The Bundesliga. Three teams much stronger than the rest, 2 outsiders and only 5 points separating the 7th from the 16th, which meant that more than of the league, including the fresh UEFA Cup winners Bayer (Leverkusen), had relegation to worry about.
Schalke 04 was in very bad shape – last and relegated with 23 points. Tony Schumacher going down to Second Division… well, his book outraged many and made pariah of him. He was no longer a valuable player and relegation looked like the last punishment for opening his mouth, no matter rightly or wrongly. He was not going to suffer Second Division, but to play in Turkey – may be one more punishment?
FC Homburg 08 – 17th with 24 points. Relegated, but that was expected.
Waldhof Mannheim – 16th with 28 points. However, they still had a chance to keep place in the Bundesliga, going to promotion/relegation play-off against the 3rd in the Second Division. Dramatically, they prevailed over SV Darmstadt 98 in penalty shoot-out and survived.
Karlsruher SC escaped relegation by a point – 15th with 29 points. Very young Oliver Kahn here and judging by the struggles of his club, nothing to indicate a legendary player was coming.
1. FC Kaiserslautern – 14th with 29 points. Lucky to survive.
Borussia Dortmund – 13th with 29 points. Barely survived. 4-5 years back they were a team with big promise, but it did not materialize.
VfL Bochum – modest as ever, but survived again. Well, they were masters of that. 12th with 30 points.
FC Bayer 05 Uerdingen – 11th with 31 points. A few good players – foreign players – and one future huge star getting the taste of Bundesliga life: Bierhoff.
Hannover 96 – this year Kicker decided to use their full, but rarely used named: Hannoverscher SV 96. Apart from this minor point – nothing special: escaped relegation, which was their normal aim when playing in the Bundesliga. 10th with 31 points.
Eintracht Frankfurt – 9th with 31 points. Perhaps their kit was their most impressive feature this season. Escaped relegation, but they had something to smile about at the end. Lajos Detari, arguably the last Hungarian great player, was their prime star – but looked like they were not going to keep him for long. Smolarek was somewhat fading – it was already clear that he was not going to match the fame of fellow Pole Boniek. And how long Korbel was going to play? Looked like forever…
Bayer Leverkusen – conquered Europe this season, but Bundesliga was another matter. 8th with 32 points and negative goal-difference. At least theoretically, they have been in danger of relegation.
Borussia Moenchengladbach – 7th with 33 points. The best of the weak, so to say. A team with Frontzeck, Rahn, Thorstvedt, Herlovsen, and young talent Effenberg should have been better – but the 1970s were gone, it was not a great squad.
Hamburger SV – 6th with 37 points. Nothing to worry about, solid enough, but already lost its leading position – the great years were over. Kaltz was still around. There was little known yet American in the team – Caligiuri. After the Japanese and the South Koreans, now Americans were coming to play in West Germany. The motivation was the same – in order to develop playing in West Germany was the best option.
1. FC Nurnberg – 5th with 37 points. For them – great season. The team was rather modest, which made the achievement more valuable. Apart from national team goalkeeper Andreas Kopke, a future was here: Stefan Reuter.
VfB Stuttgart – 4th with 40 points. Running strong, but no longer a title contender. Perhaps a bit short squad.
To a point, may be their most memorable thing was the curious photo on the roof. Photos don’t win titles, though.
And the top 3 teams – they fought between themselves, leaving the rest far behind. Three-side race eventually was reduced to 2 fighting for silver and one alone running for the gold.
1. FC Koln eventually ended with bronze, finishing behind Bayern on worse goal-difference. 48 points. Exciting coach – Daum. Good squad: Woodcock, M. Olsen, Allofs, Illgner, Hassler. Kargus supported from the bench. The troublemaker Schumacher was practically expelled from the team and the club somewhat survived the scandal he caused. However, this was not exactly champion squad.
Bayern – with 48 points, they clinched 2nd place on better goal-difference. The title they lost already, which was a bit strange – Bayern had the strongest squad in the country. Pragmatic as ever, they hired the best young coach at the moment – Jupp Heynckes. Never mind he played against Bayern during his whole career – he was the man the keep Bayern on top. Did not work this season.
Never mind Heynckes – Otto Rehhagel was the great coach at the moment. His Werder won 22 games, tied 8, lost only 4. Scored 61 goals, permitted only 22 in its own net. 52 points put them 4 ahead of Bayern and 1. FC Koln – unquestionable champions! Of course, the team was good Votava, Ordenewitz, Borowka, Burgsmuller, Burdenski, Bratseth, up and coming Eilts, Riedle and Reck. Good team, yet, not excellent team – mostly second raters, really. Players, who were highly respected, but rarely played for the national team. Bratseth was regular national team player, but he played for lowly Norway. So, it came largely to Rehhagel and his tactics – a bit on the defensive side, but his squad hardly permitted anything else: play conservative and well organized football and you may prosper against predatory classier Bayern. It worked just fine – Werder received half the goal Bayern received (22 vs 45), although not scoring very much (Bayern scored most – 83, followed by Stuttgart – 69, and Hamburger – 63) – only 4th best: 61. But solid defense gave them the best goal-difference +39 (Bayern had +38), very rarely they lost a match and triumphed at the end.
Werder (Bremen) won its 2nd title – had to wait 13 years for that, but it was theirs again. It did not look like Werder was going to build a dynasty, it looked like a victory of the underdog – and that perhaps made it sweeter. If anything, it was so nice to rub the nose of giant Bayern.