DFB cup history: Match-ups against Borussia Dortmund – part 1

In part one we’ll take a look at the three encounters from both teams between 1966 and 1992.

1966: The promoted team defeats the defending champion

On the January the 2nd in 1966, it was the match of the promoted side against the defending champion. Bayern were the promoted club, while Borussia Dortmund entered the competition as the defending title holders. The two teams already met in the qualification round. Back then this was ahead of the first round with 32 teams. A day after New Year 30,000 people showed up at the stadium in the Grünwalder Strasse in Munich.

It was a sloppy game with few highlights. The pitch was deep during a time of the year, where today’s players enjoy their winter break. However, the promoted squad from Munich was able to take the lead in the first minute. Rainer Ohlhauser scored the opening goal and of course Gerd Müller scored as well. The ‘Bomber of the nation’ got the ball past BVB-keeper Hans Tilkowski in the 40th minute and delivered the final score of 2:0.

Former Bayern president Wilhelm Neudecker was particularly happy about it: “The 2:0 was the best reply to Max Merkel’s comments in a German sports newspaper, saying we’ve won our previous games due to luck.” Max Merkel was coaching Bayern’s local rivals TSV 1860 Munich at that time and had coached the BVB before. He didn’t do himself any favor with his comments.

At that time no one could really guess that Bayern would not only kick out the defending champions in the first round, but to go on and win the cup. With home games against Dortmund, Braunschweig and Cologne as well as following up with away wins in Hamburg and Nuremberg, Bayern made it to the cup final. They beat MSV Duisburg in the final with 4:2 and secured their second DFB cup trophy after winning their first in 1957.

1981: A clear case

Also in the second match-up between both teams, Bayern had the upper hand. In December 1981, the roles were assigned much clearer than in 1966. Bayern had plenty of success in the 1970s and got back to winning ways after a massive rebuild. In contrast, Dortmund experienced difficult times – on and off the field – in the 70s and 80s. On December 5th 1981, only 8,000 people made their way to the Olympic Stadium in Munich to watch the third round match against BVB at temperatures below zero.

In the end it was a clear case. Bertram Beierlorzer, Wolfgang Dremmler, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Wolfgang Kraus were the goal scorers in a 4:0 victory for the Bavarians. BVB coach Branko Zebec wasn’t pleased as some of this players “didn’t win a single challenge in 90 minutes.“ It was a special game for him because FC Bayern was his former club. They showed some rather strange hospitality. Although it was known that the Yugoslav had a drinking problem, they put booze on his table at the press conference. “You can put booze on this table all you want, I won’t drink it.“, Zebec said angrily.

Back then the emerging manager Uli Hoeneß had a pretty interesting interview with the German paper Süddeutschen Zeitung. Albeit ahead of the game. “Our goal is to make it into the top five. (…) I think, 4,000 season tickets are the limit in Munich.“, said Hoeneß. Exciting to see how outlooks and aspirations have changed.

For the Bavarians the path led to the final yet again after the win against Dortmund. In the final they beat their opponent from Nuremberg with 4:2. Dieter Hoeneß, who wore a turban due to a head injury, headed home the winning goal.

1992: The beginning of the end for Mazinho

In the third attempt Dortmund were finally able to defeat FC Bayern in a hard fought contest in the cup. On September 12th 1992, in their second round match-up Dortmund had their first home advantage against Bayern in the cup competition. The tragic hero was set to be Waldemar Aureliano de Oliveira Filho, nicknamed Mazinho. The Brazilian had a rough start in Munich and was viewed critically from all sides. After all he scored eight goals in 28 games in his first season. And then came the cup game against BVB in September 1992.

Mazinho actually had his best game in a FC Bayern shirt. After Knut Reinhardt (8′) put BVB ahead, it was Bruno Labbadia (16′) and the very Mazinho (58′) to turn around the game for Munich. Stéphane Chapuisat scored in the 84th minute and got his team into extra time. Olaf Thon received the red card in the 101st minute but nothing else happened and the game had to be decided with penalties.

Of all players it was Mazinho who wasn’t able to crown his good performance. He was the only one to miss a penalty and thus seeing BVB through to the next round. Ottmar Hitzfeld was coach at the time and was celebrated by BVB fans for this victory. Thomas Helmer who just made the move from Dortmund to Munich wasn’t amused. He claimed that Bayern would’ve won if it weren’t for Olaf Thon’s sending-off in the 101st minute. Thon said: “I don’t know why I was sent off.“

It still wasn’t enough for Borussia to win the title as Werder Bremen was too strong in the round of 16. In Bremen, Dortmund lost 0:2. In the end Leverkusen won the cup that season. Mazinho only scored two more Bundesliga goals for Bayern after the missed penalty against Dortmund. In 1995 he moved to Flamengo in Brazil and later to Japan, where he netted 52 goals in 100 matches for Kashima Antlers to became a hero.

In the next part we’ll take a big leap in time and relive the encounters between 2008 and 2013. From the cup hero Luca Toni, the biggest humiliation in a long time up to Arjen Robben’s wonder goal in the DFB cup quarter-final a few years ago.