Gerd Strack

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Gerd Strack
Personnel
birthday September 1, 1955
place of birth Kerpen ,  Germany
date of death May 21, 2020
size 186 cm
position Libero
Juniors
Years station
1961-1966 Glückauf Habbelrath-Grefrath
1966-1973 SpVg Frechen 20
1973-1974 1. FC Cologne
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1974-1985 1. FC Cologne 261 (31)
1985-1987 FC Basel 49 0(9)
1987-1988 Fortuna Dusseldorf 17 0(2)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1973-1974 Germany youth 4 0(0)
1981-1982 Germany U21 7 0(2)
1977-1982 Germany B 4 0(1)
1982-1984 Germany 10 0(1)
1 Only league games are given.

Gerhard "Gerd" Strack (born September 1, 1955 in Kerpen ; † May 21, 2020 ) was a German football player . From 1974 to 1985, the header completed strong central defender in the Bundesliga 261 league appearances for the 1. FC Köln , scoring 30 goals. He won the DFB Cup three times with 1. FC Köln ( 1977 , 1978 , 1983 ) and the German championship in 1978 . After the soccer world championship in 1982 he became a national player and took part in the soccer championship of 1984 .

Career

societies

Via the stations of Glückauf Habbelrath-Grefrath (until 1966) and SpVg Frechen 20 (until 1973), Strack came to the youth department of 1. FC Cologne before the start of the 1973/74 season. With the A-Juniors of 1. FC Köln, he moved into the finals of the German championship under coach Josef Röhrig as Middle Rhine Champion . In the final on June 9th in Stade the juniors of 1. FC Nürnberg prevailed 1-0.

Strack was included in the team for the 1974/75 season and made his debut under coach Zlatko Čajkovski on August 24, 1974 at the home game against Rot-Weiss Essen in the Bundesliga. Together with Toni Schumacher (goalkeeper), Harald Konopka , Bernhard Cullmann and Herbert Hein , he formed the defensive formation in the 0-1 defeat of Cologne. Strack completed 18 Bundesliga games in his first senior round and scored one goal. On September 18, 1974, he made his UEFA Cup debut when the FC celebrated a 5-1 win against Kokkolan PV .

Strack celebrated his first major success with Cologne in the then practiced 4-3-3 system both as a libero and as a pre-stopper in the 1976/77 season. Under the direction of "Heimkehrer" Hennes Weisweiler , he only made 16 appearances (2 goals) in the championship , but in the two finals of the DFB Cup on May 28 and 30 in Hanover against Hertha BSC he put together Libero Roland Gerber the central defense of Cologne, who after the 1-1 after extra time in the first game two days later in the necessary repeat game with 1-0 prevailed. When in the following season 1977/78 Cologne achieved the greatest success in the club's history with the double , Strack was already a regular: In addition to 32 league appearances (2 goals), he completed together with Dieter Müller (8 goals), Roger Van Gool (7 goals) , Heinz Flohe , Roland Gerber and Herbert Zimmermann all seven games in the repetition of the cup success from the previous year.

From the 1978/79 season stand out the two semi-finals in the European Cup against Nottingham Forest . On June 4, 1980, Strack played his third DFB Cup final, but lost with his team 2-1 to their Rhenish rivals Fortuna Düsseldorf . Under the new coach Rinus Michels , he belonged to the Cologne team on November 5, 1980, who won the UEFA Cup 4-0 at FC Barcelona ; Strack scored a 1-0 lead. With the Dutch coach size, it was enough in the 1981/82 season (32 games / 6 goals) again for the runner-up and on June 11, 1983 with a 1-0 win against local rivals SC Fortuna Cologne to the third DFB Cup victory. Strack acted as the sweeper, Paul Steiner was the stopper.

The 1984/85 season was Strack's last season for 1. FC Köln. Under coach Hannes Löhr he was considered in 17 league games, his last appearance he completed on April 3, 1985 in a 2-1 away win at Fortuna Düsseldorf. After a total of 339 competitive games (including 261 Bundesliga appearances) with 46 goals, he ended his active time with the billy goats in the summer of 1985 and moved to Switzerland for FC Basel .

The former successful coach Helmut Benthaus had returned from VfB Stuttgart in 1985, but was unable to inject a new heyday into the red-blue. With René Botteron , Adrian Knup , Thomas Süss , Marco Schällibaum , Beat Sutter and Strack, there were good individual players available, but it was only enough for the lower midfield positions. Strack went back home after two years, he moved to the second division Fortuna Düsseldorf for the 1987/88 season . But 14 years of professional football had taken their toll: Due to an injury, Strack only played 17 league games (2 goals) for Fortuna under coach Aleksandar Ristić and ended his playing career in the summer of 1988.

statistics

  • DFB Cup
    38 games, 7 goals (1.FC Köln)
    2 games (Fortuna Düsseldorf)

National team

As a junior player in the billy goats, he was appointed to the German national youth soccer team for the first time by the DFB on September 14, 1973 . Together with Rüdiger Abramczik , Karl Del'Haye and Bernd Förster , he failed to qualify for the UEFA youth tournament in April 1974 against Romania (1-0, 0-2).

After the Cologne Vorstopper and Libero first came into play in the B national team on November 15, 1977 , three more appointments to the B-Elf followed in the 1981/82 season. In the early 1980s it was used seven times in the German U-21 . With this selection, which he was allowed to support as an older player according to the regulations at the time, he came second at the junior European Championship in 1982 .

On May 14, 1982, the DFB reported him to FIFA in the 40 list for the 1982 World Cup in Spain. But it was not enough for a nomination in the 22-man squad for the World Cup tournament. In the second international match after the mixed World Cup in Spain, on October 13, 1982 in London against England, Strack made his debut in the senior national team. With the defensive formation Manfred Kaltz , Strack, Karlheinz Förster (from the 5th minute Holger Hieronymus ) and Bernd Förster in front of goalkeeper Schumacher, the DFB-Elf achieved a 2-1 success with goals from Karl-Heinz Rummenigge . This was followed by four consecutive appearances for Strack in the qualifying games for the 1984 European Football Championship in France against Northern Ireland (0: 1), Albania (2: 1), Turkey (3: 0) and Austria (0: 0). After the friendly against Hungary on September 6, 1983 in Budapest (1: 1) - it served as preparation for the other European Championship qualifiers - the Cologne-based player was in the two clear victories against Austria (3: 0) and Turkey (5: 1) in use for over 90 minutes. In the non-factored 0-1 home defeat on November 16, 1983 in Hamburg in the second leg against Northern Ireland, however, he was only substituted in for Uli Stielike from Real Madrid in the 83rd minute . Four days later, on November 20 in Saarbrücken against Albania, he played again from the start as Libero and headed the decisive goal to make it 2-1 in the 80th minute. The German national team was thus qualified for the tournament in France.

Strack was part of the 20-man squad at the European Championships, but was not used under national coach Jupp Derwall in the games against Portugal (0: 0), Romania (2: 1) and Spain (0: 1). At the international match on September 12, 1984 in Düsseldorf against Argentina, the first under the new team boss Franz Beckenbauer , he was in the national team for the last time.

Further career

The ex-national player who lived in Hürth then worked as a freelance soccer teacher and was involved in soccer schools. He died of a heart attack at the age of 64. He was buried in Hürth - Efferen on May 26, 2020 .

literature

  • Thomas Hardt, Thomas Hohndorf, Bruno Morbitzer, Hubert Dahlkamp, ​​Hardy Grüne: Hennes & Co. The history of 1. FC Cologne. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89533-470-7 .
  • Christian Karn, Reinhard Rehberg: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Player Lexicon 1963–1994 . AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2012. ISBN 978-3-89784-214-4 , page 495.
  • Matthias Kropp: Germany's great football teams. Volume 10: 1. FC Cologne. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1997, ISBN 3-928562-96-7 .
  • Jürgen Bitter : Germany's national soccer player: the lexicon . SVB Sportverlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-328-00749-0 .
  • Fritz Tauber: German national soccer player. Player Statistics from A to Z . AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2012, ISBN 978-3-89784-397-4 , page 122.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Hartmann: Obituary for Gerd Strack: A legend of 1. FC Cologne. In: süddeutsche.de . May 22, 2020, accessed May 23, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Christian Löer: Double winner Gerd Strack dies at the age of 64. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . May 22, 2020, accessed May 22, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Thomas Hardt et al: Hennes & Co. p. 335.
  4. ^ Matthias Arnhold: Gerhard 'Gerd' Strack - Matches and Goals in Bundesliga . RSSSF.com . June 17, 2020. Accessed June 18, 2020.
  5. ^ Matthias Arnhold: Gerhard 'Gerd' Strack - International Appearances . RSSSF.com . June 17, 2020. Accessed June 18, 2020.
  6. ↑ At the age of 64: Ex-national player Gerhard Strack is dead. In: Spiegel Online . May 21, 2020, accessed May 22, 2020 .
  7. ^ Obituaries of Gerd Strack. In: wirtrauern.de. May 21, 2020, accessed May 24, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Farewell to Cologne master player: Ex-national player Strack buried in Hürth , rp-online.de , May 26, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Strack, Gerd
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Strack, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Kerpen , Germany
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 2020