Created on 01-06-2013 at 00:00 AM
At the end of a long and sometimes challenging season, Mario Gomez left the Berlin Olympic Stadium pitch after 62 minutes of the DFB Cup final to a warm standing ovation. Gomez himself immediately went to embrace the man who had chosen to field him from the start on the evening.
“I just had a good feeling about it," coach Jupp Heynckes said prior to kick-off, as he explained why he had preferred Gomez to Mario Mandzukic at centre forward. “Mario Gomez doesn't just have a superb record against VfB, he comes from Stuttgart and he's worked very hard in recent weeks." As so often, the coach’s hunch proved correct.