15 years ago, Hamburger SV and SV Werder Bremen faced each other in the semi-final second leg of the UEFA Cup. It was supposed to be a legendary evening – because a paper ball made football history. Afterwards, HSV had to endure a lot of scorn and ridicule from fans across the country. However, the “Tangle of Fate” ended up in the museum!
“I’ve never experienced such a chain of unfortunate circumstances. It’s the scene of the year when you concede a goal like that. It’s very bitter!” Sat.1 expert Mirko Slomka was stunned. It was May 7th 15 years ago when Hamburger SV met old rivals SV Werder Bremen at home in the semi-final second leg of the UEFA Cup. That evening in 2009 was supposed to end in derision and ridicule for HSV because something happened that had never happened before.
Hamburg won the first leg against Werder 1-0. Now it was 1:2, but there was still hope for HSV of making it to the final. But then came the 83rd minute. HSV player Michael Gravgaard wanted to easily pass a ball back to his keeper Frank Rost along the goal line. And in 9,999 cases out of 10,000, this wouldn’t have been a problem at all – but in this very special case, the ball accidentally jumped over a paper ball and so the completely harmless back pass ended up in touch instead of at Rost’s foot.
And because misfortune rarely comes alone, the following corner actually brought “something”, as the saying goes. To make matters worse, Frank Baumann’s goal was also HSV’s first goal against a corner this season. And that in Hamburg’s 49th competitive game.
Frank Rost tries gallows humor
Afterwards, the unlucky Michael Gravgaard couldn’t be calmed down after HSV’s elimination: “You can’t have that much bad luck. I was concentrating fully on the ball and suddenly it just jumped away. That after the corner it was the first :3 falls is doubly bitter.” Goalkeeper Frank Rost, who had seen the whole depressing spectacle from close up, tried his hand at (gallows) humor after the game when, shaking his head, he said very pointedly: “That’s just how it is in games like this. The little things make the difference.”
What was particularly tragic about the whole story: The “paper ball of decision” came from a choreo by the HSV fan group “Chosen Few,” as Thorsten Eikmeier from the HSV fan project confirmed afterwards: “A total of 45,000 cardboards in the club colors were distributed.” Johannes Liebnau from the “Chosen Few” and his fan club members initially provided a nice setting with their blue, white and black cardboard – but after the defeat they were visibly dismayed: “That was force majeure!”
And of course one person didn’t like the whole thing at all: HSV professional Michael Gravgaard. After his back pass was sent uncontrollably out of bounds by his shin due to previous contact with the “ball of fate,” he angrily kicked the paper ball away. But by then it was already too late.
Because the corner made it 3-1. And this goal was also extremely unfortunate in its creation, because Piotr Trochowski actually cleared the ball shot by Diego on the line – but shot the goal scorer Frank Baumann in the process. The ball bounced from him into the net. It didn’t help that Ivica Olic was able to reduce the score to 2:3 in the 87th minute. And in the Internet, which was still in its infancy at the time, scorn and ridicule had already made its way.
“The ball goes to the Werder Museum”
Some humorous fans on YouTube have already had sayings like – “The paper was offside!” or “Why didn’t the paper ball get a yellow card? Oh no, it was just playing the ball” – left behind. Supporters of local rivals FC St. Pauli didn’t take long to ask and gleefully printed buttons with the slogan: “I love paper ball”. And really crazy football fans even gave the paper ball its own player profile: “Country Germany. Born on May 7th, 2009. Club Werder Bremen. Position forward. Status not for sale.”
Then things got really strange again when it came to who had gotten possession of the ominous “Paper Ball of God” in the original – because immediately after the game ended there were several offers on Ebay. But since TV Sat.1 presenter Oliver Welke had handed the then Werder manager Klaus Allofs the crumpled up, legendary cardboard (“I’ll take that with me. The ball is going to the Werder Museum. It will have a special place there,” Klaus Allofs), it was assumed that this was the original of the ball. Afterwards, this piece was even auctioned off again for a good cause and then finally ended up in the Werder Museum.
But to make the oddity of this very special European Cup evening fifteen years ago perfect, men from the HSV security service later claimed that the paper ball was just a copy. The Sat.1 employees simply crumpled up some cardboard lying around so that their presenter Oliver Welke could hold it up to the camera for interested TV viewers. Whatever. The story was never completely clarified. In any case, this story also fit that wonderfully crazy evening in 2009.