25 years ago: Penalty drama against Linx

It could have been so amazing. TSG Hoffenheim were set to celebrate their 100th birthday in July 1999, with the great FC Bayern Munich set to pay a visit to the freshly renovated Dietmar-Hopp-Stadion to mark that very occasion one month later. It would have been a very fitting moment to win the Verbandsliga Nordbaden championship and secure promotion to the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg. But it was not to be. When the ‘Reds’ drove down Silbergasse for the inaugural match on 19 August, TSG were still in the Verbandsliga.

TSG Weinheim had proven to be too strong in the final stages of the 1998/99 campaign. The team from Bergsträße finished the season as Verbandsliga champions, six points clear of Hoffenheim. But the Oberliga dream was not yet out of sight. The back door of the play-offs was still ajar. A fourth promotion berth was still up for grabs to TSG and the other runners-up from South Baden (SV Linx) and Württemberg (VfR Heilbronn). The draw pitted Linx and Hoffenheim against each other, with the winning then taking on Heilbronn.

Caught napping after the break

It had been an eventful decade for TSG. Exactly 10 years earlier, they endured a bitter relegation to the A-Klasse following 4-2 extra-time defeat at the hands of 1.FC Stebbach, but subsequently gained three promotions to put themselves on the cusp of the fourth tier. Coach Raimund Lietzau had conducted the preparations for the season at Sportplatz am Großen Wald, which was a construction site at the time. This was because the Dietmar-Hopp-Stadion was gradually being built adjacent to the pitch, with the old clubhouse having to make way for the main stand.

The first team moved to the newly completed artificial turf, which was laid behind the Sportplatz, in January and two months later Lietzau was dismissed from his role. He was replaced by Günter Hillenbrand and he led the team to second place ahead of SV Spielberg, who finished level on points. That meant facing SV Linx, who were also celebrating an anniversary – their 50th.

With 1,000 spectators watching at the Hölzelstadion, the first leg initially seemed to take the expected course. TSG put their feet on the gas, with Nebojša Đurić, Thorsten Müller and Marc Rapp narrowly missing the goal kept by Daniel Jilg. The half-time whistle sounded with the score 0-0. Linx re-emerged for the second half transformed. “We were really asleep in the first quarter of an hour of the second half,” Hillenbrand admitted after Daniel Seifert had been presented with two free headers and had left Hoffenheim shot-stopper Stefan Pister with no chance on both occasions. As a result, the Hoffenheim contingent made the journey home on the back of a 2-0 defeat, with the return leg already set to take place three days later amid a packed fixture schedule. “We’ve already scored three goals often this season,” said assistant coach Alfred Schön optimistically.

SV Linx – TSG Hoffenheim 2-0 (0-0)
Linx: Jilg – Panter (Heissler, 78), Stöcklin, Soppo-Din, Falk, Tayebi, Higueras, Suffner, Seifert, Schallon (Stotz, 88), Klieber – Coach: Baumann.
Hoffenheim: Pister – Rapp, Lahr, Stoll, Scholl, Müller, Stieber (Pukallus, 63), Andorfer, Đurić, Baumgärtner (Kombal, 49), Spieler (Rupp, 72) – Coach: Hillenbrand.
Goals: 1-0 Seifert (52), 2-0 Seifert (62). Attendance: 1,000.
Rheinau, Hölzelstadion, 3 June 1999

TSG Hoffenheim really pulled out all the stops on 6 June 1999. 1,500 enthusiastic supporters were at the FC Zuzenhausen ground, where the game had been relocated, to witness Schön’s prediction come true – in the first half. Kristian Baumgärtner opened the scoring to make it 1-0 in the 16th minute, with René Lahr doubling the lead to 2-0 around the half-hour mark and German Scholl making it 3-0 on the stroke of half-time. TSG were on track and Heilbronn’s coach – the former national team goalkeeper Eike Immel – could be seen furiously scribbling down notes.

But the game turned after the interval. SV Linx reduced the deficit to 3-1 through Stéphane Soppo-Din, one of four Frenchmen in coach Michael Baumann’s team. It was slightly fortuitous, because the ball had actually slipped over the central defender’s instep. Despite the open exchange that followed, the scoreline remained the same. The away goals rule which was used at that time did not apply in the play-off, meaning that the 3-3 aggregate draw took the tie into extra time, which remained goalless. That, in turn, meant a penalty shootout.

The drama seemed to take a turn for the better when Soppo-Din hit the post with the opening spot-kick. But Marc Rapp then failed to beat keeper Jilg, who excelled between the sticks and saved two more Hoffenheim penalties. Scholl did score to temporarily make it 1-1, but after Jilg had thwarted the penalties of Meik Spieler and Lahr, the Oberliga dream was finally over.

“Football can be so cruel”

Hillenbrand was speechless. “Football can be so cruel,” Schön added. Meanwhile, the players lay disappointed on the turf. After missing out on the championship, they had now failed to secure promotion too. “Hoffenheim were more purposeful and more energetic, but SV Linx have the finer footballers,” analysed Immel, who now knew his upcoming opponent.

TSG had once again lost out in a play-off, as they had done 10 years earlier. But this time they did not get relegated as a result. And they didn’t give up either. How did the story unfold? Linx also missed out on promotion several days later following a 2-0 loss in Heilbronn and a 4-3 (AET) victory at home. In the following season, TSG finally became champions and so made it into the Oberliga a year later, while Linx once again – this time against SV Waldhof Amateure, who had been overtaken by TSG on the home straight – missed out in the play-offs.

TSG Hoffenheim then faced VfR Heilbronn, coached by Eike Immel, in the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg in the 1999/2000 season. And thanks to a 3-1 victory at the Frankenstadion in Heilbronn on the final matchday, TSG secured immediate promotion to the Regionalliga. But that’s another story.

TSG Hoffenheim – SV Linx 3-1 (3-1, 3-0), 1-3 on penalties
Hoffenheim: Pister- Scholl, Rapp, Meyer, Lahr, Andorfer, Müller, Đurić (Rupp, 78), Kombal (Čiernik, 93), Baumgärtner, Pukallus (Spieler, 62).
Linx: Jilg – Panter, Stöcklin, Soppo-Din, Falk, Tayebi, Higueras (Schumacher, 115), Suffner (Heissler, 107), Schallon, Seifert, Klieber (Radisavljevic, 87).
Goals: 1-0 Baumgärtner (16), 2-0 Lahr (29), 3-0 Scholl (45), 3-1 Soppo-Din (58) / Penalty shootout: (Soppo-Din), (Rapp), 0-1 Tayebi, 1-1 Scholl, 1-2 Schumacher, (Spieler), 1-3 Radisavljevic, (Lahr). Attendance: 1,500.
Zuzenhausen, Häuselgrund, 6 June 1999