UC Memories: 7 December 1993

By: Ian Rose | December 7th, 2007

On this date in 1993, the final legs of the UEFA Cup’s third round were played. It was a rough day for France and Spain, but Germany put its stamp on the tournament with two Bundesliga teams advancing into the quarterfinals. The first was Eintracht Frankfurt, who beat Deportivo 1-0 in both legs to send the Spaniards packing. The other German victory was that of Karlsruher SC over Bordeaux. After Bordeaux had taken their home leg by an unconvincing 1-0, Karlsruhe came back and dominated their home leg, 3-0. It would end up being a banner year for Karlsruher. Not only did they make the farthest European run in the history of their club, making it all the way to the semifinals of the UEFA Cup only to miss out on a final by away goals to Salzburg, but they also repeated their sixth place finish in the Bundesliga and were headed back to the UEFA Cup. They hovered around that same spot until 1998, when a terrible 16th place finish sent them down to the second tier. Their first season in 2. Bundesliga, they only missed out on promotion by a few points, but things went from bad to worse in 2000, when the club’s financial situation contributed to them being dropped down another level, to the Regionalliga Süd.

The reason I concentrate on Karlsruher’s victory and not on one of the other games that day is that in the past few years, the club has made a dramatic comeback. They won 2. Bundesliga last season, putting them right back in the top flight, and unlike relegation mates Rostock and Duisberg, who are hanging in or near the relegation zone, KSC is letting everyone in the Bundesliga know that they are up to stay. Currently in 5th, they would be back in the UEFA Cup if the season ended today, so we may still have some stories to tell in the future about Karlsruher in Europe.