Marcel Gaus was almost a football pensioner – after 1. FC Saarbrücken’s coup against FC Bayern, the 34-year-old winger is suddenly a cup hero.
“This time last year, I was at home for six months and didn’t have a club,” said a stunned Gaus after his late winning goal to make it 2-1 (1-1) for the third division team against the record DFB Cup winners from Munich. “Today I’m standing here and together with the boys I’ve achieved what very, very few teams achieve.”
Gaus shot the Saarlanders into the third round with his goal in the 6th minute of stoppage time. The former professional from Fortuna Düsseldorf and 1. FC Kaiserslautern was unemployed after his contract with FC Ingolstadt expired in 2022 and was brought in by Saarbrücken at the beginning of this year.
Saarbrücken beats Darmstadt: A game for the history books
“I think it was a game for the history books for everyone involved,” said Gaus, who clearly noted that before the game the club and the fans remembered the FCS’s legendary 6-1 win against Bayern in 1976/77 Bundesliga: “These are of course games that people talk about decades later. I think today was also a game where the club first got a media reach that is not an everyday occurrence because it will be everywhere tomorrow .”
The fact that Gaus, of all people, duped Bayern also said a lot about the German champions’ weaknesses that evening in front of 16,000 in the Tollhaus Ludwigsparkstadion.
“I’m already of a certain age, so you have to see which sprints you do,” the veteran explained the decisive counterattack situation. “In that case, I saw that something could happen because we were a few more ahead than Bayern.” What came next was just this: “Pure emotional chaos, explosion right in front of our corner. The boys all ran onto the pitch, I could hardly breathe.”