Bundesliga: Pass by pass, Bayer Leverkusen is playing its way towards the title

In Augsburg, Reiner Calmund did not walk through the anteroom in front of the dressing rooms, which is right behind the entrance to the pitch and where the interviews are conducted after the games. The absence of the former Bayer Leverkusen manager was evident from the fact that no distinct Rhenish dialect could be heard in any conversation. The Spanish coach Xabi Alonso from the Basque Country has not yet adopted this dialect in Leverkusen, nor has the Finnish goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky or the sports director Simon Rolfes, who grew up in northern Westphalia. Nevertheless, Calmund’s broad singsong could at least ring in your inner ear after Leverkusen won 1-0 (0-0) at FC Augsburg on Saturday thanks to the goal from Argentinian Exequiel Palacios in the fourth minute of added time and were crowned champions of the first half of the season.

Anyone who listened to Alonso, Hradecky and Rolfes talk about how they didn’t want to attach much importance to the unofficial title could be reminded of Calmund, even without a Rhenish twist of the tongue. »Fall Championship For me, celebrating is like a Christmas tree without decorations. Does not count. The presents are on the 34th matchday,” Calmund said in the 2001/2002 season after Leverkusen won the half-year title for the first time. At that time, Calmund praised the coach at the time, Klaus Toppmöller, for being “such a little, hardened pig priest” and not letting anyone “dance on his nose.”

When Calmund remembered the interim title 22 years ago for the ARD Sportschau before the Leverkusen game in Augsburg with players like Lucio, Zé Roberto, Michael Ballack, Bernd Schneider and Dimitar Berbatow, he considered the then 36-year-old attacker Ulf Kirsten in retrospect with the equally appreciative addition “the old fart”. Current manager Rolfes has refrained from making such popular statements. In this matter, however, he sees things as Calmund once did, at least with regard to the Werkself’s third first round championship. »Oh, that’s not so important, the victory is important. The other is just a snapshot,” Rolfes said. And he also did not allow himself to be lured by questions as to whether this late success at FCA and the interim results should be understood as a signal to FC Bayern Munich. “I’m not interested in that at all,” replied the 41-year-old. With Alonso it sounded very similar: “It was just a win, nothing more,” said the 42-year-old coach.

At Bayer, of course, they know that the interim balance sheet is not their responsibility and that it is definitely meaningful. Not only that the first in the table became champions in two out of three cases after 17 match days in 60 years of the Bundesliga. Added to this is how Leverkusen got to their top spot. Pass after pass, they have earned the unofficial title by following Alonso’s rule of flatly and cleanly addressing the man next to them whenever possible. In Augsburg they did this persistently until the end, even after many wasted opportunities. They ultimately overcame the stubborn FCA in a playful way when Alejandro Grimaldo passed from the left into the middle, where Palacios received the ball in one movement with his right and shot in with his left arm. “The goal was not luck, but the achievement of good work,” emphasized Alonso.

The Leverkusen team feel much more encouraged by their emphasis, will and recognizable quality as well as their 26 competitive games in a row without defeat than by the table picture. Especially since they had to make do in Augsburg without the injured attacker Victor Boniface as well as without Edmond Tapsoba, Odilon Kossounou and Amine Adli, who were required at the Africa Cup of Nations. In addition, Alonso had left defense chief Jonathan Tah in the starting line-up because of an impending yellow card suspension and Florian Wirtz, who was slightly injured.

At Bayer they now see their own history as both a warning and an incentive. After Leverkusen had been top for the first time after 17 match days during Calmund’s time, they finished second in the table at the end of the season, just one point behind champions Borussia Dortmund. The nickname Vizekusen has been firmly anchored since 2002 because they also lost the finals in the Champions League and the DFB Cup.

Rolfes had witnessed Leverkusen’s second first round title in the 2009/2010 season as a defensive midfielder and thus also their fall to fourth place at the end of the season – eleven points behind FC Bayern. This should not happen again under any circumstances. And at least Calmund has already expressed his hope for his first championship title. His wish: “Perhaps the football god will finally say: ‘Now I have to do something for Leverkusen’.”