David vs. Goliath, a small town club vs. a Champions League contender, a team from the Regionalliga vs. the German Record Champions. No matter how you bill this first-round DFB Pokal tie, scheduled to be played on August 18th (15:30 CEST), for SV Drochtersen/Assel, a club from a town of just 11,000 people, it’s the biggest game of their history. However, the team from Lower Saxony already had a similar experience with a big Bundesliga name in 2016, when Borussia Mönchengladbach came to town. In front of a sold-out crowd at the Kehdinger Stadion, SVD were beaten narrowly by the top-flight outfit 1-0.
August’s game is set to top that encounter from two years ago, something captain Sören Behmann is fully aware of: “I’ve been a Bayern fan since I was a kid and watched their games in the stadium when they played against Hamburg. It’ll be extraordinary to stand on the pitch against greats like Robert Lewandowski and Mats Hummels.” After the draw, club chairman Rigo Gooßen’s excitement was tangible: “It’s absolutely awesome. I was thinking beforehand, we surely won’t get Bayern.”
But not everyone in Drochtersen will be able to attend the match as the stadium can only be expanded to 7,500 seats for the Cup game. Alexander Neumann is, nevertheless, looking forward to his second clash with FCB, after facing them in 2013 with BSV Schwarz-Weiß Rehden – a game which ended 5-0 to the record champions. “When I played against Bayern with Rehden, we conceded 5 goals. If we do that again or maybe even concede fewer, it’d be a success. If we were to even score a goal ourselves, it would be an absolute highlight,” said the striker.
David vs. Goliath, a small town club vs. a Champions League contender, a team from the Regionalliga vs. the German Record Champions. No matter how you bill this first-round DFB Pokal tie, scheduled to be played on August 18th (15:30 CEST), for SV Drochtersen/Assel, a club from a town of just 11,000 people, it’s the biggest game of their history. However, the team from Lower Saxony already had a similar experience with a big Bundesliga name in 2016, when Borussia Mönchengladbach came to town. In front of a sold-out crowd at the Kehdinger Stadion, SVD were beaten narrowly by the top-flight outfit 1-0.
August’s game is set to top that encounter from two years ago, something captain Sören Behmann is fully aware of: “I’ve been a Bayern fan since I was a kid and watched their games in the stadium when they played against Hamburg. It’ll be extraordinary to stand on the pitch against greats like Robert Lewandowski and Mats Hummels.” After the draw, club chairman Rigo Gooßen’s excitement was tangible: “It’s absolutely awesome. I was thinking beforehand, we surely won’t get Bayern.”
But not everyone in Drochtersen will be able to attend the match as the stadium can only be expanded to 7,500 seats for the Cup game. Alexander Neumann is, nevertheless, looking forward to his second clash with FCB, after facing them in 2013 with BSV Schwarz-Weiß Rehden – a game which ended 5-0 to the record champions. “When I played against Bayern with Rehden, we conceded 5 goals. If we do that again or maybe even concede fewer, it’d be a success. If we were to even score a goal ourselves, it would be an absolute highlight,” said the striker.
