The European Women’s Football Championship ended almost a month ago. The big question that arose after the final was how much of the hype about the DFB team would remain. Now the ball is rolling again, at least in the DFB Cup. In the first round, which started on Saturday and ends on Monday evening with the last game, the really big names were still missing.
The teams in the first division, such as Wolfsburg or Bayern, and another four teams from the second division have a bye and therefore enter the competition later. As a result, the big cup sensations are missing in the first round, but for many small clubs this offers the chance for a big highlight.
As for the Eimsbütteler TV (ETV), for which I have been on the pitch myself for half a year. The game on Sunday was the first appearance in the DFB Cup for us and for our opponents, the Berlin regional league club Türkiyemspor. I first had to sit on the bench and wasn’t allowed to intervene in the game myself.
The home right was assigned to the Berliners with the same high league membership. In the end, not a bad choice, because the Katzbach Stadium, which is located in the middle of Kreuzberg, with its two grandstands is perfect as a backdrop for the DFB Cup.
It is not a matter of course that women’s football teams have the opportunity to play in a stadium that has such an infrastructure. At my club in Hamburg there is only standing room, which isn’t really a seat, directly behind the railing on the touchline.
In the Katzbach Stadium, which has been officially called the Willy Kressmann Stadium for several years, the seats were almost full this Sunday, at least on the home side. It was also Türkiyemspor’s first ever appearance in the women’s DFB Cup.
Not that many fans found their way to Berlin from Hamburg, but in the end there were over 300 spectators and there was a good atmosphere. In normal league life there are not nearly as many at Türkiyemspor home games.
Maybe in the end a few people let themselves be carried away by the European Championships, fulfilled the hopes of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg and are now going to the stadiums more. On average, around 315 fans attended the first round of the cup, almost 100 more than last season, when there were only 225 per game.
It was an absolute highlight on Sunday for Türkiyemspor as well as for us as regional league promoters, and both teams wrote club history with the kick-off and the associated first-time participation in the DFB Cup.
“Enjoy it, because not everyone gets an opportunity like this,” said my coach Dennis Tralau during his pre-game dressing room speech. “We deserved it and I’m in the mood that we can say later on the bus that we gave everything.”
Videos of motivational speeches before such special games are always circulating on the Internet and Dennis certainly deserves his place in a sports show. The camera stayed with us in the cabin but. Just like on the pitch and in most first round games.
Only the last duel between the two regional league teams Holstein Kiel and VfL Bochum will be broadcast on Sky on Monday evening. At least a start, even if every game can be streamed live for men. Whenever we have a camera on the sidelines, it’s only so that the coaching team can analyze the game afterwards – but not to make our fans happy in front of their home televisions.
Even if the game was not broadcast live on Sunday, it did not have a negative effect on motivation. Despite being in the same high league since this season, Türkiyemspor was the clear favorite before kick-off on Sunday afternoon.
But there is still this little hope of possibly being able to cause a little surprise – because of the much-cited “own laws” and the stories that are said to be only written by the cup.
The hope lived for exactly seven minutes and then the Berliners took a 1-0 lead. So everything went according to plan from the point of view of Türkiyemspor, who, in addition to the second round of the cup, also have their sights set on promotion to the second Bundesliga this season.
But we got into the game better and better and after the 1-1 through our striker Hannah Paulini, who was recently awarded as an amateur player with the most goals in all of Germany, there was no stopping the bench and the Hamburg fans who had traveled with us. Euphoric about the equalizer, it was then a game at eye level and the belief in victory and entry into the second round grew.
During the half-time break, our coaches gave us a good dose of motivation and there was also a chance for me and the other substitutes to collect a few DFB Cup minutes.
We had high hopes for the second half, but even faster than in the first half we conceded another goal with the first attack and Türkiyemspor was 2-1 ahead. Welcome back to earth.
As a result, Erika Szuh’s team finally came up trumps and showed with playful class why they want to play at the top. In the 65th minute I was ready outside, but from our point of view the game was already over after the fourth goal. Nevertheless, the anticipation was great that we could now play ourselves and maybe score a goal after all. The surprise we had hoped for didn’t materialize that day and we had to admit defeat 1:6.
Overall, the really big coups in the women’s DFB Cup are actually rather rare. Most of the time, the teams from the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga assert themselves confidently and don’t really cause any tension. In the end, everything around the clubs is too big, even at ETV and Türkiyemspor.
With us as a small regional league climber, but still the third highest league in Germany, the balls are still carried, counted and pumped up, the jerseys are washed by each player and otherwise you are solely responsible for the perfect game preparation in addition to school, university and work.
That’s partly the case in the Bundesliga, even with national players, but not quite as extreme. Because the priority for many players in the second division and actually below is not football, because literally nobody can afford it.
In the end, despite the defeat, it was an impressive experience to have played in the DFB Cup. In front of a great backdrop, which was perhaps only so great because of the successful European Championship of the German soccer players. And the emblem of the DFB Cup, which was specially sewn onto the sleeve of our jerseys, is impressive and will now accompany us throughout the season.
