Borussia Monchengladbach is a German football club founded in 1900. She achieved her greatest success in the seventies of the last century when she won the title of national champion five times and the UEFA Cup trophy twice. The second time they won the UEFA Cup, in 1979, Borussia was better than the Belgrade Red Star in the final match – 1: 1 in Belgrade and 1: 0 in Dusseldorf.
Today, Borussia plays at Borussia Park, and until May 2004, it hosted its opponents at the Bokelberg Stadium, which opened in 1919, with a capacity of 34,500 seats. This building was demolished in 2006 and a residential building sprang up in its place.
And it was the Bokelberg Stadium in 1971 that was the scene of two unusual events, which came to the center of media attention not only in Germany.
On April 3, 1971, in the German championship, the home team Borussia and Werder Bremen met. In the 88th minute, with the result 1: 1, Guenter Nezer centered in the penalty area of the guests. Werder Bremen goalkeeper Ginter Bernard and Borussia striker Herbert Laumen went for the high ball.
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Bernard was faster and boxed the ball into the corner, and Laumen violently flew into the net. At that moment, the wooden tripod broke and the whole goal collapsed. Malarious Laumen remained trapped in the net like a caught fish.
Everyone in the stadium was speechless at first, not knowing exactly what was going on, and then they burst out laughing.
However, the later development of the situation was not so funny for the supporters of Borussia. Namely, as the host did not have a reserve goal, the main referee Gert Moiser interrupted the match, and the Football Association of Germany made two decisions: he registered the match with the official result 2: 0 for Werder Bremen, and fined Borussia 1,500 West German marks.
To make matters worse for the hosts, Borussia was in the lead on the Bundesliga table until the game, and after this decision, they had to leave the leading position to Bayern Munich. In the end, Borussia still won the championship race with 50 points, two more than the Bavarians, and thus defended the championship title.
This case led German football clubs to expel wooden goals from their stadiums. The remains of the broken tripod, which almost cost Borussia the championship titles, are today in the museum of the club from Monchengladbach.
