DFB Cup
The season of 1. FC Saarbrücken has long ended. But tonight there is a huge scare against Leverkusen in the German Cup semi-final.
- Saarbrücken will play Bayer Leverkusen in the Cup semi-final on Tuesday evening.
- It will be an extraordinary game for the fourth division team.
- Because of the Corona crisis, the team has not played a game in over three months.
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Tuesday would be such a day. On days like this, poets on stage and in fan curves knew that anything is possible, and everyone is there. Everything is possible for FC Saarbrücken. Almost nobody will be there. The semi-final in the Cup against Bayer Leverkusen will be the biggest game in recent history for the club in the southwest on the French border – and in front of empty coronas it will also be the saddest biggest game in recent history.
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Saarbrücken was once a big address in German football, as a founding member of the Bundesliga, as a constant companion of the club landscape in the two highest division. In 1977, an amazingly strong team sent Bayern home 6-1, led by a certain Felix Magath. Thousands of Frenchmen crossed the border at the time, and first-class football was an exclusive affair in the region.
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That was long ago. After the last Bundesliga relegation in 1993, Saarbrücken disappeared from the national soccer map. Upper league, regional league, fifth class. The club slipped into the amateur area.
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In a Saarland before the Corona period: Goalie Daniel Batz (in green) is celebrated as a penalty killer.
–Alex Grimm / Getty Images
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In the current season, FC Saarbrücken suddenly appeared again as a giant slayer. As a fourth division he eliminated the second division Regensburg, the Bundesliga division Cologne and the second division Karlsruhe. At the beginning of March Saarbrücken had to accept the equalization in a crazy quarter-final against Bundesliga club Düsseldorf shortly before the end, but then prevailed in the penalty shootout. Goalie Daniel Batz held four attempts and was celebrated by 7,000 fans in the small stadium. Saarbrücken was in the semi-finals, the first fourth division in 85 years of cup history.
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Then Corona came, also a bogeyman for the giant slayer. The fourth league paused, unlike the professional leagues, has not been kicked off to this day. Saarbrücken as the leader of the league was declared a climber. But the team, which still has amateur football, hasn’t played football in over three months. There are better preparations for a comparison with Bayer Leverkusen.
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The “Saarbrücken problem” also threatens in Switzerland
The Cup surprise teams in Switzerland also face such a fate. FC Bavois and Rapperswil-Jona from the Promotion League have been looking forward to the rather sensational quarter-final against Winterthur and Sion since October. The whole second half of the season was geared towards the big game, Rapperswil even traveled to an additional training camp, as sports director Stefan Flühmann recently told SRF. Because of the Corona break, the Cup games will now be rescheduled in early August. Because the season in the Promotion League has long been over, the players will have waited nine months for the next serious fight. Anything but ideal.
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But what counts is ultimately the effort. In Saarbrücken, the police hour was specially postponed by one hour from 11 p.m. to midnight on Tuesday evening. And around the city, an entire region is looking forward to the big game. The Saarland is in Germany, for which Lake Constance usually has to serve in Switzerland – the general size comparison. And so you can measure for a while exactly how great the euphoria surrounding the game is: At least as big as the Saarland.
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