German Cup: Full of surprises

The second round of the German Cup (DFB Pokal) was once more full of surprises. The matches were played over the last couple of evenings and it was once more the cup of surprises with lower division teams able to beat top division sides, while others stretched them to the limit. It was interesting to see that current Bundesliga form counts little as top duo Mainz 05 and Borussia Dortmund where thrown out of the competition.

Amongst the biggest upsets on Wednesday night was that second division Alemannia Aachen brought high flying FSV Mainz 05 crashing down to earth with a 2-1 victory at home at the New Tivoli Stadium. Mainz, top of the Bundesliga, could never show their attacking game against a highly charged-up Alemannia whose players seemed to fight for their lives.

Second in the Bundesliga table Borussia Dortmund had the tricky task of having to face 3.Liga league leaders Kickers Offenbach at the Bieberer Berg. It was a high voltage game, but low on quality which had to end in a penalty shootout. There experienced Offenbach keeper Robert Wulnikowski turned to be the hero blocking to penalties from Dortmund to give the third division club a memorable 4-2 win.

Fourth Division Chemnitzer FC, the home club of Michael Ballack, were able to hold VfB Stuttgart to a one-all draw after 90 minutes, but in extra time the East Germans suffered a red card expulsion to captain Andreas Richter and substitute Martin Harnik completed his hattrick for Stuttgart to save the Bundesliga club the blushes. In round one Chemnitz had beaten another Bundesliga club in FC St. Pauli.

2.Bundesliga Energie Cottbus are known as a side which can cause upsets in the German Cup and in 1997 they had actually reached the cup final. And they proved that they are a cup side once more on Tuesday night when they beat high flying SC Freiburg 2-1 in an interesting encounter.

Mid-table third division side Tus Koblenz scored an upset win against 2.Bundesliga league leaders Hertha BSC Berlin, who have had a strong season so far. But the club from Berlin could never show on Tuesday evening what they are capable of, while Koblenz played a solid game. The 1-0 lead was a once in a lifetime goal from Michael Stahl, who until last season played seventh division football. Stahl wanted to clear the ball in his own half, but the ball travelled all the way into the Hertha goal, 61 metres in total. And in the end Koblenz were deservingly 2-1 winners.

The pick of the matches was the replay of last seasons final FC Bayern Munich against SV Werder Bremen. This meant that for one of the teams round two would be the end of this seasons cup campaign. Would it be record champions Bayern or Werder, who in the last couple of years had played the club final. And German international Bastian Schweinsteiger would decide the game with two goals for Bayern in a close 2-1 win for the Bavarians. Bremen took an early second minute lead through Claudio Pizarro. Bayern would score a bizarre equaliser as Toni Kroos would not properly connect to a shot, but Schweinsteiger infront of goal and not offside would tap in. But in the second half Schweinsteiger would seal the match with a lovely long distance effort to win it for Bayern and end Werder's cup campaign 2010/11.