Bundesliga: Elversberg creates a huge surprise

When the Bundesliga broadcaster Sky went live to the Bundesliga location in Elversberg for the first time on Saturday afternoon, you could see the Bayer Leverkusen footballers lying on blue mats and stretching in the open air next to the container in which they had to change. It had a bit of an outdoor fitness class at a community college.

The Elversberg location is not only the smallest ever in the history of the Bundesliga, but the “Stadion an der Kaiserlinde”, as it is so idyllicly called, will still be a construction site for a few months. In such an environment, being a guest at an absolute nobody club in the Saarland province, it may not be that easy to prepare for a Bundesliga game in a highly professional manner and with all the mentality. And perhaps that also had something to do with the fact that the German champions and cup winners of 2024, Bayer Leverkusen, actually lost the first game of the new season 2:3 (0:2) on Saturday in that stadium (current capacity 9,307) in the municipality of Spiesen-Elversberg (population around 13,000).

However, one should tell this sensation from the perspective of the brave Elversbergers, and so it happened that the fearless newcomer called Sport-Vereinigung Elversberg, 59th club in the 64th Bundesliga season, managed a huge surprise in the first game against the bewildered top club Bayer Leverkusen – and won 3-2.

Lukas Petkov scored the first goal in the 8th minute on an assist from Francis Onyeka, who Elversberger has borrowed from Bayer Leverkusen for this season. The 2-0 in the 9th minute was scored by Elversberg newcomer Cole Campbell, who was unable to assert himself at Borussia Dortmund. And the 3-0 in the 46th minute was scored by David Mokwa, who was once unable to establish himself at TSG Hoffenheim. In the end, the Leverkusen team, who arrived late, only managed to score 1:3 (77′) and Christian Kofane (90+1′) to make it 1:3 (90+1′).

In Elversberg they don’t want to play outsider football, but rather look for the offensive themselves

How can such a victory for the small Elversberg team against the big Leverkusen team be explained? “We’re definitely the underdogs for everyone in every game,” Onyeka had humbly said before the game on Sky – although his coach Vincent Wagner added even more confidently at another point: “We just don’t play underdog football at all!” And they proved that straight away against Bayer 04. Elversberg simply continues to play the courageous football in the Bundesliga that saw them promoted to second place behind Schalke 04 in the last second division season.

When the game against Leverkusen, who almost equalized in the end, was over, the Elversbergers were in each other’s arms. And spectators who rubbed their dry eyes in amazement will find what they are looking for in the range of the Saarbrücken pharmaceutical company that played a key role in financing the sports association’s rise from the fourth to the Bundesliga.

“We knew it would be tough,” said Leverkusen defense chief Edmond Tapsoba afterwards on Sky. He wasn’t all that pleased with his team’s performance, but he certainly didn’t want to claim that they might have underestimated these Elversbergers. His goalkeeper Mark Flekken complained: “That’s not acceptable – we just let ourselves be taken by surprise.”

“You can’t really believe it,” said Elversberg’s 1-0 goalscorer Petkov, not entirely unexpectedly, but he also immediately said that they had been promoted to the Bundesliga with the goal of “staying in”. However, there are still 33 games to go until we reach this goal. The second game will take place next Saturday at Borussia Mönchengladbach, and Bayern will travel to the third game in two weeks. Germany’s best team is now warned.