After a year away, FC Energie Cottbus will celebrate their return to the DFB-Pokal on Sunday, 13 August (18:30 CEST) in their first-round match against Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart. Stuttgart, doesn’t that ring a bell? Yes, Cottbus’ opponent in the 1996-97 final after a wonderful Pokal season was indeed VfB. And they’re not pleased about it.
It was on 14th June 1997 that the Regionalliga (third tier at the time) club prepared to face Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal final in the Olympiastadion Berlin, hoping to score another coup. But the Schwaben’s ‘magic triangle’ of Krassimir Balakow, Fredi Bobic and Giovane Elber knew how to prevent this and stopped the Lausitzer short of realising their dream with a 2-0 scoreline. The head coach in the Stuttgart dugout at the time: the now national team coach Joachim Löw.
2016 “joint” relegation
The Pokal final rang in the most-successful period in Cottbus’ history, topped off with their promotion to the top flight in 2000, where they enjoyed a six-year stay. Energie were hit hard when they were relegated down to the third tier in 2014, but much harder following their relegation to the Regionalliga two years later. In the same year, the Schwaben had to overcome one of their darkest hours as they were relegated from the Bundesliga. They came back from this ‘slip’, but Energie will have to wait until at least summer 2018 to do the same.
VfB are not one of Cottbus’ favourite opponents: only one win in 13 matches, ten without scoring, including the last three home games in a row. Surely, that is what you call a bogey team.
After a year away, FC Energie Cottbus will celebrate their return to the DFB-Pokal on Sunday, 13 August (18:30 CEST) in their first-round match against Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart. Stuttgart, doesn’t that ring a bell? Yes, Cottbus’ opponent in the 1996-97 final after a wonderful Pokal season was indeed VfB. And they’re not pleased about it.
It was on 14th June 1997 that the Regionalliga (third tier at the time) club prepared to face Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal final in the Olympiastadion Berlin, hoping to score another coup. But the Schwaben’s ‘magic triangle’ of Krassimir Balakow, Fredi Bobic and Giovane Elber knew how to prevent this and stopped the Lausitzer short of realising their dream with a 2-0 scoreline. The head coach in the Stuttgart dugout at the time: the now national team coach Joachim Löw.
2016 “joint” relegation
The Pokal final rang in the most-successful period in Cottbus’ history, topped off with their promotion to the top flight in 2000, where they enjoyed a six-year stay. Energie were hit hard when they were relegated down to the third tier in 2014, but much harder following their relegation to the Regionalliga two years later. In the same year, the Schwaben had to overcome one of their darkest hours as they were relegated from the Bundesliga. They came back from this ‘slip’, but Energie will have to wait until at least summer 2018 to do the same.
VfB are not one of Cottbus’ favourite opponents: only one win in 13 matches, ten without scoring, including the last three home games in a row. Surely, that is what you call a bogey team.
