Munich, Jun 01: The Bayern Munich soccer team received a warm welcome when they arrived home after Saturday's 3-1 German Cup final victory over Kaiserslautern, completing the league and cup double for the fourth time. Fans waited at Munich airport on Sunday (June 1) for the team to return and the first man off the plane was coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, who became the most successful German coach at club level with Bayern's victory on Saturday. Hitzfeld, whose side completed their fourth domestic league and cup double by beating Kaiserslautern 3-1, has now won 15 trophies -- one more than Udo Lattek, who captured 14 with Bayern, Borussia Moenchengladbach and Barcelona. The 54-year-old Hitzfeld has won the Champions League twice, with Borussia Dortmund in 1997 and Bayern in 2001. He has also won six German titles, two with Dortmund and four with Bayern, two Swiss titles with Grasshoppers, three Swiss Cups with Grasshoppers and two German Cups with Bayern. The trophies will be welcome at the club's stadium and go some way to compensate for the disappointment of losing out in the European Champions League.


Striker Giovane Elber said: "We have to be happy. Obviously the fans had expected something else in the Champions League, not to be knocked out in the first round. But it happens and I hope that we can learn from the mistakes that we made in this season."


Hitzfeld said: "We have had a successful season, a double, Bayern have only managed that four times in a hundred years. And therefore I think we have had a very successful season, that is fun, and now we are looking forward to our holidays, to really being able to switch off and not think about football so often."


Bayern won the cup with two goals from Michael Ballack and one from Claudio Pizarro. Kaiserslautern pulled one back through Germany striker Miroslav Klose with 10 minutes left but were never in contention.


Bureau Report