Special Moments — Borussia Dortmund

It was hot. Incredibly hot. What I remember

It was hot.

It was hot. Incredibly hot. What I remember most about May 19, 1986 in Dortmund's Westfalenstadion is the tropical heat.

With one exception, the four identical stands offered no shade, which is probably why I spent most of the match hanging around in front of the South Stand. There, unlike usual, you could feel an absolutely tense atmosphere. BVB supporters knew, just like the rest of us, that if we failed to overturn the 2:0 first-leg defeat against Fortuna Cologne, that would be it.

Borussia Dortmund would be relegated from the Bundesliga for the second time since 1972.

Fortuna Cologne, a club many fans in Germany

Fortuna Cologne, a club many fans in Germany probably remember mainly as the life's work of entrepreneur Hans Jean Loering, had already ruined a huge Dortmund chance once before by thrashing BVB 5:0 in the 1983 DFB Cup semifinal.

Fortuna Cologne, a club many fans in Germany probably remember mainly as the life's work of entrepreneur Hans Jean Loering, had already ruined a huge Dortmund chance once before by thrashing BVB 5:0 in the 1983 DFB Cup semifinal. And now? We were lucky even to still have this chance in the playoff.

Calling our season disastrous would still be polite. Under Pal Csernai and Reinhard Saftig we had taken just 28 points under the old two-point rule, the worst BVB return since the relegation season of 1971/72. Only a 2:0 against Werder a year earlier had saved us from this very playoff.

Nothing seemed to be working in Dortmund. Not

Nothing seemed to be working in Dortmund.

Nothing seemed to be working in Dortmund. Not on the pitch, and financially even less so. Emergency sales were needed, which is why goalkeeper Eike Immel was due to join Stuttgart for 1.6 million marks.

But the hardest decision was my own. I had already agreed to move to Schalke at the end of the season, which enraged Dortmund supporters. They called me Judas, insulted me in the city center, and whistled me mercilessly at every match.

The fact that Dortmund would receive another 1.35 million marks because of the transfer did not interest them. Everything seemed to be going wrong.

We were also behind at half-time in the

We were also behind at half-time in the return leg.

We were also behind at half-time in the return leg. 0:1. Our good fortune was that the away-goals rule did not yet exist in the relegation playoff, otherwise we would have needed four goals. But even three against such a stubbornly defending side on a day like that felt about as easy as draining the Moehnesee with a beer glass.

Physically we were finished. The legs got heavier, the circulation went haywire. At some point you kept going only on instinct because your body overruled your head.

There was only one thing you wanted: not to go down.

At half-time there was graveyard silence in the

At half-time there was graveyard silence in the dressing room.

At half-time there was graveyard silence in the dressing room. I looked Eike Immel deep in the eyes. Cobra, he suddenly yelled at me - that was my nickname because I had once described myself as more poisonous than the most poisonous snake - Cobra, I swear to you that we are not going down.

Fine, but how? Somehow we turned the game

Fine, but how?

Fine, but how? Somehow we turned the game around, helped in part by referee Aaron Schmidthuber from Ottobrunn. A Bavarian helped BVB, in this case by awarding a penalty that infuriated our opponents.

I still say Cologne had only themselves to blame. They could have shot us to pieces in the first leg. A 4:0 or 5:0 there would have been no injustice.

Michael Zorc, BVB's record player and a kind of Mister Borussia, pulled us back into the match after 54 minutes with the 1:1. He knew exactly what was at stake. Years later he summed it up by saying that this was about the existence of the club and of some players too.

Then Marcel Raducanu headed in for 2:1. After

Then Marcel Raducanu headed in for 2:1.

Then Marcel Raducanu headed in for 2:1. After both goals I pulled the ball out of the net myself to prevent any Cologne time-wasting. There were 22 minutes left and we still needed one more goal to force a third game.

I was already certain that the return leg

I was already certain that the return leg would only be decided in the 90th minute.

I was already certain that the return leg would only be decided in the 90th minute. I had told our coach Reinhard Saftig exactly that three days earlier, while insisting he leave me on the pitch until the end. Saftig listened. In any case he made only one substitution in this key match, bringing on Ingo Anderbruegge for Lothar Huber after 46 minutes. It would be worth gold.

The added time was already running. If it

The added time was already running.

The added time was already running. If it stayed 2:1, Borussia Dortmund were relegated. Three-time German champions, the first German club to win a European trophy, would then face a dark financial future.

The fact that only a year later they would surge into the UEFA Cup on the final day in Frankfurt, win the DFB Cup in ringed socks in 1989, and appoint Ottmar Hitzfeld in 1991, turning the club into the second force in German football, would all have remained fantasy. In that moment the second division stood before us like a huge wall, with clubs such as Viktoria Aschaffenburg, Union Solingen or the village side FSV Salmrohr waiting there.

All of that would have been a humiliation

All of that would have been a humiliation for BVB, a club that had been searching for lost time for years.

All of that would have been a humiliation for BVB, a club that had been searching for lost time for years. The club had everything somehow - a great stadium, magnificent supporters - just not yet a winning concept. Fortunately, things turned out differently. For me, for Borussia, for the whole region.

To this day BVB fans still talk to

To this day BVB fans still talk to me about my 3:1 goal, the goal that gave us the third and decisive game in Duesseldorf.

To this day BVB fans still talk to me about my 3:1 goal, the goal that gave us the third and decisive game in Duesseldorf. The image of it still runs in my head. After a cross from the right by Bernd Storck, Michael Zorc and Daniel Simmes both got a headed touch.

At the far post Ingo Anderbruegge got to the ball and instinctively smashed it toward goal from a poor angle. Cologne keeper Jacek Jarecki could only parry it - and there I was. Me.

Cobra Wegmann.

I somehow prodded the ball over the line

I somehow prodded the ball over the line and ran with it over the line as well.

I somehow prodded the ball over the line and ran with it over the line as well. And on all the photos of the goal, Daniel Simmes is jumping so high that I do not think I had seen him look that fit all season.

Seconds later a fan stood in front of

Seconds later a fan stood in front of me and hugged me.

Seconds later a fan stood in front of me and hugged me. I had no idea what was going on. Others did.

As club president Reinhard Rauball later put it a little more poetically, the liberation brought by Juergen Wegmann's third goal felt like an explosion. In that moment, BVB supporters probably forgave me for moving to Schalke. I threw my shirt into the crowd after the game.

It was not thrown back. The special moment of BVB: luck is chance meeting effort.