Derbies: MSV Duisberg clash with Schalke 04 and Rot-Weiss Essen’s game with Fortuna Düsseldorf are the two first-round fixtures most steeped in tradition. Duisberg and Schalke have met a total of 64 times, twice in the DFB Cup – the last meeting between the sides was the 2011 final, when Schalke ran out 5-0 winners. Essen have faced Düsseldorf 36 times, also twice in the cup, where both sides have one win to their name. The most recent cup meeting came in the third round in October 1977, when Düsseldorf won the game 4-1.
Premieres: There are ten matchups in the first round that have never been played in any competition before: TuS Erndtebrück vs. Darmstadt 98, BFC Dynamo vs. FSV Frankfurt, Viktoria Köln vs. Union Berlin, Hallescher FC vs. Eintracht Braunschweig, Sportfreunde Lotte vs. Bayer Leverkusen, Würzburger Kickers vs. Werder Bremen, Bremer SV vs. Eintracht Frankfurt, HSV Barmbek-Uhlenhorst vs. SC Freiburg, FSC Salmrohr vs. VfL Bochum, FC Nöttingen vs. Bayern München. There are also a number of fixtures taking place in the cup for the first time: SV Elversberg vs. FC Augsburg, Stuttgarter Kickers vs. VfL Wolfsburg, 1860 München vs. 1899 Hoffenheim, Carl Zeiss Jena vs. Hamburger SV, Bahlinger SC vs. SV Sandhausen, Chemnitzer FC vs. Borussia Dortmund, VfB Lübeck vs. SC Paderborn, Energie Cottbus vs. 1. FSV Mainz 05, VfL Osnabrück vs. RB Leipzig, VfR Aalen vs. 1. FC Nürnberg and FC St. Pauli vs. Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Giant killers: Kickers Offenbach were not in the draw for the first round. The club from Hessen have used the DFB Cup as a stage to gain a kind of cult following in the last few years – even making it to the quarter-finals last year before losing to Borussia Mönchengladbach – but were unable to qualify from their region this campaign. Last year it was Arminia Bielefeld, also a third-division side, who assumed the role of giant killers – on their way to the semi-final, "Die Blauen" knocked out three Bundesliga sides in the form of Hertha BSC, Werder Bremen and Mönchengladbach. Before that, the third-division side had also seen off second-division SV Sandhausen. The dream was not to be, however, as Arminia Bielefeld were duly beaten 4-0 by eventual winners Wolfsberg in the semi-final.
Record holders: The current, standalone player with the most DFB Cups wins is Bastian Schweinsteiger, whose seven triumphs puts him one ahead of Oliver Kahn. The only player to win the cup three times in a row was Kurt Sommerlatt, who won the title in 1955 and 1956 with Karlsruher SC and then in 1957 with FC Bayern.
Attendance record: The cup game with the highest attendance in history was the semi-final between Borussia Dortmund and Carl Zeiss Jena, played on 18th March 2008. Dortmund’s 3-0 victory was witnessed live by 80,078 fans.
Referees: The 72 cup games will be refereed by a total of 64 officials. Albert Dusch (1954, 1957, 1960) and Gerhard Schulenburg (1959, 1966, 1970) are the two referees with the most experience in cup finals. The 2015 DFB Cup Final was overseen by Dr. Felix Brych of Munich.
Sensational: The first and only fifth-division side to make it to the DFB Cup proper was SSV Ulm, and they didn’t stop there – the side from Baden-Württemberg made it to the second round, causing a huge upset by beating Bundesliga side 1. FC Nürnberg 2-1, with goals from Skowranek and Trkulja. They were unable to progress any further however, losing 3-0 in the second round to Union Berlin.
Goal-line technology: After making its debut in the 2015 Final, goal-line technology will be used throughout the cup competition, starting with next week’s first round – well, theoretically. The technology will only be used at those stadia that already have it installed; meaning that only the ties played at the home ground of the 18 Bundesliga will feature goal-line technology. Since no Bundesliga side will be playing at home in the first round, we will have to wait a little while longer to see it in action again.
Five steps to Berlin, six for the title. This week 64 teams will kick off this season’s DFB Cup, all with dreaming of the final in the capital. The first round of the 2015/16 DFB Cup takes place from Friday to Monday. DFB.de has rounded up all the important facts ahead of the 32 matches.
History: The German Cup competition is entering its 73rd season. The first title was won back in 1935. The competition was put on hold for eight years from 1944 until the start of the 1952/53 season, when it was reintroduced with the official branding of the DFB Cup.
Cup final venue: The venue for the cup final changed hands for a long time. Since 1985, however, the Olympiastadion in Berlin has been the fixed location for the showpiece final; a “Germany Wembley” if you like. Before that, the most finals had taken place in Hanover (8).
Road to Berlin: The teams have to navigate their way through six rounds in order to win the cup. Each game is a knockout game, with extra time and then penalties coming into play should the game finish a draw.
Schedule (all times CEST): The first round takes place from Friday, 7th August to Monday 10th August. The Friday evening fixtures kick off with two matches at 19:00 and then another at 20:00. There are nine 15:30 kick offs on Saturday, as well as one at 18:00 and two at 20:30. On Sunday there are a further five games starting at 14:30, five at 16:00, two at 18:30 and on at 20:30. The final four matches take place on Monday: three at 18:30 and one at 20:30.
Teams: 64 teams compete in the first round. Alongside the 18 Bundesliga and 18 2. Bundesliga teams that automatically qualify, there are ten third division sides and 13 Regionalliga teams. The lowest ranking teams are the five Oberliga clubs.
Winning by lot: Penalty shootouts were introduced to the DFB Cup in the 1970/71 season. Before that, if a game finished a draw after extra time, the teams would then play in a replay. Should that also finish without a winner, lots would drawn to decide who progresses. The last team to go through in this fashion was Alemannia Aachen against Werder Bremen in the round of 16 in the 1969/70 season.
Penalty shootout: The first shootout victors in the DFB Cup were FC Schalke 04. The Gelsenkirchen side beat VfL Wolfsburg 3-1 on penalties in the first round of the 1970/71 season. Until the 1991/92 season, a replay would always be played at the away side’s stadium first. Only then would penalties come into play, if necessary. Since then, any cup match that ended in a draw has gone straight to extra time and then penalties. This rule first came into effect in the North-East qualifying match between Motor Eberswalde and Aktivist Schwarze Pumpe. The first shootout in a cup final came at the Frankfurter Waldstadion in 1984 in the match between Bayern München and Borussia Mönchengladbach (7-6, 1-1 a.e.t.), when Lothar Matthäus famously miss his spot kick. In his last match for Gladbach before switching to FC Bayern, the future record cap holder for the national team blazed his penalty over the bar.
Reigning champions: VfL Wolfsburg won their first ever DFB Cup in 2015, beating Borussia Dortmund 3-1 in the final. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had put Dortmund in the lead, before Luiz Gustavo, Kevin de Bruyne and Bas Dost turned the game in favour of Wolfsburg.
Pairings: FC Nöttigen drew the biggest lot of round one: the Oberliga side drew record champions Bayern München. Bremer SV from the Bremen Liga also have a tough tie against Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt. The other Oberliga sides, meanwhile, all face 2. Bundesliga sides: FK Pirmasens (versus 1. FC Heidenheim), HSV Barmbek-Uhlenhorst (versus SC Freiburg), FSV Salmrohr (versus VfL Bochum) and SSV Reutlingen (versus Karlsruher SC). There are no all Bundesliga ties in the first round, however. Schalke 04 (versus MSV Duisburg), 1899 Hoffenheim (versus 1860 München), Hertha BSC (versus Arminia Bielefeld) und Borussia Mönchengladbach (versus St. Pauli) all face second division opposition. No matter what, there are 13 teams outside of the Bundesliga who are guaranteed to progress to the second round. As well as the four Oberliga sides that are facing second division sides, several third division and Regionalliga sides are facing 2. Bundesliga opposition: Hallescher FC (versus Eintracht Braunschweig), Erzgebirge Aue (versus Greuther Fürth), Hansa Rostock (versus 1. FC Kaiserslautern), VfL Osnabrück (versus RB Leipzig) und VfR Aalen (versus 1. FC Nürnberg), BFC Dynamo (versus FSV Frankfurt), Viktoria Köln (versus Union Berlin), VfB Lübeck (versus SC Paderborn), Rot-Weiss Essen (versus Fortuna Düsseldorf),
Record winners: The undisputed record winners are FC Bayern München, who have lifted the cup 17 times, though they were knocked out in the semi-finals last time round. In second place are SV Werder Bremen with six titles to their name, then comes Schalke (5). Other cup winners include: 1. FC Köln, Eintracht Frankfurt and 1. FC Nürnberg (4), Hamburger SV, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach and VfB Stuttgart (3), Fortuna Düsseldorf, Karlsruher SC, 1. FC Kaiserslautern and TSV 1860 München (2), as well as holders VfL Wolfsburg, Bayer Leverkusen, Hannover 96 and Rot-Weiss Essen (1).
Double: Five clubs to date have lifted both the league championship shield and DFB Cup in the same season. FC Bayern have managed this on ten occasions, whilst Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04, Werder Bremen and 1. FC Köln have each won it once.
Surprise winners: Hannover 96 are the only club to win the trophy as a second division side, back in 1992 against Borussia Mönchengladbach in a penalty shootout. Kickers Offenbach reached the final as a second division side in 1970, which didn’t take place until after the summer because of the World Cup.
Surprise finalists: 1993 was the first and only time that an amateur team reached the DFB Cup final. The Hertha Berlin amateur’s side lost 1-0 to clear favourites Bayer Leverkusen at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. The Hertha players became legends nonetheless. Regionalliga sides Union Berlin (2011; 2-0 versus Schalke 04) and Energie Cottbus (1997; 2-0 versus VfB Stuttgart) have also made shock cup runs to the final.
European Cup winners: Four DFB Cup winners went onto win the European Cup Winners Cup. Borussia Dortmund were the first to achieve the feat in 1966, beating Liverpool FC after extra time in the final in Glasgow. FC Bayern München won the following year, once more after extra time against Glasgow Rangers. In 1997 against RSC Anderlecht, Hamburg became the third German side to win the cup and Werder Bremen followed suit in 1992 against AS Monaco. The fifth side to win the competition are 1. FC Magdeburg, who beat AC Milan in the 1974 final in Rotterdam. At the end of the 1999/2000 season, the European Cup Winners Cup was abolished, with national cup winners since qualifying for the UEFA Cup and Europa League respectively.
Trophy: The DFB-Cup is exactly 52 centimetres tall and weights twelve-and-a-half pounds. Art experts estimate that material worth of the trophy to be around €100,000, though the true value of the cup is vastly greater. The cup has been in use since 1965 and was designed and created by Cologne based goldsmith, Wilhelm Nagel. At the base there is space for engravings until 2020.
Draw pots: Two draw pots have been used for the first-round draw since the 2000/01 season. Pot 1 was made up of the 18 Bundesliga sides, along with the top 14 teams in last season’s 2. Bundesliga. The remaining 32 teams – the final four from the 2. Bundesliga, the top three from the 3. Bundesliga and the 24 representatives of the regional leagues – make up the so-called "amateur pot". The fixtures are made my drawing one team from Pot 1 against a team from Pot 2.
Final heartbreak: MSV Duisberg is the team with the least luck in the history of the DFB Cup. MSV have made the final four times without tasting success – most recently in 2011. In total there are eleven clubs who have made it to the final without going on to lift the trophy.
Mandatory participation: The advisory board of the DFB decreed on 23rd October 1999 that all Bundesliga clubs are required to enter the DFB Cup.
Mandatory restrictions: Since the 2008/09 season, each club has been restricted to entering only one team to the cup, meaning that the second-string sides of the top clubs have been unable to play as well as the first teams.
Thrashings: The biggest victory in cup history was recorded by the Stuttgarter Kickers in the 1940/41 season, when they beat VfB 05 Knielingen 17-0. The biggest away victory was recorded by Bayern München when they beat DJK Waldberg 16-1 in 1997. Schalke 04 hold the record for biggest victory in a DFB Cup Final, winning 5-0 against both 1. FC Kaiserslautern in 1972 and MSV Duisberg in 2011.
Consecutive victories: Surprisingly, Bayern München do not hold the record for the most consecutive victories in cup history. The club who can claim this record is Fortuna Düsseldorf, who recorded 18 consecutive cup victories between August 1978 and February 1981. Naturally, the side lifted the trophy in 1979 and 1980, before being knocked out at the quarter-final stage in the 1980/81 season by Hertha BSC.
Record appearance: Mirko Votava is the player with the most cup appearances – the midfielder played in the competition 79 times for Borussia Dortmund and Werder Bremen. After Votava, the next player with the most appearance is Karl-Heinz Körbel (70 games), followed by Oliver Kahn with 68.
Goalscorers: Last season’s top scorers were Stefan Kießling (Bayer Leverkusen) and Sven Schipplock (1899 Hoffenheim) – both players got six goals for their clubs despite being knocked out in the quarter-finals. The record for most goals scored by one player in a single DFB Cup campaign is shared by Ernst-Otto Willimowski in the 1941/42 season for TSV 1860 München and Dieter Müller for 1. FC Köln in 1976/77. Both players got an impressive 14 goals in their respective campaigns.
Derbies: MSV Duisberg clash with Schalke 04 and Rot-Weiss Essen’s game with Fortuna Düsseldorf are the two first-round fixtures most steeped in tradition. Duisberg and Schalke have met a total of 64 times, twice in the DFB Cup – the last meeting between the sides was the 2011 final, when Schalke ran out 5-0 winners. Essen have faced Düsseldorf 36 times, also twice in the cup, where both sides have one win to their name. The most recent cup meeting came in the third round in October 1977, when Düsseldorf won the game 4-1.
Premieres: There are ten matchups in the first round that have never been played in any competition before: TuS Erndtebrück vs. Darmstadt 98, BFC Dynamo vs. FSV Frankfurt, Viktoria Köln vs. Union Berlin, Hallescher FC vs. Eintracht Braunschweig, Sportfreunde Lotte vs. Bayer Leverkusen, Würzburger Kickers vs. Werder Bremen, Bremer SV vs. Eintracht Frankfurt, HSV Barmbek-Uhlenhorst vs. SC Freiburg, FSC Salmrohr vs. VfL Bochum, FC Nöttingen vs. Bayern München. There are also a number of fixtures taking place in the cup for the first time: SV Elversberg vs. FC Augsburg, Stuttgarter Kickers vs. VfL Wolfsburg, 1860 München vs. 1899 Hoffenheim, Carl Zeiss Jena vs. Hamburger SV, Bahlinger SC vs. SV Sandhausen, Chemnitzer FC vs. Borussia Dortmund, VfB Lübeck vs. SC Paderborn, Energie Cottbus vs. 1. FSV Mainz 05, VfL Osnabrück vs. RB Leipzig, VfR Aalen vs. 1. FC Nürnberg and FC St. Pauli vs. Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Giant killers: Kickers Offenbach were not in the draw for the first round. The club from Hessen have used the DFB Cup as a stage to gain a kind of cult following in the last few years – even making it to the quarter-finals last year before losing to Borussia Mönchengladbach – but were unable to qualify from their region this campaign. Last year it was Arminia Bielefeld, also a third-division side, who assumed the role of giant killers – on their way to the semi-final, "Die Blauen" knocked out three Bundesliga sides in the form of Hertha BSC, Werder Bremen and Mönchengladbach. Before that, the third-division side had also seen off second-division SV Sandhausen. The dream was not to be, however, as Arminia Bielefeld were duly beaten 4-0 by eventual winners Wolfsberg in the semi-final.
Record holders: The current, standalone player with the most DFB Cups wins is Bastian Schweinsteiger, whose seven triumphs puts him one ahead of Oliver Kahn. The only player to win the cup three times in a row was Kurt Sommerlatt, who won the title in 1955 and 1956 with Karlsruher SC and then in 1957 with FC Bayern.
Attendance record: The cup game with the highest attendance in history was the semi-final between Borussia Dortmund and Carl Zeiss Jena, played on 18th March 2008. Dortmund’s 3-0 victory was witnessed live by 80,078 fans.
Referees: The 72 cup games will be refereed by a total of 64 officials. Albert Dusch (1954, 1957, 1960) and Gerhard Schulenburg (1959, 1966, 1970) are the two referees with the most experience in cup finals. The 2015 DFB Cup Final was overseen by Dr. Felix Brych of Munich.
Sensational: The first and only fifth-division side to make it to the DFB Cup proper was SSV Ulm, and they didn’t stop there – the side from Baden-Württemberg made it to the second round, causing a huge upset by beating Bundesliga side 1. FC Nürnberg 2-1, with goals from Skowranek and Trkulja. They were unable to progress any further however, losing 3-0 in the second round to Union Berlin.
Goal-line technology: After making its debut in the 2015 Final, goal-line technology will be used throughout the cup competition, starting with next week’s first round – well, theoretically. The technology will only be used at those stadia that already have it installed; meaning that only the ties played at the home ground of the 18 Bundesliga will feature goal-line technology. Since no Bundesliga side will be playing at home in the first round, we will have to wait a little while longer to see it in action again.
