Rudi Dörrenbächer

Rudi Dörrenbächer (born March 31, 1933 - † June 29, 2013 ) was a German soccer player who, as a striker for Borussia Neunkirchen, played 168 games in the Southwest Soccer League from 1957 to 1963 and scored 136 goals.

career

Oberliga Südwest, 1957 to 1963

With FC Hellas Marpingen , located in the St. Wendel district, Rudi Dörrenbächer took third place in the Saarland amateur league in the 1956/57 season behind champions FC Homburg and vice SC Friedrichsthal and distinguished himself as an outstanding goalscorer. Since he was able to confirm his scoring qualities in the Saarland amateur association selection, the presidium of the upper division Borussia Neunkirchen around Norbert Engel and Kurt Gluding committed the athletic goalgetter to the 1957/58 round in the "city of coal and iron".

Coach Bernd Oles immediately used the new center forward in the first association game in the Oberliga Südwest, on August 11, 1957, against Saar 05 Saarbrücken in the local Ellenfeldstadion . Together with Ewald Follmann , Karl Ringel , Horst Meurer and Werner Emser , Dörrenbächer formed the attack in the 2-1 home win of the black and white Borussia. A week later, on August 18th, the ex-amateur from Marpingen distinguished himself for the first time as a three-time goalscorer in the 7-1 success on Lautrer Erbsenberg against VfR Kaiserslautern . On the final day of the round, on April 14, 1958, he contributed the winning goal in the 53rd minute to the 1-0 home win against champions FK Pirmasens . With one point behind the team around playmaker and striker Helmut Kapitulski , the Saarlanders took third place. In his league debut round Dörrenbächer had played all 30 games and scored 24 goals. In the following three years, the man with the goal instinct was able to underline his qualifications with a further 59 goals. The Borussia-Elf won the runner-up in the southwest three times in a row and thus also made it into the finals of the German soccer championship. In 1959 and 1961, the eleven from Ellenfeld failed in qualifying at Werder Bremen and Eintracht Frankfurt.

In these rounds, a 1-0 win on September 27, 1959 in the state capital in the final of the Southwest German Cup against 1. FC Saarbrücken made it into the DFB semi-finals. There Dörrenbächer and his teammates prevailed on October 3 with a 2-1 home win against VfR Mannheim and thus moved into the 1959 DFB Cup final . On December 27th in Kassel, however, the young offensive talents from Schwarz-Weiß Essen - Horst Trimhold , Manfred Rummel , Hans Küppers , Theo Klöckner - won 5-2 goals against Neunkirchen in the Auestadion . Dörrenbacher's goal for the final score of 2: 5 in the 89th minute was only cosmetic. The three-week trip to the Soviet Union at the end of July / beginning of August 1960 was also a highlight.

Due to the successful reinforcements in the team through the newcomers Erich Leist and Erwin Glod (both from Marpingen), Horst Kirsch (Merchweiler), Günter Kuntz (VfR Kaiserslautern), Dieter Schock (Wiebelskirchen) and for the round 1961/62 by the two strikers Elmar May and Paul Pidancet from Eintracht Trier and the outside runner Achim Melcher from Bad Kreuznach, the sporting potential of the team around the 28-year-old Dörrenbächer had grown so that with coach Alfred Preißler in the 1961/62 season with 48:12 points and a goal difference of 102: 29 goals won the championship in the Oberliga Südwest. In the Ellenfeld the new champions got 28: 2 points - only two 2: 2 draws against Pirmasens and Oppau - and Rudi Dörrenbächer was the top scorer in the Southwest League with 37 goals . Reinhold Straus (Worms) followed with 27 goals in front of the two best shooters of the runner-up FK Pirmasens, Rolf Fritzsche (24) and Klaus Matischak with 23 goals.

Dörrenbächer scored three goals in five games and scored four times in the opposing net in the 11-0 win against Sportfreunde Saarbrücken on February 4, 1962. In the final round of the German championship, which was shortened because of the 1962 World Cup in Chile, Neunkirchen acted unhappy with the goal scorer. They led against FC Schalke 04 and 1. FC Nürnberg with 2-0 goals and lost both games in the final minutes with 2-3. This resulted in the final 0: 1 defeat on May 5th in Saarbrücken against Tasmania 1900 Berlin, where the kinked Borussia could no longer call up their true performance. Dörrenbächer played a total of eleven games in the finals from 1959 to 1962, scoring four goals.

His penultimate league game completed Rudi Dörrenbächer on April 12, 1963 in a 3-0 home win against TuRa Ludwigshafen , where he scored his 15th goal in the current round in the 81st minute.

Tragic end of the playing career

In a catch-up game of the Oberliga Südwest on April 15, 1963 at VfR Frankenthal , Dörrenbächer scored the opening goal with his head in the 18th minute, but was hit by the goalkeeper with his fist on the temple, fell without any reaction on the hard, frozen ground and suffered a fractured skull base. He was admitted to the hospital in Ludwigshafen and was in a coma for six weeks. After convalescence, a continuation of the playing career was no longer possible. The police officer later retired early because of a hip problem.

Player description

Team captain Karl Ringel describes the striker as a “typical enforcer”. Stopper Erich Leist says of him:

“Rudi was a stubborn player in a good sense, not really suitable for the combination game. We and our opponents never knew exactly what he would do next. He was neither shot nor header strong. Elmar May and Günther Kuntz had a much harder shot, while Rudi would have preferred to carry the ball over the line. We played him quite well in the championship season, but many of his goals were personal contributions, which he played himself. "

literature

• Werner Skrentny (Ed.): The fear of the devil in front of the pea mountain. The history of the Oberliga Südwest 1946–1963. Klartext, Essen 1996, ISBN 3-88474-394-5 .
• Raphael Keppel: The German Football League 1946–1963 . Sports and games publisher Edgar Hitzel, 1983, ISBN 3-9802172-3-X .
• Hardy Grüne , Lorenz Knieriem: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Werner Skrentny, The history of the Oberliga Südwest, p. 61.