DFB Cup: RB Leipzig defeats Frankfurt – a final to forget

TLate in the night, the meticulously worked out schedule of the German Football Association suddenly came to a standstill. While Marco Rose, coach of RB Leipzig, soberly reported that he had seen the latest videos from the Leipzig city festival that conveyed “fun”, his players stormed into the press conference. Deep inside the Berlin Olympic Stadium, they poured beer on their boss. Rose spread his arms like a messiah. Look, this is what winners look like.

Because liters of liquid and electrical devices only get along to a limited extent, the soaked Rose had to end the question and answer session standing up and without a microphone. The DFB media officer asked for understanding for the forced improvisation; After all, you don’t experience a situation like this every day. “That was my team from the 70th minute, full of passion,” analyzed Leipzig’s coach. Not much else had happened before.

The 80th final of the DFB Cup will by no means go down in football history as a classic. A milestone birthday without a real celebration. RB Leipzig defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 (0-0) and defended their title from the previous year. The winner was once again met with pure rejection.

An hour and a half before kick-off, it was clear that there could be an unpleasant finale for Rasenballsport Leipzig. When the DFB’s sophisticated supporting program for the cup final inexorably picked up speed, the fans in the stands woke up too. Mood test number one: presentation of the club mascots. Bulli, the red bull, who hobbled around on the sidelines in a similar way to Leipzig stadium announcer Tim Thoelke (self-proclaimed entertainment activist), earned merciless whistles. Atilla, the Frankfurt eagle, on the other hand, animated the audience to applaud with spread wings.

Poor game on the pitch

Mood test number two: presentation of the club legends. For Eintracht, Karl-Heinz “Charly” Körbel, who has played far more Bundesliga games than the RB Leipzig club (602 to 238), spoke a few words of encouragement towards the jubilant Frankfurt curve. What Perry Brautigam, who never played a game for RB in his life, had to say about the upcoming final, was not heard. Everything that had to do with Leipzig was whistled down on this final evening. At least two-thirds of the 75,000 visitors to the stadium obviously supported Eintracht.

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Somewhere on the edge of the lush green lawn sat Arne Friedrich, ex-national player and now an expert for the US sports broadcaster ESPN, before kick-off. In a good mood he peeled a hard-boiled egg. Stories that only the cup writes, you could say. Or: an indicator of the entertainment value of the following game.

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The sporting history of the final is quickly told. Frankfurt defended safely in the first half and hardly allowed Leipzig to play quickly in depth. Coach Oliver Glasner repeatedly applauded when his players forced RB to throw the ball aimlessly forward. In some places it was more exciting to follow the helicopter, which sometimes drew wider, sometimes narrower circles in the Berlin evening sky over the stadium. 0:0

The second half, hardly better. But the idea of ​​not attending a football festival had already been reconciled. It took a lucky goal from Christopher Nkunku, whose ball rolled past Frankfurt goalkeeper Kevin Trapp several times (71′). The 2:0 by Dominik Szoboszlai (85th) ended the playful oath of disclosure, which could not be excused with the fear of a defeat in the final.

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Scary for German football is the fact that the best players of these two teams – Nkunku, Szoboszlai, Randal Kolo Muani, Daichi Kamada – are likely to leave the Bundesliga this summer and continue their careers in the top European leagues.

While the people of Leipzig grabbed small Redbull cans, which were waiting in two much larger Redbull cans on the lawn, in the frenzy of victory, the people of Frankfurt moved in front of their curve. More celebrations for the loser of a final. That is rare. The behavior of the Frankfurt fans oscillated between passionate and insane that evening.

Again and again flares flew onto the lawn, exploding firecrackers shook the stadium. “Football terror in the final” – it said on a banner of the Eintracht supporters. The police posted hundreds in front of the curve, the fire brigade extinguished burning banners in the grandstand ditch. In between: Unconditional vocal support for their defeated team.

“Eintracht Frankfurter has great fans. But our supporters are also great,” said Leipzig coach Rose when asked about the mood in the stands. “But we’re also a few years younger, you can say that so openly.” His boss chose more pathetic words. “The win makes us extremely proud in our young club history,” said Oliver Mintzlaff, CEO of Corporate Projects and Investments and a member of the three-man management team at Red Bull GmbH. The final proved that sporting success can (to a certain extent) be bought. You have to earn recognition. In the case of RB Leipzig, after two cup wins in a row, the question remains: with what? “Twice Leipzig, always Leipzig,” said the club’s Twitter account. Now you want to be German champion.

Sad farewell for Glasner

At least the dignitaries of the evening must have been relieved. A hurricane of whistles broke out over Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and DFB President Bernd Neuendorf at the award ceremony. But the rejection of the spectators was even louder when RB captain Willi Orban lifted the trophy into the night sky. It was the end of a season in German football that was worthy of being unworthy of.

Borussia Dortmund managed not to break the supremacy of FC Bayern despite their home-made turbulence. The crowd pullers Schalke and Hertha were relegated from the Bundesliga (replaced by Darmstadt and Heidenheim). Arminia Bielefeld is about to fall into the third division. Finally, a DFB Cup final that revealed: If the game on the pitch is bad, there is not much more than a fair with deafening disco music and overexcited, screaming stadium announcers.

Oliver Glasner, after his last game as Frankfurt coach, seemed remarkably composed in all the hype. “Today we are celebrating two incredibly successful years with Eintracht. I will always keep this group of players and coaches in my heart,” said the 48-year-old Austrian after missing the crowning glory of his term. He is proud of his team and the fans, because: “What drives you is the will to inspire the masses.” This may be true for Frankfurt in the Glasner era.

The cup final did not succeed.