FIRST TEAM
08/20/2018

#TSG10: "The best the league has to offer"

On 5 December 2008, record champions Bayern Munich faced the newly-promoted TSG Hoffenheim. Was it a mismatch? In some respects yes – but not in terms of their respective league positions at that time, given that the club from the village of 3,300 people occupied pole position in the table. A goal in stoppage time ultimately handed Bayern a 2-1 victory that day, but TSG Hoffenheim continued to light up the league and caused a sensation by finishing as winter champions.

An advert broadcast by the German television channel DSF sends a shiver down the spine of former TSG Managing Director Jochen Rotthaus: "Old versus new. Second against first. The whole of Germany has been waiting for this match. The best the league has to offer," blares from the monitor in his office. Jochen Rotthaus looks almost a little enraptured. He watches the commercial over and over again, repeating the sentences like a mantra in his office overlooking the Dietmar-Hopp-Stadion. This film scene from the ZDF documentary "Das Leben ist kein Heimspiel" (Life is not a home game) captures the sense of amazement entrenched in many TSG fans back then. The clash between the promoted club from Hoffenheim, who were sensationally topping the table, and perennial giants FC Bayern Munich under former national team coach Jürgen Klinsmann on 5 December 2008  Matchday 16 of the 2008/09 season  was the biggest in the club's history at the time.

It was a time when football followers in Germany not only sat up and took notice of the Bundesliga newcomers from Kraichgau, but showed the club a lot of goodwill too. TSG Hoffenheim had won over the hearts of neutral football fans, who had literally fallen in love with the Hoffe XI. For everybody recognised the club were in the process of revolutionising German football. Never before had a team demonstrated such panache and radiated an aura of such infantile joy on the pitch. The immediate switch-play upon winning the ball, the perfect counter-attacks, the technically sophisticated football, the relentless attacking pressure, the unbelievable distances covered that made it look like Hoffenheim were a man up – that was all new in Germany back in 2008.

Ibertsberger: "For us it was a miracle"

What an experience it was! "For us it was a miracle, an incredible period. We played ourselves into a rage in the first half of that season. Nobody could stop us. We could virtually do whatever we wanted – and everything worked," recalls the current U23 assistant coach Andreas Ibertsberger, who played at left-back in that campaign. It was a unique frenzy that culminated in the match away to the record champions. The same Bayern who had only agreed to be the celebrity guests at the opening of the Dietmar-Hopp-Stadion nine years earlier thanks to the friendly relationship Dietmar Hopp enjoyed with Franz Beckenbauer. Now it was time for their second encounter – and this time it would be a meeting of equals.

As much was evident from the mind-games before the match. "It was an incredible sign of high regard that Uli Hoeneß got so worked up about Hoffenheim," said Dietmar Hopp as he recalled the provocative statements by the Bavarians, who tried to unsettle the Hoffenheim camp. But TSG coach Ralf Rangnick would not be drawn in – and retaliated with a cheeky quip of his own: "If you want to hear quick wit, then go to Munich. If you want to see quick football, you're in the right place here." And he did not disappoint with his team.

The match on 5 December 2008, a Friday evening, developed into an incredible spectacle. "Fast-paced, enthralling football. Courageous football, uncompromising football. Football without fear," was the verdict in the Berliner Zeitung. Meanwhile, Die Welt wrote: "Hoffenheim are different. They play themselves into everyone's hearts – and each week the number of those who cheer them on as the Barack Obamas of the Bundesliga rises."

Ibisevic opens the scoring

The memories of that game remain fresh in the mind of Dietmar Hopp a decade later. "It was an advertisement for Hoffenheim and for football," he said. Even if it did not end how TSG had hoped. Having gone 1-0 ahead through Vedad Ibisevic, who scored his 18th goal of the season on the 49-minute mark, Philipp Lahm levelled 11 minutes later to put the teams on course for what would have been a deserved draw. "It incredibly annoyed me that I was congratulated on the draw minutes before the final whistle," said Dietmar Hopp, who was following the game live on TV from Florida. He is a football aficionado, he probably knew what might and would come in the 91st minute.

"I can still picture today how that unlucky goal came about. How poor Andi Ibertsberger slid the ball towards Luca Toni, who slotted it in." The 78-year-old shakes his head ruefully. You can still sense the frustration today. For Ibertsberger himself, the incident really sticks in the craw. "That scene used to replay itself over and over in my mind," explains the Austrian as he recalls the fateful passage of play that was watched by a TV audience in 163 countries. "I had to somehow make sure that Miro Klose didn't go clean through on our goal and that he had few options, so I slid in – and I can still see how the ball landed right at the feet of Luca Toni. It was some unbelievably bad luck." A split second later it was 2-1 in favour of Bayern; the Allianz Arena exploded into life and the Bavarians' luck had come to their rescue again. Andreas Ibertsberger was an island of loneliness in a sea of ecstasy. "I had real problems dealing with it afterwards. I was sorry, really angry."

TSG win the hearts of football fans

The match might have been lost, but TSG had won the hearts of football fans. Because followers of the beautiful game across Germany had seen that they deserved to be at the top of the Bundesliga. "I've never seen a team go to Munich and consistently try to get into shooting positions as quickly as possible," said Germany coach Joachim Löw as he lauded Hoffenheim's courageous display. It was part of the genetic make-up of that team. "We demonstrated an unbelievable desire," explained Ibertsberger. "We always wanted to win – and believed that we were capable of winning every single match. Even in Munich." A team that consisted of players who had relatively little top-flight experience but made up for it with their hunger. "We always went forward, it was always amazing, such good fun," recalls Ibertsberger. "If you made a mistake, you always knew you'd have someone behind you who'd have your back." And at the other end Ibisevic tucked away what the others fed him – the serious injury suffered by the striker during the winter break was one of the reasons why the newly-promoted outfit's form tailed off in the second half of the campaign.

But that was all still a long way off that evening in Munich. An air of elation still surrounded the club. It was this flowing football that saw TSG finish as winter champions a week later thanks to a 1-1 draw against FC Schalke 04, which was wrapped up and sealed by a free-kick from Selim Teber. By that point, in December 2008, TSG Hoffenheim were much more than a promoted club, a newcomer, a debutant. The little club had challenged the established elite. So the advert was right: it really was "the best the league has to offer".

 

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