DFB-Pokal: First Round Summary

By: Jan | August 7th, 2007

Kahn Riemann The early rounds of the DFB-Pokal or any domestic cup competition are rare places, where negative, destructive and defensive football is cherished and encouraged. It’s not about wanting the best team to win but rather the weakest - the lower the league the better.

Here is a quick check to see how the first round of this years competition delivered on its promise.

45th to 50th minute
After the break Hamburg’s Vincent Kompany entered the pitch disguised as his teammate Kosi Saka. Five minutes later he realised that he had mixed up jerseys and reclaimed his original identity. His team won the match against 4th division team Holstein Kiel 5-0.

61 minutes
Third division team Wacker Burghausen managed to hold on to a scoreless draw against Bayern Munich for 61 minutes. Quite an achievement, only topped by the fact that it was them who scored the lead in that 61st minute. Miroslav Klose managed to equalise 18 minutes later but couldn’t net a winner and Bayern were forced into extra-time and a subsequent penalty shootout. Burghausen even had the golden opportunity to cause a huge upset but Oliver Kahn kept Bayern in the match and eventually won it for them.

It was one of the most one sided competitive matches that I have seen in a while. More importantly it was a really fun to watch one sided match, because Munich failed to capitalise on their numerous chances, thus keeping the game open and the suspense intact. The abundance of one-twos and back heel passes in Munich’s game made the Kaiser a bit angry though, who thought that this performance had more to do with a circus number than with football. For Burghausen’s 18 year old goalkeeper Manuel Riemann this match meant it was time for his 15 minutes of fame. He kept his team in the game, saved the odd penalty and confidently put one behind Oliver Kahn himself. Under normal circumstances that should be enough to win it, but his teammates cringed in front of Kahn a bit too often.

87th minute
Newly promoted second Bundesliga side FC St. Pauli deservedly overcame Bayer Leverkusen when Fabian Boll scored the only and decisive goal. St. Pauli continue writing their recent impressive DFB-Pokal history, which included tight matches against Bayern Munich and victories over Berlin or Bremen. Apropos.

90 minutes and one red card
“That was one piece of shit of a match we played”, concluded Klaus Allofs. At least Bremen managed to improve on last years performance and actually advanced to the next round thanks to a cruel late goal by Boubacar Sanogo in the 90th minute against third division newbies Eintracht Braunschweig. Per Mertesacker received a red card for a second bookable offense. Today, Bremen only managed a draw against Danish first division team Esbjerg FB in their final pre-season friendly, that concludes their abysmal summer performances. Bremen’s goal was once again scored by Sanogo, who has now scored four goals in four matches for Bremen. Judging him on his performances for Hamburg, that would mean it was also his last.

92 minutes and two red cards
Probably it comes as some form of consolation for Bremen, that Stuttgart went through a similarly unconvincing preparation for the new season. Stuttgart advanced to the next round of the DFB-Pokal by beating second division newcomers SV Wehen-Wiesbaden 2-1. It was quite a bit of work for them, two of their players were send off with straight red cards and only a penalty in the 92nd minute saved the German champion from going to extra-time.

1:32768
Those are the odds to be drawn together three times in a row in the first round of the DFB-Pokal. A feat achieved by Energie Cottbus and and third division club Rot-Weiss Essen. The game ended 2-2 after extra-time and Essen won the following penalty shootout. The second biggest upset of the first round. Essen has now won two out of the three encounters, but I’m sure Cottbus will seek revenge when the two clubs are drawn together again next year.