There is little security in these times, but one thing is still that the footballers from VfL Wolfsburg win the DFB Cup every year. Their last defeat in this competition was on November 16, 2013, and this now seven and a half year era was not able to end this era on Sunday even the soccer players from Eintracht Frankfurt within 120 minutes. “Uffbasse!” Was written on a banner in the empty Cologne stadium, and the Frankfurt women even had more good chances despite their playful inferiority, but in the end the series winner from Niedersaschen triumphed again. Defeating VfL requires more than a Hessian idiom.
The Wolfsburg, where the goalkeeper Almuth Schult was sent off in the sixth minute of extra time due to an emergency brake, defeated Frankfurt 1-0 (0-0, 0-0) after extra time, despite the 24-minute shortfall, because Ewa Pajor two Scored the golden goal minutes before the extra time ran out. Wolfsburg won the women’s DFB Cup for the seventh time in a row and for the eighth time. “Somehow the final is not going to be non-exciting,” said attacker Svenja Huth, calling the victory “an absolute will.”
The last time Wolfsburg won the cup (2014) and Wolfsburg’s last defeat in a cup game in 2013 in the round of 16, the winner was 1. FFC Frankfurt. That was the club that merged into the women’s football department of Eintracht Frankfurt in summer 2020. The return of Frankfurt female footballers to the cup final is a remarkable comeback in German women’s football despite the defeat.
Before the break, only the tale of suffering of Frankfurt’s captain Tanja Pawollek stirs up
“Fuß | ball, die (feminine)”, like in a dictionary, was written on the advertising board at the edge of the game. The afternoon was also under this motto. Club members from VfL Wolfsburg stood in the upper tier and knocked on metal pots with wooden spoons. The goalkeeper Schult liked this noise for reasons of motivation, but also because she likes to see women who draw attention to themselves in football. Schult launched the “Football Can Do More” initiative.
Assistant referee Vanessa Arlt couldn’t help but smile at the saucepan concert. The Münster resident is the referee who was insulted weeks ago by the coach of the Gladbach second representation, Heiko Vogel. On Sunday she showed the TV audience an impeccable performance
In terms of sport, the first half had little to offer. Only the story of suffering of the Frankfurt captain Tanja Pawollek was disturbing. In a duel with Lena Oberdorf from Wolfsburg, she twisted her knee after half an hour and let herself be treated crying. Minutes later she came back on the field, but five minutes later she got stuck in the grass with the same leg and had to be carried off the field on a stretcher.
After a check outside the penalty area, VfL goalkeeper Schult flies off the pitch in the 96th minute
Only three minutes before the break did the Wolfsburg women sit up and take notice for the first time. Oberdorf slammed a ball from an acute angle on the outer post. The Frankfurt goalkeeper Merle Frohms came too late. This final was a special one for the 26-year-old because she had already taken part in a cup final six times, five times for VfL Wolfsburg and once for SC Freiburg, but only ever sat on the bench. Now she experienced a final on the pitch for the first time.
The Frankfurt team conceded six goals (2: 3 and 0: 3) in the Bundesliga games this season against Wolfsburg. That is one of the reasons why their motto was to shut up in the back. That worked almost consistently. The Frankfurt women earned more and more good counter-chances, but missed them miserably. In stoppage time goalkeeper Frohms steered a cross from Fridolina Rolfö to the inside post.
The only reproach for the superior Wolfsburg women in the end was that they needed extra time to win. Especially since they also lost their goalkeeper in this extension. Schult checked Lara Prasnikar from Frankfurt outside her penalty area in the 96th minute and rightly had to leave the field for this emergency brake. The goalkeeper Friederike Abt was substituted on for the attacker Rolfö. But the decisive goal fell on the other side. Huth ran energetically towards the gate one last time and cleverly staged Pajor. “We had the mentality and the fitness,” said Huth afterwards. The goalkeeper Schult conducted an exuberant choir of Wolfsburg soccer players on the lawn after the award ceremony.
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