The real players didn't know how to win this game

Bayer Leverkusen: Mr. Brdaric, from 1999 to 2003 they played for Bayer Leverkusen. Take us into the time when the term "vice kusen" was created.

Thomas Brdaric (47): gladly. A lot happened back then. Things you don't forget. I remember a club with great players in a very well-run club in a super force compiled by Reiner Calmund, which was almost damn to win. But they, and they allude to that, failed several times in a short sequence.

The painful highlight was the lost Champions League final exactly 20 years ago, on May 15, 2002, in Glasgow against Real Madrid-1: 2. What memories do you have?

First of all, I remember that the real players did not really know how to win this game afterwards. They felt like shot our box twice, scoring a lucky stroke through Raul and a dream goal through Zidane. We were the whole game about it, I also had a great chance to take the lead after Lucio had succeeded in the 1-1 in the meantime. Dimitar Berbatov and Ulf Kirsten came in, but it just shouldn't be. And Iker Casillas, who had to go into the goal at Madrid for the injured Cesar Sanchez, just grew beyond himself. A very bitter conclusion to an incredible season!

Incredible because Bayer 04 played a five-point lead over Dortmund in the last three games in the championship, finally finished second and the DFB Cup final against Schalke had also lost 2: 4 four days before the Madrid game?

Yes, madness, right? It is difficult to explain to this day. In the end we had well over 50 competitive games in the bones that season. But it wasn't the tiredness. Perhaps the upcoming final in Glasgow overshot everything and also took a little bit of concentration on the other competitions. But internationally we honestly had a year like in a fairy tale.

How deep did the sting sat after the missed titles?

Well, we are not broken apart as a team. In the Champions League it reached a year later to the intermediate round, in the DFB Cup we flew out in the semi-finals at Bayern in 2003. But in the league we had problems, only late with coach Klaus Augenthaler, who had taken over for Klaus Toppmöller and Thomas Hörster in the meantime, narrowly relegated.

I think we were just too safe.

Thomas Brdaric about the awarded championship 2000

The 2002 drama meanwhile has a history in May 2000. Bayer left the championship title with a 0-2 with the already rescued SpVgg Unterhaching on the last match day. How could that happen?

I think we were just too sure. Our trainer Christoph Daum introduced us to the question of conscience in the evening before the game in the hotel: What is more important to you - do you just want a lot of money in the account or do you want a title? Of course we wanted the master shell. And even in the sports park in Haching, that was in the truest sense to reach close to the handover after the game! We passed the shell on the way to the square.

What happened then?

Daum had our offensive team competed with a new, security -related tactic. One point would have been enough! Then Michael Ballack passed this misfortune with the own goal and the incomprehensible started. It was incredibly hot in the small, narrow stadium. We just didn't find it back. I had hit twice in the first leg as a Joker in the 2-1 victory, this time was substituted again and had the opportunity to equalize. Gerhard Tremmel held the ball, later he was kindly reminded me in our time together in Hanover... Haching soon made the 2-0 - and the shell was driven to the Munich Olympic Stadium after the end of the game, where Bayern 3: 1 against Bremen had intercepted Bremen at the last moment.

How do you go today with the term "vice kuses" that the association even patented to protect against abuse?

Logically, I still don't find it particularly funny. But it is somehow also a trademark, a characteristic for this club. This is better than standing for nothing. And feels more about it is talked about it about many a championship... The Leverkusenians cannot keep up with the very big ones in Germany and Europe, which we were so close at the time from an economic point of view. But they always have good teams at the start, put together and trained by really capable people. Because of this sustainability for decades alone, I wish Bayer 04 that it will soon be enough for a title.