This weekend was full of action in Germany:
The teams from 1st Bundesliga had their 1st official matches in the DFB Cup, while the lower league teams (from 2nd Bundesliga and lower) already started their leagues - which to me is the perfect scenario for some early cup surprises.
Notable matches:
-SV Elversberg (3rd Bundesliga) - Augsburg 1-3 (ET)
10-man Elversberg, who has a big sponsor and hopes for a 2nd Bundesliga promotion led until the last few minutes, but Europa League participant Augsburg fought back and was heavily pushing for the win in ET, Chelsea
prospect Abdul Hahman Baba played the 120mins as left back amid growing transfer rumors.
-Viktoria Köln (Regionalliga / 4th Liga) - Union Berlin 2-1
As here are some Union supporters(??), that might be of interest: Köln also has a sponsor who pushes for the 3rd/2nd Bundesliga, so they are no easy opponent and have some former Bundesliga players/prospects on their team. Union led 1-0 at the half, but Viktoria stormed back and Union wasn´t able to convert their early chances in the 2nd half.
-SV Meppen (Regionalliga / 4th Liga) - 1.FC Köln 0-4
Anthony Modeste, who was just signed from Hoffenheim, scored a hattrick, gave his entire dress to the supporters and walked off in a towel.
(In other news, the ref had a big effect in this game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImTVMWxAPPY
At the 2:50 mark, you can see the attack, that leads to the 2-0 for Köln penalty+red card (penalty was correct, but no red, ball was going out of bounds.)
-Stuttgarter Kickers (3rd Bundesliga) - VfL Wolfsburg 1-4
No trouble for Wolfsburg. Their scorers: New signing Max Kruse (the one with the camouflage Lamborghini), Bas Dost, KdB, Lord Bendtner.
-MSV Duisburg (2nd Bundesliga) - Schalke 04 0-5
That´s a derby and Duisburgs fans also behaved like that: Some of them rolled out a paper that said "
2011? Even Rudi can´t remember!" and was about the 2011 Cup final (also won 5-0 for Schalke vs. Duisburg) and mentions former Schalke club boss Rudi Assauer, who suffers from dementia. Duisburg and many supporters apologised to Assauer, who regularly visits Duisburg matches (lives close), although he has lots of health trouble.
Game was really not close at all.
-Würzburger Kickers (3rd Liga) - Werder Bremen 0-2 (ET)
Bremen were really lucky (offside call for Würzburg that should have been a goal in regular time) to survive that round and go to 2nd.
-SSV Reutlingen (Oberliga / 5th Liga) - Karlsruher SC 3-1
Karslruhe just missed (in last minutes and ET!!) the promotion into the Bundesliga and is also off to a bad start in the 2nd Bundesliga (2 matches, 2 losses), and now this:
Reutlingen, the absolute outsider in this match with their coach Georgi Donkov (former Bundesliga player) delivered a big fight in this derby - problem for Karlsruhe: they lost their minds! They conceded three penalties, which led to all three goals and which led to two red cards (absolutely deserved!) and another red card on a stomp next to the middle line. Additionally, their coach complained about the red card for the stomping and was dismissed, too. They fought back after the 2-0 and with nine players made it 2-1, but lost anyways.
In the interviews, their player said, it was ridiculous decisions (reds+pens), while their coach said, he cannot comment on every situation, but there were some bad decisions and a hard line against his team.
http://www.ardmediathek.de/tv/Sport-im-Dritten/Reutlingen-wirft-den-KSC-aus-dem-Pokal/SWR-Baden-W%C3%BCrttemberg/Video?documentId=29978222&bcastId=249964
(I have to admit, I hate Karlsruhe.)
-Carl Zeiss Jena (Regionalliga / 4th Liga) - Hamburger SV 3-2 (ET)
Jena always led (1-0, 2-1), while HSV always fought back, somehow. The 1-1 from Olic was an irregular goal, as the ball had already crossed the line and was out of bounds, but the refs assisstant didn´t wave the flag, play continued and it was 1-1. The 2-2 was scored in the 94th minute and HSV made it to the ET, where Jena still was dominating through a hard fight in hot weather and won deservingly.
-Rot-Weiss Essen (Regionalliga / 4th Liga) - Fortuna Düsseldorf (2nd Bundesliga) 1-3 (pens)
Essen dominated the match, but didn´t score. Düsseldorf got a player sent off and still survived. As the 120mins went, so did the penalties: missed shots everywhere! Essen missed 3 of 4, Düsseldorf missed 2 of 5, so it ended at 1-3 and Düsseldorf somehow surviving.
-SpVgg Unterhaching (Regionalliga / 4th Liga) - FC Ingolstadt 2-1
In this bavarian derby, the former Bundesliga team (do you remember, when Ballack scored his own goal for Leverkusen, to deny them their Bundesliga title? That was at Unterhaching, yes!) won at the newly promoted Bundesliga team. Might be good for them, as they don´t need any money and can concentrate on the fight against relegation.
-Hansa Rostock (3rd Bundesliga) - 1.FC Kaiserslautern (2nd Bundesliga) 4-5 (pens)
That´s a former Bundesliga duel, but now those teams are in lower leagues. Both had stable defenses, with Rostock dominating the chances and shots on goal. Kaiserslautern keeper Müller was the best player on the pitch and so the match went scoreless into extra time and penalties. The sad fact: Former Kaiserslautern player Ziemer, who scored some very important goals for them against relegation, was the only player to miss his penalty. Good for Kaiserslautern: He plays for Rostock since 2014, so Germany´s best team, the Roten Teufel (Red Devils) from Kaiserslautern go to the 2nd round!!!
-VfL Osnabrück (3rd Bundesliga) - RB Leipzig (2nd Bundesliga) match stopped
The score was 1-0 for Osnabrück, when the ref was struck by a firelighter from the home teams fans. An Osnabrück player, who was warming up, went onto the pitch and talked smack to some Leipzig player (Selke), the ref went close to them and he was struck. I guess, the fan wanted to throw it at Selke (Leipzig). The match was instantly broken up and now the DFB talks about what happens. Leipzig already stated, they offer a replay, but i guess that´s just a promo, because they know the DFB decide this how they want. Either they do a replay or Leipzig is through. (Besides: Leipzig is hated everywhere in Germany, because they have huge money from their sponsor Red Bull and ran through the lower leagues and are huge favourites for the 2nd Bundesliga this season).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRwJnLVQneo
-VfR Aalen(3rd Bundesliga) - FC Nürnberg(2nd Bundesliga) 1-2 (pens)
7 out of 10 penalties were missed!
That´s absolutely great, they missed about everywhere...The keeper of Aalen held them, their players shot in the sky, slid and missed, it´s almost funny...
Go to the 7 minute mark of the video:
http://mediathek.daserste.de/Sportschau-live/N%C3%BCrnberg-gewinnt-Elfmeterschie%C3%9Fen/Das-Erste/Video?documentId=29998210&topRessort&bcastId=723230
