Josef Pirrung

Josef Pirrung
Personnel
birthday	July 24, 1949
place of birth	Münchweiler an der Rodalb ,  Germany
date of death	February 11, 2011
size	167 cm
position	Midfield , attack
Juniors
Years	station
until 1968	FC Münchweiler / Rodalb
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1968-1981	1. FC Kaiserslautern	304 (61)
1981-1982	Wormatia worms	27 0(1)
1982– 000?	VfL Neustadt
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1971	Germany U-23	4 0(1)
1975-1977	Germany B	4 0(0)
1974	Germany	2 0(0)
1 Only league games are given.

Josef "Seppl" Pirrung (born July 24, 1949 in Münchweiler an der Rodalb ; † February 11, 2011 ) was a German soccer player who played 304 games in the Bundesliga between 1969 and 1981 as a striker for 1. FC Kaiserslautern and scored 61 goals.

career

Clubs, 1959 to 1984

The pupil and youth "Seppl" Pirrung went through the entire stages in the youth department of the local FC Münchweiler in the south-west Palatinate. After appointments to the selection of the Southwest German State Association and the Southwest Football Regional Association, the technically outstanding, combination-safe, strong dribbling and running attacker was first appointed by the DFB to the German youth national team on February 14, 1967 . At the international match against England in Mönchengladbach, he represented the German colors alongside teammates Gerhard Heinze , Egon Schmitt , Rainer Zobel and Roland Weidle . Then he came in the two successful qualifying games in March 1967 against the Netherlands for use. In May he was a member of the DFB selection for the UEFA youth tournament in Turkey. In the second group game on May 7th in Bursa against Austria (2-1) he broke his leg. The first time he tried to play after the supposed healing, he broke his tibia and fibula again. The third broken leg in a year followed a few months later.

In 1968, the 1.67 m tall young talent moved from FC Münchweiler to 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the Bundesliga. Due to the protracted injury consequences, he only made his debut on the third match day of the 1969/70 season, on August 30, 1969, in the Bundesliga. In the 2: 4 away defeat against FC Schalke 04, he was substituted on in the 79th minute by coach Gyula Lóránt for Klaus Ackermann . After Dietrich Weise took over the coaching post on the Betzenberg in 1971/72, the “Red Devils” came seventh in the league at the end of the round and Pirrung had at the side of Hermann Bitz , Jürgen Friedrich , Idriz Hošić , Klaus Ackermann, Wolfgang Seel and Karl-Heinz Vogt scored three goals in 29 games. In the DFB Cup , after successes against Wuppertaler SV, VfB Stuttgart, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and two 2-1 victories in the semifinals against SV Werder Bremen, they moved into the DFB Cup final on July 1, 1972 in Hanover against FC Schalke 04 a. Schalke had only lost the battle for the championship trophy on the last round match day, June 28, with a 1: 5 defeat at defending champion Bayern Munich and thanks to their great offensive went with Herbert Lütkebohmert , Heinz van Haaren , Klaus Scheer , Reinhard Libuda , Klaus Fischer and Erwin Kremers as clear favorites in the final. Pirrung and colleagues experienced the Schalke class in the 0: 5 defeat in the final, but still had a clearly positive round balance due to the finals and the first qualification to participate in the European Cup for the round 1972/73.

In the UEFA Cup of the 1972/73 season , the Lauterer met the English professionals from Stoke City in the first round . The well-known international Gordon Banks (goal) and attacker Geoff Hurst represented the skills of the former team of legend Stanley Matthews from the Victoria Ground . Pirrung was one of the FCK players who paved the way to the second round with a 4-0 home win on September 27, 1972 and then eliminated CUF Barreiro and Ararat Yerevan before the "foals" from Bökelberg, Borussia Mönchengladbach, turned out to be too high a hurdle in the quarter-finals. Pirrung had played in all eight European Cup games.

Nationally, the two spectacular victories against FC Bayern Munich with their world stars Sepp Maier , Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller stood out in the next two rounds . On October 20, 1973, the "Dribbelkönig vom Betzenberg" distinguished himself as a three-time goalscorer in the legendary 7: 4 FCK. The really sensational thing in this game was that the championship team of FC Bayern was 3-0 and 4-1 in the lead and after the 4: 4 equalization by Pirrung in the 73rd minute of the game completely broke up in the final minutes and three more Had to accept goals. For FC Bayern, the dress rehearsal before the eagerly anticipated home game in the European Cup against Dynamo Dresden on October 24th was a complete failure. In the Kicker-Sportmagazin the match report was titled "Drama and tragedy: How a championship team fell apart" and coach Erich Ribbeck was quoted as saying, "This is the greatest day of my coaching career". The Lauterer midfielders Klaus Toppmöller and Hermann Bitz as well as striker Pirrung were listed in the kicker in the “Eleven of the Day”. Three days after Bayern's 2-1 victory in the European Cup at 1. FC Magdeburg , on November 9, 1974, the “Red Devils” from the Palatinate dismantled the hosts in the Olympic Stadium with a 5-2 victory. Pirrung, the filigree technician and whirlwind, scored the goal of the 4-2 lead in the 81st minute and was described in the kicker as "even more convincing than a year ago", honored in the "Man of the day" category and in the " Eleven of the day ”.

In the 1973/74 world championship year, the Ribbeck-Elf finished sixth and Pirrung had played all 34 round matches and scored 13 goals. The crowd favorite experienced another success in the 1976 DFB Cup. Lautern made it into the final again, but lost the final on June 26 in Frankfurt without scorer Klaus Toppmöller with 2-0 goals against Hamburger SV. For the 1978/79 round, the new FCK coach Karl-Heinz Feldkamp led the Betzenberg team to third place and repeated this success in the following round. Pirrung completed most of his 21 and 17 missions now as a substitute or substitute. Reiner Geye , Klaus Toppmöller and Benny Wendt were now in the lead and Hans Bongartz directed the midfield , assisted by Jürgen Groh , Werner Melzer and Johannes Riedl . The little technician played in the 1979/80 UEFA Cup against FC Zurich, Sporting Lisbon and VTK Miskolc. With the games in September / October 1980 against RSC Anderlecht, the European Cup ended for Pirrung. He has a total of 17 games and two goals in the UEFA Cup.

In 1981 Pirrung broke his ankle in the first half of the season and no longer got a contract. His substitution on March 7, 1981 in a 1-1 away draw against the "Zebras" from MSV Duisburg was his last Bundesliga appearance. After 304 league games with 61 goals, he ended his first division career in the summer of 1981.

He moved to Wormatia Worms in the 2nd Bundesliga . After 27 second division games with a goal in 1981/82 , he left Wormatia again. At VfL Neustadt , he let his career end in the amateur camp.

National team, 1971 to 1977

In his second Bundesliga round, 1970/71, the former youth national player was appointed by the DFB in the second half of the U-23 national team. He made his debut on February 16 in the European Championship qualifier against Albania alongside fellow players Heinz Flohe , Horst Köppel , Klaus Scheer and Werner Weist in the attack of the DFB Juniors. In April, June and October three more appointments were added to this team. His remarkable performances in the 1973/74 season - it wasn't just his appearance in the 7-4 win against FC Bayern - brought him into the DFB's 40 list before the 1974 World Cup, but was accepted into the 22 squad he does not. In the first international game after the 1974 World Cup, on September 4, 1974 in Basel against Switzerland, the Lautrer striker was part of the team of national coach Helmut Schön . But he was not used yet, the national coach operated with Reiner Geye, Bernd Hölzenbein and Dieter Herzog in the attack and replaced the debutant Wolfgang Seel in the second half. At the European Championship qualifier on November 20, 1974 in Piraeus against Greece, it was Pirrung's turn, he was substituted on for Jupp Heynckes on the left wing in the 81st minute . A month later, on December 22nd, the national coach in La Valletta trusted in the attack with Pirrung, Erwin Kostedde and Bernd Hölzenbein during the kick-off against Malta . At half-time, however, the Palatinate was replaced by Bernd Nickel and was never considered for the senior national team in the future .

In the B national team, however, he completed four international matches in 1975 and 1977 and took part with this team in June 1977 in an international trip to the USA, Honduras and Jamaica.

After football

After retiring as a footballer, Pirrung worked as a sporting goods seller, played tennis in his spare time and hiked the Alps - although his right leg was three centimeters shorter since the fractures.

He suffered from cancer, which he succumbed to at the age of 61. In the Bundesliga home game against Borussia Dortmund, which took place the day after Pirrung's death, the 1. FC Kaiserslautern team played with a black ribbon.

literature

• Jürgen Bitter : Germany's national soccer player: the lexicon . SVB Sportverlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-328-00749-0 .
• Günter Rohrbacher-List: "The Red Devils are back". The history of 1. FC Kaiserslautern . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-89533-221-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Die Rheinpfalz: "The Dribbelkönig was a silent star"
2. ↑ Foosball sports magazine. No. 86, October 22, 1973, p. 45.
3. ↑ Foosball sports magazine. No. 86, October 22, 1973, p. 47.
4. ↑ Foosball sports magazine. No. 92, November 11, 1974, p. 34.
5. ↑ Foosball sports magazine. No. 92, November 11, 1974, p. 35.
6. ↑ Death report on morgenweb.de ( Memento from February 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ http://mobil.handelsblatt.com/;h=21b46faa4f;turnpage=2/