Willi Koll

Willi Koll (born November 17, 1926 ; † January 2, 2005 ) was a German football player who played 241 league games for Duisburg SpV from 1949 to 1961 in the Oberliga West , scoring 68 goals.

career

Before the Oberliga, until 1949

Willi Koll's football career began with the Green-Whites of the Grunewald-Kampfbahn in the Hochfeld district , at Duisburg FV 08. After the Second World War , the former Gauliga club played its association games in the Lower Rhine regional league. With coach Willy Busch and attacking colleague Günter Brocker , the young center forward Koll won the championship in group one in the 1948/49 season with a 3-2 win in the playoff against TuRa 1886 Essen . The DSV prevailed in the promotion round to the Oberliga West and the FV 08 followed their city rivals in the qualifying round with successes against VfL Witten and SF Katernberg. The center forward talent joined the eleven-time West German champions Duisburger Spielverein in the 1949/50 round.

Beginnings Oberliga and 2nd League West, 1949 to 1954

Willi Koll made his debut with the blue-whites on the first day of play, September 4, 1949, in the Oberliga West. He acted in the 1-1 away draw at Rot-Weiß Oberhausen in the center forward position. DSV finished in tenth place at the end of the round and Koll had played all 30 league games and scored 17 goals like Hans Schäfer (1. FC Köln) and Julius Ludorf (SpVgg Erkenschwick). In the derby matches against FV 08 and Hamborn 07 he scored a total of four goals. In the second year, 1950/51, Koll experienced but after 29 games with four goals - including several in defense - relegation to the 2nd League West. It took Koll and his teammates three years to return to the big leagues. In 1952 and 1953 it was enough for third place before he won the championship in 1953/54 with his teammates Fritz Bermel , Josef Broden , Hans Hoffmann , Hans Lohmann and Manfred Wacker in front of Westfalia Herne, SG Wattenscheid 09 and Rot-Weiß Oberhausen the 2nd League West and could celebrate the return to the Oberliga.

Oberliga West, 1954 to 1961

In the first three years after the league return, 1954/55 to 1956/57, the "old master" improved steadily in the table. Willi Koll, he was now an institution as a middle runner and still an offensive driver in the blue-whites, climbed with his team from eighth, through fourth and finally in 1957 even to second place and was thus able to reach the runner-up and thus the finals to celebrate the German soccer championship. With 16: 2 points, the DSV had an outstanding start in the 1956/57 round. The 1-0 away win on the seventh matchday in front of 35,000 spectators in the Rote Erde stadium against the reigning German champions Borussia Dortmund stood out as defense chief Willi Koll in the BVB attack around Wolfgang Peters , Alfred Preißler , Alfred Kelbassa , Heinz Simmer and Helmut Kapitulski did not allow it to develop. Ralf Piorr states:

“ The football west rubs its eyes in amazement:“ Who should beat this Duisburg? With 14: 0 points, the Ruhrort men around stopper Willi Koll have an unbelievable winning streak. Until the 23rd matchday they lead the table without interruption, losing only three out of 22 games. " "

Duisburg finished the preliminary round as leader of the table with 24: 6 points. In the final sprint, Koll and colleagues ran out of steam and the 30th matchday decided the runner-up between DSV and 1. FC Köln . The tied “billy goats” scored a point with 3: 3 goals in Aachen and Koll's goal in the 88th minute for a 2-2 home draw against FC Schalke 04 made it a tenth of a goal ahead of DSV . Looking back, Willi Koll remembers:

“ Actually, we had been on our feet again since 1954 and in Fred Harthaus we also had a coach who spoke to the players well. In 1957 we had a young team, but not such a strong 12th and 13th man. Perhaps that was also a reason why we ran out of breath in the end. "

In the final round, the DSV showed itself again from its best side. Unbeaten, with two draws and one win, the Duisburg team survived the group games against Hamburger SV , 1. FC Saarbrücken and 1. FC Nürnberg . On the last match day, June 16, 1957, in front of 35,000 spectators in the Südweststadion in Ludwigshafen against Nuremberg, Koll - who was already acting as a kind of offensive libero from the center of the defense - in the 47th minute for the interim 1: 1 equalizer. With the goal in the 83rd minute to the 2-2 final score, Nuremberg blocked the DSV entry into the final on June 23rd against the West Champion Borussia Dortmund. Nevertheless, the second group place in the final round for Koll and his teammates Broden, Wacker, Bermel and the attackers Ernst Wechselberger , Walter Münnix , Rolf Benning and Hans Lohmann was the sporting highlight of their time at DSV.

Financially not competitive, the Duisburg could not prevent the departures of goalkeeper Broden and goal hunter Wechselberger before the round of 1957/58 and fell back to tenth place in the final table. After the round in 1960/61 - Koll, a 34-year-old veteran, played another 27 games and scored five goals - the DSV record player and scorer finished in Oberliga West with 68 goals after 241 league games (plus around 90 appearances in the 2. Liga West) his active playing career. The “figurehead” of the blue-whites had been the linchpin of all attacks at the DSV for more than a decade. At the beginning of his career in the storm center and then in the defense center as an "offensive middle runner" who did not want to be satisfied with only fighting the opposing attack lines. In the first year "after Koll", 1961/62 , the Duisburg game club rose from the Oberliga West.

Selection gauges

National coach Sepp Herberger nominated the DSV icon for the B international match on April 21, 1956 in Enschede against Holland. In front of goalkeeper Heinrich Kwiatkowski , he and Leo Konopczynski from Sodingen formed the German defenders in the 1-0 defeat. In the year of the soccer World Cup in Sweden in 1958 , he received an invitation to a World Cup course with a test match of an A-team against a B-team on September 4, 1957 in Hanover. Competitors in the middle position were Willi Gerdau , Günter Graetsch , Herbert Schäfer and Egon Horst . Schäfer and Horst played the stopper role in the game, Koll was not used. Nine days before his 33rd birthday, on November 8, 1959, he directed the German defensive in his second international B match against Hungary in Saarbrücken. With Horst Schnoor in goal, Gustav Witlatschil and Friedel Späth in defense, as well as outside runners Hermann Nuber and Dieter Seeler , center runner Koll was central support in the 2-1 success of the DFB team. You can read about the relationship between "Koll and the national team" at Richard Kirn:

“ However, I had my own ideas about the stopper game that didn't match those of the national coach, which is why he dropped him. Koll has been the center of his team for years, and he knows how to storm successfully when the result demands it. "

Piorr and colleagues list Willi Koll in the "Lexikon des Revier-Fußballs" in Volume 1 twice in the rounds 1955/56 and 1957/58 in the "Revier Team of the Season".

literature

• Harald Landefeld, Achim Nöllenheidt (ed.): Helmut, tell me dat Tor ... New stories and portraits from the Oberliga West 1947–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-043-1 .
• Ralf Piorr (Ed.), The pot is round, Das Lexikon des Revier-Fußballs, Klartext-Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-89861-358-5 .
• 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. ↑ The pot is round, Volume 1, p. 53.
2. ↑ Ralf Piorr (ed.), The pot is round, The clubs, Volume 2, p. 73.
3. ^ Richard Kirn / Alex Natan, Fussball, Ullstein TB No. 206, 1958, p. 128.