Kirsten lost his marker and buried the cross to send the BayArena faithful into ecstatics.
Leverkusen were now leading the Bundesliga on 52 points – two ahead of Dortmund, four of HSV, and seven of Bayern. If only life was looking so rosy in the Champions League, eh?
JUVENTUS 3-0 LEVERKUSEN (Champions League – Phase 2 Group D, Match 4)
Art won’t replicate life. A couple of first-half goals from Saviola and midfielder Paulo Sousa, and a second-half Fabián O’Neill free-kick, condemned us to an early exit from the competition. The Old Lady had won 3-0, and that was all she wrote.
However, as this particular ‘she’ is actually a ‘he’, and there were still 11 league matches left to play, more shall be written.
While Gresko looked to the future, our first-choice left-back Happe returned from injury in a straightforward win at Dresdner. Angel headed home the first goal from Jørgensen’s 31st-minute cross. Then the old and new generation combined to double our lead after 69 minutes, as 36-year-old Kirsten selflessly set up a Bundesliga debut goal for 19-year-old Thomas Fröhlich!
BAYERN MÜNCHEN 1-1 LEVERKUSEN (Champions League – Phase 2 Group D, Match 5)
I rewarded Fröhlich by naming him in a largely second-string line-up at the Olympiastadion, where we surprisingly came away with a point. Robert Kovac had volleyed us into the lead after six minutes, only for Roque Santa Cruz to peg us back nine minutes later.
The hosts did have a great chance to go 2-1 up in the 62nd minute, after our backup keeper Holger Hiemann was sent off for a professional foul on Giovane Elber. Taibi came on to try and keep out the penalty from Bayern’s spot-kick maestro… erm, Sol Campbell. With Campbell being English, you could probably guess how that transpired.
LEVERKUSEN 2-1 DUISBURG (Bundesliga – Match 25)
Neuville continued our charge towards the title with an impressive brace against a lowly Duisburg team whose squad was as wafer-thin as Kate Moss. Admittedly, we did ride our luck several times, including when Carsten Ramelow‘s reckless tackling just before half-time saw him narrowly escape a second yellow card. The midfield destroyer couldn’t avoid a one-match ban, mind you.
Duisburg midfielder Marcus Wedau did halve our lead in the 64th minute, though that was thankfully as far as the Zebras’ comeback went. Meanwhile, Dortmund stayed two points behind after narrowly beating TeBe Berlin 1-0, and Bayern won 2-0 at HSV to overtake their opponents on goal difference.
LEVERKUSEN 0-0 ROMA (Champions League – Phase 2 Group D, Match 6)
Our reserves did us proud in this dead Champions League rubber against Roma, who had already won the group. Making his first appearance since circa 1989, goalkeeper Frank Juric defied constant pressure from Vincenzo Montella to keep a clean sheet and win the ‘man of the match’ award.
Fröhlich caused a few problems at the other end, drawing a couple of fouls out of Walter Samuel that led to the Argentine defender’s dismissal after 25 minutes. We didn’t actually score, but frankly, we just wanted this match – and this competition – over and done with.
Now that our European nightmare was over, we could now put everything into the league. But not before the March international break, obviously. And not before I had to reject offers from FIVE different clubs for Schnoor.
SC FREIBURG 1-4 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 26)
Ponte’s 15th assist of the season had taken a while in coming, but after seven minutes, the Brazilian was back to his brilliant best. His corner was smashed in by Angel, who later brought up his 10th Leverkusen goal early in the second half.
Florian Bruns did pull a goal back for Freiburg in the 78th minute, but disaster struck seven minutes later, when goalkeeper Richard Golz fractured his cheekbone. As the home team had used all three substitutes, right-back Timo Böttjer had to wear the gloves for the closing stages.
Despite being down a man, Freiburg almost equalised in the 88th minute, when winger Tobias Willi’s shot was heroically hacked off the line by Nowotny. We then hit them with two late goals – one for Sigþórsson, and a third for Angel.
Meanwhile, Dortmund lost 3-2 at Schalke 04, thus extending our lead to five points – at least for a couple of days. Staying another couple of points behind were the victorious HSV (2-1 vs Dresdner) and Bayern (6-1 vs Aachen).
The champions were next on our schedule. Dortmund had earlier roared back to form by putting four goals past Duisburg, so defeat to Bayern would mean we entered April only two points ahead of the opposition. Of course, it would also bring Hitzfeld’s big-hitters right back into title contention.
LEVERKUSEN 0-1 BAYERN MÜNCHEN (Bundesliga – Match 27)
There went our unbeaten home league record. Our defence made just one mistake all game long, and it was to give Elber a clear chance in our six-yard box in the 19th minute. Taibi could only parry the Brazilian’s shot back to him, and there was no second let-off.
After that, Bayern’s defence really was flawless. Left-back Bixente Lizarazu produced brilliant tackle after brilliant tackle to stifle our attack and pull his team back to within four points of the lead.
And I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you on that cliffhanger until next week!
Please come back on Monday 27 January for the 2001/2002 season finale – and the FINAL chapter – of “Now Or Neverkusen”. Will German football’s perennial bridesmaids finally get to the altar, or is my time at the BayArena set to end in yet more agony?
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