Matchdays by Ronald Reng

Author:Ronald Reng [Reng, Ronald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781471136498
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

And, in his memory, Heinz Höher travelled back to a different Berlin; 21 years ago, there were already two separate German states but there was no wall yet and no order to open fire on people trying to cross. It was 1958, the upper sixth form of the Carl-Duisberg-Gymnasium were on a class trip to Berlin – and he was going to be sent home early because he’d slipped out at night. His teacher had even bought the train ticket already. But then one of his fellow pupils fell ill with appendicitis, and had to go home. The teacher gave this boy the ticket which had been intended for Heinz Höher. He was allowed to stay. That had been in Berlin. Shouldn’t he take it as a sign?

Next morning, Heinz Höher said: right then. Jara and Mirnegg could stay. But they had to give him a written assurance that there would be no more breaches of discipline, or they would face a fine of 5000 marks. For weeks, Heinz Höher carried around with him this piece of paper with their word of honour on it. He had the feeling that he’d have a use for this note some day, he just didn’t yet know what it would be.

But it felt more like the time for a different kind of notes – those yellow prayer-notes of his. As the 1979-80 season went into its second half, in January, Duisburg were mired fast in the bottom quarter of the Bundesliga table. Given the makeshift nature of their team this was not really surprising. But the first casualty in the heat of a relegation battle is usually the sense of reality. Heinz Höher was tense because the team kept on making such stupid mistakes, the players were irritated because the manager acted more and more distanced, the board were nervous because the papers were asking questions, the fans were getting aggressive because they saw Heinz Höher’s defensive tactics as football driven by fear. And they all dreamed that somehow, everything would turn out all right.

On 2 February 1980, a goal six minutes from time gave Duisburg a hard-won 2-2 draw at Heinz Höher’s childhood team, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, who were lying tenth in the table. The sense of relief overwhelmed him. He gave Kurt Jara back the note with his word of honour written on it.

He thought that his playmaker would understand this gesture, and that Kurt Jara would pay back his generosity in the relegation battles of the coming weeks.

The following Saturday’s match was at home against Schalke, and Jara just never got into the game. The whole Duisburg team played without any rhythm, Thomas Kempe couldn’t do anything right in midfield either, but it was Jara that Heinz Höher noticed again and again, as he hesitated with his passing or failed to break away from his marker. When Schalke went 2-1 up on the hour, Heinz Höher thought for a moment, if you take him off now, the whole thing will kick off again, the boos and the whistles, so just leave it out.

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