A “Hamburg Guy” crowned the “Kaiser” for the second time

In 1989, the Wall that divided the German nation into two countries had just come down. In West Germany, Berliner “Icke” Haessler had shot the team of the German Football Association, DFB, to the World Cup finals in Italy by beating Wales in Cologne in November.

Smart managers pushed for the unification of football faster than the politicians. They lured Thom and Doll, Kirsten and Sammer with their first professional contracts. The former East German Football Association, DFV, team promptly lost 3-0 in Vienna. For the World Cup in Italy 1990, the second held in that country, all Germans kept their fingers crossed for the team with the eagle on the chest and celebrated their triumph together. The team of the Federal Republic of Germany won the World Cup title for the third time, after 1954 and 1974. There were many similarities with the euphoria, and the time of change, earlier triggered by Helmut Rahn with his 3-2 winning goal at Berne in the 1950s. The hero at Rome was Andreas Brehme. In the final between Germany and Argentina, “Andy” crowned his own career with a shot from the penalty spot in the Roman Olympic Stadium, and also enhanced that of “Kaiser Franz” Beckenbauer who could then boast he was a World Cup champion as player and coach, joining Brazilian Zagalo.

“I knew I would net the ball!”

The World Cup in Italy went true to plan for the DFB selection, from start to the final whistle: Yugoslavia 4-1, United Arab Emirates 5-1, Colombia 1-1, Netherlands 2-1, Czechoslovakia 1-0, England 5-4 after a penalty shoot-out, Argentina 1-0. Lothar Matthaeus proved an exemplary captain in the best of his five World Cup finals. But on the day of the final his buddy Brehme was the star and the hero of the match played on July 8, 1990. Germany and Argentina neutralised each other for more than an hour. It was a poor match overall, with Argentina losing Pedro Monzon in the 65th minute after a red card. From then the Germans dominated the game, but failed to gain a decisive advantage. Brehme remembers exactly the moment when Mexican referee Codesal Mendez interrupted the match: “I was standing about 40 metres away from Rudi Voeller and José Serrizuela when the referee blew his whistle for foul play. He pointed to the penalty spot thus causing some chaos. The Argentines argued heatedly with the referee and kicked the ball away. It took seven, eight minutes before I could step up to finally shoot at goal. You could award that penalty, but it will always be controversial”.

Beckenbauer had appointed three players for such a situation. Voeller, but he had been fouled. Matthaeus, but his boots had been changed at half-time. He didn’t feel confident in new boots. Thus it was Brehme’s turn and he later said: “It was important to us that the player who has to take a penalty is full of confidence and that he can score from the spot. Consequently I went. But then there was that chaos. The worst was that the Argentines again hit the ball away when I had got ready. I had to blot out mentally how the Argentines tried to unsettle me – and that the whole world, with millions of TV viewers, was watching me. Rudi Voeller came to me and said: ‘You’ll put it in, then we are World Cup champions’. Thanks very much, I replied, I shall take it to my heart.”

Now Sergio Goycochea, who had gained a reputation as a penalty-saver during the course of the tournament, and Brehme were standing eye to eye. Brehme: “During the run-up I thought, keep cool. Focus solely on the shot. Then I hit the ball with my right foot. When it was flying towards the inside post I experienced a moment of shock – but then it was in. The moment the ball was in the net, I knew we were World Cup champions, nobody could take the title away from us. After all, the Argentines were already one player short at that time”. Shortly afterwards Gustavo Dezotti was also sent-off. Diego Maradona was raging around the pitch, outraged at being shown a yellow card. He knew he was no longer World Cup champion”.

“I often scored that penalty again”

This goal indeed proved the winning goal. The German World Cup champions returned to their hotel at two o’clock in the morning. When they finally went to bed, it was already light. Even today Brehme says about this triumph: “It was the best and most important title I have achieved as a player – of course, for a footballer there is nothing better than winning a World Cup”. But the situation that led to the third World Cup title was so trying, the shot so near to both the goalpost and Goycochea’s hand, that it was on Brehme’s mind for a long time afterwards. “During the first few weeks I often dreamt about it”, he disclosed a few months later. “I often scored that penalty again.“

There is more than one World Cup title on Brehme’s cv, however. The trained car mechanic Brehme was born in Hamburg on November 9, 1960. He trained under his father Bernd as coach with the Hamburg club SV Barmbek-Uhlenhorst, before he moved to 1. FC Saarbrucken in 1980, and on to 1. FC Kaiserslautern one year later. After that he played with FC Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Real Saragossa and again Kaiserslautern in defence and midfield. He won the 1996 DFB Cup and the 1998 German championship with Kaiserslautern, a feat he had already achieved with FC Bayern in 1987. He earned altogether 86 caps with the DFB. He retired from his playing career in 1998 and went into coaching.

Thomas Doll once said about Brehme: “I have rarely seen such a complete player. He was technically perfect, with his right foot as well as his left. And he could hit a fly on the bar with the ball”.

Beckenbauer’s error: “We will be unbeatable for years”

The triumph in Rome was team manager Franz Beckenbauer’s farewell from the national team. In view of the approaching German unification, he handed the future over to DFB coach Hans-Hubert “Berti” Vogts with a momentous sentence: “I pity the rest of the world. If we now add the players from eastern Germany we are unbeatable for years to come.” Beckenbauer was wrong, for in the final of the European Championship the German team were stopped by outsiders Denmark, at the 1994 and 1998 World Cup finals the Germans were eliminated in the quarter-finals. Only in 1996, at the European Championship in England, the team once again proved unbeatable in a tournament.

Here you can find an article about the 1990 World Cup star Lothar Matthäus...