Once again, the German Cup shows that it’s the best Cup competition in the world. Certainly the FA-Cup is more famous, but Germany has added a feature that makes it extra exciting: the lower division club gets home advantage if facing a 1st/2nd division club. So unlike lame competitions like Spain (home and away), you get the opportunity for upsets galore. Yesterday, we witnessed the AK-47 assault on Hopeless-heim. And Sunday’s matches gave further evidence that you need to take these matches seriously if you want to advance.
Here’s some of today’s highlights:

4th division Worms dumped Hertha BSC out. Just relegated to 3.Liga Karlsruhe showed that they have some fight left as they stunned Hamburger SV. Bielefeld showed they’re not ready to concede the “Westfalen” title to local rivals Paderborn. 4th division Preußen Münster stunned Werder Bremen. American Matt Taylor nailed a hat-trick as the packed Preußenstadion went insane. 4th division TSV Havelse knocked out 1. FC Nürnberg in overtime, in fromt of an overflow crowd in their tiny stadium. And FCN should have known better: 21 years ago they got knocked out on the same field on penalties. Relegation fodder Aue bitchslapped Frankfurt. A couple of favorites, like Schalke, waltzed through, although the Saarbrücken fans were happy to see and old Bundesliga rematch. 1860 had some trouble with their 5th division opponent until they broke them down. Mainz started their match late, and having seen other Bundesligists go down, made sure that they took their opponent seriously. Düsseldorf struggled, getting a late goal to beat 3.Liga Burghausen.

FC Nöttingen	       -     Hannover 96	     1:6 (0:2)    3,168
Wormatia Worms	       -     Hertha BSC	Berlin       2:1 (1:0)    6,263
Karlsruher SC	       -     Hamburger SV	     4:2 (1:2)   16,138
TSV Havelse	       -     1. FC Nürnberg	     3:2 aet      3,506
FC Hennef 05	       -     1860 München	     0:6 (0:2)    5,200
VfR Aalen	       -     FC Ingolstadt 04	     3:0 (2:0)    3,027
Arminia Bielefeld      -     SC Paderborn 07	     3:1 (0:1)   18,587 
Preußen Münster	       -     Werder Bremen	     4:2 aet     18,000
Erzgebirge Aue	       -     Eintracht Frankfurt     3:0 (1:0)    9,575
1. FC Saarbrücken      -     FC Schalke 04	     0:5 (0:2)   28,000
Wacker Burghausen      -     Fortuna Düsseldorf	     0:1 (0:0)    4,000
Hansa Rostock	       -     1. FC Kaiserslautern    1:3 (0:0)    7,700
SV Roßbach/Verscheid   -     1. FSV Mainz 05         0:4 (0:2)    6,000