8 Bundesliga Sleeping Giants Who Could Topple Bayern Munich
4. Third Time Lucky For Kaiserslautern?
The most successful team in Südwest Germany, 1.FC Kaiserslautern won their regional league on 11 occasions during 1947 and 1963, with just VfR Wormatia Worms and FK Pirmasens coming close to challenging. Out of those 11 Oberliga Südwest wins, Kaisersluatern went on to win the German championship on two occasions (1951 and 1953), which included wins against Preuen Münster and VfB Stuttgart. West Germanys 1954 World Cup winning squad included five players from Kaiserslautern, which included Fritz Walter who after 22 years and 380 goals for the club, had a stadium named after him. Werner Kohlmeyer, Horst Eckel, Werner Liebrich and Ottmar Walter were the other four players during that era to own a 1954 World Cup winners medal. Kaiserslautern have gone one better in the Bundesliga, winning the league on two occasions albeit over 20 years later. Despite being the leagues second top scorers, Kaiserslauterns leading goal scorer in the 1990-91 season was Stefan Kuntz, with just 11 goals in comparison to Bayern Munichs Roland Wohlfarth who finished the season on 21. Kaiserslautern again finished two points ahead of Bayern Munich in 1997-98 to clinch their second Bundesliga title, which would be their final championship for the time being. In recent history, much like Nürnburg, Kaiserslautern have struggled of late, having spent the past three seasons in the 2. Bundesliga. Since their 1998 title winning season, die roten Teufel have had just five top half finishes in the Bundesliga, with Kaiserslautern spending much of their time in the second division. The past two seasons has seen Kosta Runjais side finish fourth in the 2. Bundesliga on both occasions, narrowly missing out on the promotion play-offs.
