Midweek was the 2nd main round of the Cup, but there really weren’t any major upsets. In fact, most of the games were even ho-hum on the interest scale.
Defending Cup-holder Bayern München had an easy time whacking Hannover. What is worth mentioning here is that this was a rare occasion where they didn’t sell out the stadium. Even more so since a day before the Allianz-Arena *was* sold out as 1860 faced off against Dortmund. 1860 put up a fight, but basically hunkered down from the start and was dominated by the Neons. Guess they were hoping for penalties, and they finally got their wish – but not the way they intended, as one was called against them.
Darmstadt put up a great fight against Schalke, but was eventually overpowered by superior talent. One side item was that oldie Gerald Asamoah came on for Schalke in the 90th minute for a cameo.
HSV didn’t exactly perform against Greuther Fürth, getting a somewhat lucky win. Ex-Hamburg favorite Rudolfo Cardoso is filling in as head coach until presumably Burt Van Maarwijk signs on.
Interesting match in Frankfurt, but not big Frankfurt, which easily handled Bochum. FSV was greeted by the usual minimal crowd and lost against Ingolstadt. What makes it interesting wasn’t what was on the field (the match sucked) but that on Sunday the same teams met in a 2.Liga clash and FSV thumped the Schanzer.
A tiny upset in that 1. FC Köln won at Mainz. Not too shocking, since Köln is a bigger club, but the fact is they’re in the 2.Liga, while Mainz is a Bundesligist. However this was somewhat unexpected, as despite the recent lame form of the hosts, Köln hadn’t won in Mainz since 1962.
For the remaining teams, 10 x Bundesliga, 5 x 2.Liga and a single 3.Liga club (Saarbrücken). As the only remaining “lower” league club, FCS will automatically host the next round, and I’m sure they’re hoping for an attractive clash to fill the coffers.
Preußen Münster - FC Augsburg 0:3 (0:1) 14,379 SC Wiedenbrück 2000 - SV Sandhausen 1:3 (1:0) 1,807 1860 München - Borussia Dortmund 0:2 aet 71,000 * VfL Wolfsburg - VfR Aalen 2:0 (1:0) 6,718 Arminia Bielefeld - Bayer 04 Leverkusen 0:2 (0:0) 23,709 Hamburger SV - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 1:0 (0:0) 26,842 1899 Hoffenheim - Energie Cottbus 3:0 aet 11,579 1. FSV Mainz 05 - 1. FC Köln 0:1 (0:0) 22,782 1. FC Saarbrücken - SC Paderborn 07 2:1 (2:0) 7,300 Eintracht Frankfurt - VfL Bochum 2:0 (2:0) 28,100 FSV Frankfurt - FC Ingolstadt 04 0:2 (0:1) 3,089 1. FC Kaiserslautern - Hertha BSC 3:1 (0:1) 24,291 VfL Osnabrück - 1. FC Union Berlin 0:1 (0:1) 11,194 SV Darmstadt 98 - FC Schalke 04 1:3 (1:1) 17,000 * Bayern München - Hannover 96 4:1 (2:1) 66,000 SC Freiburg - VfB Stuttgart 2:1 (0:0) 22,500