Little cup
July 28, 2011
In the past few seasons, domestic cup competitions have suffered in Europe as the Champions League relentlessly colonizes media coverage. This means that in many countries, the big clubs – whose players often have international commitments too - have started to regard the domestic cup as a lesser priority, or somewhere to blood the new talent.
The result is, of course, that it levels the competition. The thrill of a cup will always be its unpredictability, but if you add to this a mild apathy in the famous teams, the tournament can yield some cracking games.
If you don't mind watching football with much less TV fanfare, you get to watch inexperienced young pups from the top teams eagerly haring around the pitch being pitted against seasoned professionals from the lower leagues with a point to prove.
Thus, last season's German Cup - or DFB (German Football Association) Cup - culminated in a characteristically counterintuitive final, with Schalke, who limped to 14th in the top flight, facing Duisburg, who finished eighth in the second Bundesliga.
Unfortunately for Duisburg, they caught the erratic Schalke on one of their good days, and the Royal Blues routed the Zebras 5-0. But Duisburg had had a good run, toppling top-flight clubs Cologne and Kaiserslautern on their way to the final, which lit up an otherwise disappointing season for them.
Extra European spot
UEFA, for their part, have at least done a little to help the ailing domestic cup competitions, by feeding them the crumbs of Europa League places. Up until now cup winners got places in the qualifying round, but there's an extra cherry on the cake for this season's winner – direct qualification for the group stage of the Europa League.
"This means a further promotion of this already well-established, highly attractive cup competition," said DFB General Secretary Wolfgang Niersbach when the structural alteration was announced.
Reinhard Rauball, president of the German football league, echoed the sentiment. "We welcome this decision by UEFA," he said. "This fits the status of German football. It is very good news for clubs, fans and media partners."
Obviously, there's no need to be naive here – guaranteeing an extra German team a place in the second European competition also guarantees a TV audience in Europe's biggest economy.
But it also means that, in the European media rights market, the DFB Cup is - at least administratively - afforded the same status as the domestic cups in England, Spain, France and Italy. And that can only mean a bigger temptation for lowly teams who have the guts to take advantage of big clubs distracted by other competitions.
Potential upsets
The DFB knows that cup competitions live from the off-chance of seeing a giant defeated, which is why all the teams outside the top two automatically get home advantage in the draw. As far as this weekend's games go, it would be foolish to predict any certain upsets, as the gulf in quality between Germany's regional leagues and it's two top divisions is still big, but there are still intriguing fixtures there.
Wolfsburg, for instance, who only narrowly avoided relegation from the Bundesliga, will take on Red Bull Leipzig, a two-year-old regional league side with pretensions to greatness, thanks to the financial heft of a certain soft drinks company.
Leverkusen, meanwhile, face a tricky trip to Dynamo Dresden, who have just been promoted to the second Bundesliga for the first time. Dresden have just come off an edgy league draw against regional rivals Hansa Rostock – also just promoted from the third league – but will be up for a challenge like Leverkusen.
And Rostock also have an achievable challenge on their hands - they face Bochum, also in the second Bundesliga. Bochum were seriously disappointed not to get promoted last season, losing out in a tight play-off to Mönchengladbach. This will be one to watch this weekend.
The lower leagues have another advantage going into the first round of the DFB Pokal – having already started their season, they will be well into the routine of playing competitive football. The Bundesliga season starts a week later for the top teams.
So if they're lucky, the lower-ranked sides could catch the top clubs still shaking off their holiday torpor.
Author: Ben Knight
Editor: Mark Hallam