Here we go. We open at SV Drochtersen/Assel on Saturday. They are in Niedersachsen, near Stade in the Altes Land (near Hamburg).
Lets see if we see a new system put to test??? Neverkusen can be a very very tough nut to crack even at Borussia Park So the Pokal game can also serve as a good test to see how other players mix !
a club with no remarkable soccer 'history', barely known outside northern Germany (at least they have a horse race at the beach of the Elbe) they are playing at their highest level ever, recently started their only 2nd season (4 matches, 2 draws, 1 loss) in Regionalliga Nord (4th tier of Germany's league system, their league is one of five Regionalligen)... and it's their first DFB-Cup appearance ever Drochtersen + Assel = POP 9000 (nevertheless they easily could have sold 15.000 tickets for the match they say, that's why they extended their stadium-capacity to 7000 with temporary extra-stands) english: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SV_Drochtersen/Assel Borussia played a friendly at Drochtersen in 1992 (1:13) Drochtersen seems to prefer playing 3-4-3 (not really sure of that) most goals last season: Neumann (15), Nagel (9) their GK Siefkes: "That's more or less the best draw. A likeable opponent. Could become a goalkeeper-match. Inevitably there will be shots on goal." ;-) trifles: this funny lady http://www.svdrochtersenassel.de/in...a&catid=68:news-rund-um-den-verein&Itemid=180 holds a Drochtersen-season ticket but switches to the visitors-stand because her true love is Borussia... she (her husband is a S04-supporter... I always wonder why people don't pay more attention whom they are going to marry) has a room painted in black&green in her house containing among other things shirts of Effenberg and Hahn à propos: Hahn comes from a place 50km away from Dochtersen and he (laughing) thinks he might have played against them in Landesliga, told he still watches Regionalliga-matches and below in the north because some of his friends are active there... I guess we'll see a lot of the players who didn't play in Bern on saturday: Nico Schulz, Korb, Vestergaard and especially Herrmann
you tell me! ;-) ok, on the one hand tough matches like this aren't that rare in DFB cup some people quickly switched into the 'they-carried-out-their-duty-let's-move-on-mode' à la 'think positive, at least we got none against us' (S04 got one from a 6th tier team) on the other hand it was a torture; an alarming lack of ideas I like dominace, possession and I know that you often need patience... but we have a tendency to overdo this and to make ourselves comfortable in patience-football and to loose focus (watched some matches of the Olympics-team, they met five days before their first match but their offensive play was enjoyable: 1. advance 2. getting into position 2. give and go / through ball / or sometimes a one on one ... always goal oriented and all this in a timely fashion (I'm not talking about classical counter attacks here) ... don't think we need other players, it's sharpness and risk appetite (at least against weaker opponents) and some of our players yesterday ... pfffffffffff... maybe more tomorrow
There is also the Stadium factor...some may not understand or think am crazy...playing in this kinda of small neighbourhood like stadiums gets tough and its very very different for teams that are used to play in up-scale fancy stadiums...the pitch/stadium structure also has an effect. Nonetheless we should have scored at least a few more!
Wasn't able to watch but can imagine was miserably frustrating when I saw possession numbers. Yeesh. At least we got through. I'd personally rather face a BL2 side in next round who will at least come at us a bit.
Read they put 11 behind the ball. Sweden's WNT would be proud. Survive and advance, Wednesday awaits........a game of FAR greater importance-and I'm only going to be able to view the first half.
yes, they played more or less in a 10-0-0 system... and they seemed to be totally unembarrassed by doing so ;-) quite disappointing that even in the last minutes they took no risk (being behind just one goal)... but their goalie most likely is still wondering that Borussia provided him with so little work at least we didn't qualify for the 'greatest-Bundesliga-disgrace-in-the first-round-of-the-cup'-title: Werder was eliminated by a 3rd tier club which finished 1st in Regionalliga last season just in front of Borussia II (4th tier) Mainz only won after a penalty shoot out against a 4th tier club Frankkfurt only won after a penalty shoot out against a 3th tier club and Leverkusen won just 2-1 against a 5th tier club who had a lot of really good chances to hurt them really bad especially Herrmann, Hofmann (really bad at holding up the ball) and Dahoud were really weak, ok... not a match to shine at all ... but still ...
At this stage you can't ask for more than avoiding a Bundesliga team. And we're hosting the match so this is a pretty good draw in my eyes.
FURTH up next for Die Fohlen and not a bad draw at this stage of the Pokal The Round of 16 matches at a glance: Borussia Dortmund - Hertha BSC Bayern Munich - VfL Wolfsburg Hamburger SV - 1. FC Cologne Greuther Fürth - Borussia Mönchengladbach Hannover 96 - Eintracht Frankfurt SV Sandhausen - FC Schalke 04 Sportfreunde Lotte - 1860 Munich Astoria Walldorf - Arminia Bielefeld
I like that draw. Congrats to Walldorf for doing to Darmstadt what Darmstadt did to us a few years back. BTW, there was a funny video on US tv this morning of a Dortmund player juggling his gum and then kicking it back into his mouth....
And there will be at least two lower league teams in the quarter finals, as two of the eight-final matches will be contested solely among lower level teams (Lotte-1860 and Walldorf-Bielefeld). Makes the Pokal more fun, I must say.
Seems like the aftermath of the defeat against Hoppenheim was much deeper and stronger for Neverkusen than it appeared eh??? Roger Schmidt was coaching them or not on the side lines ?? Does the ban include only Buli games or Pokal as well and a total of games being Pokal or Buli does not matter?? I like seeing lower league teams coming thru as well..more fun and also more exciting to see who gets to play against them
Last night tho...was a pretty strange game ( even tho we won and we seemed in total control BUT)..difficult to put it into words.Just something's still not right despite the great start under Hecking
BVB got a sweet draw...or maybe am getting greedy here....NEXT UP--> AWAY TO HSV!!!! Could have been worse i guess...
It's Eintracht Frankfurt at our home in the semifinals, the best possible combination That I can write this once a year is just crazy. [emoji850][emoji40]
yeah, I beforehand braced myself for a Munich-away-draw... afterwards I rubbed my ears in disbelief and even better: one home-win and we are (most likely at least) playing Europa League again next season let's hope the Sportfreunde of Lotte - how exhilarating that would be - aren't gonna end up winning the cup... but even if we still have two options