The first round of the 2014-15 DFB-Pokal tournament began on Friday with three matches that featured a blowout, and two upsets by lower division squads, including a wild ten-goal thriller between Chemnitzer and Mainz that was decided on penalties.
DFB-Pokal scores: Leverkusen wins, Mainz and Nürnberg both upset
Third division sides Chemnitzer GC and MSV Duisburg pulled off upsets, while Bayer Leverkusen flexed their scoring muscles in a rout of SV Alemannia Waldalgesheim.
Dennis Grombkowski
Here’s a recap of the day’s three matches.
Chemnitzer GC 5-5 (5-4) Mainz
There are wild cup matches, and then there was Friday’s match between Mainz from the 2. Bundesliga and Chemnitzer from the third division of German football. Mainz started strong and held a 2-0 lead early in the second half thanks to goals from Niki Zimling and Shinji Okazaki. Then, in a three minutes stretch, Chemnitzer’s Anton Fink scored twice to even the match at 2-2. Koo Ja-Cheol put Mainz back in front in the 73rd minute, but a Niko Bungert own-goal evened the match at 3-3 with three minutes in left in regular time.
In extra time, Markus Ziereis have Chemnitzer the lead in the 103rd minute, but Bungert made up for his earlier error, evening the match at 4-4 just six minutes later. Chemnitzer appeared to have the match won in the 119th minute when Marco Kelh-Gómez scored, but Mainz's Johannes Geis equalized a minute later with a ridiculous shot from midfield to force the match to penalties.
The difference proved to be a penalty save made by Philipp Pentke on Mainz’s Gonzalo Jara in the second round of penalties, as Chemnitzer pulled off the upset with a 5-4 penalty shootout victory.
SV Alemannia Waldalgesheim 0-6 Bayer Leverkusen
Leverkusen had no trouble advancing to the second round thanks to a stunning five-goal performance from Stefan Kießling. The 30-year-old striker opened the scoring in the 2nd minute and proceeded to add three more before the halftime whistle. He scored his fifth in the 59th minute, before generously allowing Son Heung-Min to get in on the fun in the 82nd minute.
MSV Duisburg 1-0 Nürnberg
A penalty in the 11th minute scored by Dusiburg’s Zlatko Janjic was all The Zebras needed to pull off a first round upset for second division side Nürnberg. Despite holding a clear advantage in possession, Nürnberg were frustrated by Dusiburg’s aggressive tactics that saw the referee whistle the Zebras for 32 fouls. In the end though, it was the one foul committed by Niklas Stark that proved the difference as Nürnberg were unable to find an equalizer.
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