It was exactly 15 years ago that the then “Dino” of the league, Hamburger SV, last defeated the great FC Bayern. At that time, dreams of becoming champions were even ripening on the Alster. HSV greeted from the top of the table and even Karl-Heinz Rummenigge recalled the glory days of the Hamburg team – and a painful victory for HSV over Bayern!
“That’s football. One day you’re Michael Jackson and the next day you’re just Roy Black.” At the end of September 15 years ago, Hamburg raved about the young Dutchman Eljero Elia – and a Hanseatic tabloid newspaper put this wonderful sentence into the striker’s mouth. Those were wonderful late summer days that HSV celebrated around the victory against the German record champions. Back then, in those blissful hours, no one suspected that it would be the last triumph against FC Bayern Munich for many, many years. Quite the opposite. On the evening of this 1-0 victory on September 26, 2009 by Mladen Petrić, the whole of Hamburg dreamed of the resurrection of the old days.
Even before the match, Hamburger SV had gone into the game against the third-placed team in the league and old rivals, FC Bayern Munich, as league leaders. And indeed, for the first time in a long time, they sensed at Säbener Straße that something serious could develop on the Alster. Only before the season, long-time Bayern player Zé Roberto had come from Munich and now, after the well-deserved victory against the record champions, he announced with a relaxed smile: “I still have big plans for HSV.” 17 points and 17 goals after seven match days – Hamburger SV was finally somebody again.
The big turning point in the summer of 1982
And Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in faraway Munich also saw it that way, even if he tried to correctly assess the new rebellion of the old rival before the match: “They have a good team without question. But to be on the same level, HSV would have to win the championship three times in the next four years.” But Rummenigge – understandably – did not think that the Hamburg team could do that, even after the important “big point game” and HSV’s victory against his own club. And then Rummenigge started to rave again when he remembered the beginning of the 80s and the big duels between the two clubs.
Just like in the summer of 1982, when there was plenty of celebration in Hamburg. Back then, HSV had hit the jackpot with coach Ernst Happel. Felix Magath was completely enthusiastic about the new coach after the first training session: “It was suddenly like back then on the street. We were running after the ball to let off steam.” And the good mood continued. Before the 29th matchday of the 1981/82 season, HSV was already three points ahead of second-placed Bayern Munich. A draw or even a win against the defending champions, and the championship would have been decided early.
- Ben Redelings is a bestselling author and comedian from the Ruhr area.
His current work is “The new book of football sayings” with well over 10,000 sayings from the colorful world of football.
He travels all over Germany with his football programs. Info & dates on www.scudetto.de.
But after 64 minutes, HSV were 3-1 behind. With only one point left, the title project threatened to become much more complicated again until Thomas von Heesen and Horst Hrubesch managed to equalize. At least the gap had been maintained, everyone thought, and they prepared for an exciting league final. But then HSV won 4-3 thanks to a goal from Horst Hrubesch in the 90th minute. The magnificent final spurt was the Hamburg team’s early masterpiece. Jimmy Hartwig later fondly remembered how the team experienced the great feeling of triumph: “In the week after the game, we walked through the streets with such a puff of our chests that pedestrians crossed the street in fear.”
Rummenigge, the World Cup and a cruciate ligament
In Munich, however, the defeat in the decisive match for the title was very difficult to cope with. An attempt to take it humorously resulted in this joke: “Did you hear the huge row on Säbener Strasse yesterday?” “No, what happened?” “The FC Bayern team has given up on the German championship!” And Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has never forgotten this painful defeat either. When HSV prepared to challenge Bayern again, he remembered 1982: “I wasn’t fit in the game. My cruciate ligament was torn. I didn’t have an operation because of the World Cup, I was lucky that I had relatively good muscles in my thigh. I didn’t want to risk the end of my career.”
What Rummenigge didn’t say at the time: He still firmly believed that if he himself had been fit for this important match, HSV would never have become German champions. And he also didn’t believe now, at the end of September 2009, that Hamburger SV would ever pose a real threat to Bayern again. Rummenigge was right. The triumph over Bayern can even be seen in retrospect as HSV’s last big victory in the Bundesliga. At the end of the season, Hamburg finished 7th in the table. FC Bayern Munich were champions, of course.
And Eljero Elia? He would indeed have a career marked by highs and lows between Michael Jackson and Roy Black. But always first class. Unlike HSV – who have been trying to get back into the top ranks of German football for the seventh year now. But the dreams of the glorious past are still there – and in 2009 they were suddenly, for a moment, very close again.