August Lehmann

August Lehmann (born January 26, 1909 ; † September 13, 1973 ) was a Swiss football player who won the Swiss championship six times as an active member of FC Zurich , Lausanne-Sports and Grasshopper Club Zurich, and 32 from 1930 to 1943 in the Swiss national football team Has played international matches.

career

societies

In the 1929/30 round, FC Zurich was unable to make it to the final round with its third place in the eastern group behind local rivals GC and vice FC Lugano - there the second in the western group, Servette Geneva , prevailed and took the Swiss championship - place the six group first and second. August “Gusti” Lehmann played his way into the national team as a half-forward through his performances. After moving to Lausanne-Sports, Lehmann celebrated winning the championship and the cup in 1934/35 . In the 1935/36 round, the blue and white team from the Pontaise stadium managed to defend their title. Under coach Karl Rappan there were three championships with the Grasshoppers in 1939, 1942 and 1943 and three cup successes with the Hardturm team in 1938, 1940 and 1941 . But “Gusti” Lehmann no longer celebrated these successes as a half-striker, he had switched to defense and for years together with Severino Minelli formed the “security lock” in the successful “bolt system” of the Rappan team.

National team, 1930 to 1943

As an active player from FC Zurich, the half-forward August "Gusti" Lehmann made his debut on March 23, 1943 in the international match in Paris against France in the Swiss national football team. The debutant convinced with two goals in the 3-3 draw at the side of his FCZ teammates Willy Baumeister , Hans Nyffeler , Jacques Romberg , Adolf Spiller and Adolf Stelzer . In the spring of 1930 he completed three more assignments in the "Nati". After that he was not considered in the national team for several rounds. In the two title rounds with his new club Lausanne-Sports, 1934/35 and 1935/36, there was no continuation of his career in the national selection. This only happened on March 7, 1937 in Amsterdam in the 2-1 defeat against the Netherlands, where he was allowed to complete his fifth "Nati" game, but now in the defensive position.

When his club coach at GCZ, Karl Rappan, also took over the sporting management of the national team from September 1937, he entrusted his two defenders Severino Minelli and "Gusti" Lehmann with the tactically demanding task of mutually protecting central defenders in the "bolt system". The two draws against Italy on October 31, 1937 and against Germany on February 6, 1938, as well as the 2-1 success on May 21, 1938 against England in Zurich, set Rappan and the Swiss national football team before the 1938 World Cup in France good report card. With the defensive formation Willy Huber , Minelli, Lehmann, Hermann Springer , Sirio Vernati (all players from Grasshoppers) and Ernest Lörtscher from Servette Geneva, Rappan had a well-rehearsed defensive team at his disposal, which he had already trained on the special tasks in the "Nati “Was able to prepare tactically as well as physically. The appearances at the world championship tournament in France against Germany and Hungary confirmed the class of this team. After the success of the Red Jackets against England and “Greater Germany”, the Rappan system was suddenly on everyone's lips. "The 'bar' became for the 'Nati' what the 'Reduit' represented for the army: a mythically inflated symbol of Swiss self-assertion," writes Christian Koller in Beat Jung's "Nati" book.

“ Correspondingly, there was great admiration for the crossbar defense trios of the national team, which consisted of the goalkeeper and the two central defenders, and who enjoyed real hero status. Even after a quarter of a century, 'Sport' wrote about the popular trio, which played a decisive role in the success against Germany in 1938: 'Huber, Minelli, Lehmann, this triumvirate is still a term today, a synonym for bulwark, force, toughness and brilliant teamwork '(November 27, 1963) "

“Gusti” Lehmann was also involved in the two 3-1 successes in 1939 against Hungary and Italy, as well as in the two 2-1 successes in 1941 and 1942 against Germany in the national team. The 34-year-old ended his international career with his 32nd international match against Hungary in Geneva on May 16, 1943.

literature

• Beat Jung (Ed.): The Nati. The history of the Swiss national football team. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-89533-532-0 .
• Swiss Football League (Philippe Guggisberg): 75 years of the Swiss Football League, 2009, ISBN 978-3-9523556-0-2
• International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS): Switzerland (1905–1940), international matches

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Beat Jung (Ed.): The Nati, The History of the Swiss National Football Team, page 78