Only 14 days have passed since Bayern crowned their historic 2012/13 campaign with a 3-2 victory over VfB Stuttgart at Berlin Olympic Stadium, sealing the DFB Cup and with it the legendary treble. It was a moment to be remembered for all time, but football never stands still, and the 2013/14 season under new boss Pep Guardiola is just a few short weeks away.
There was a first foretaste of the upcoming campaign on Saturday evening with the draw for the first round proper of the 2013/14 DFB Cup, made by former Germany women’s international Nia Künzer during the ARD Sportschau sports magazine show.
The name of holders Bayern came out exactly halfway through the 64-team draw and means the Reds will contest their first competitive match of the new campaign away to BSV Schwarz-Weiß Rehden, who finished ninth in the Lower Saxony Regional League North last term. The 32 first-round ties will be played from 2 to 5 August, a week prior to the Bundesliga restart fixture. The cup tie will scheduled in detail over the next few weeks. The DFB Cup final in Berlin takes place on 17 May 2014.
Community of 2,000 souls
In the last two years, Bayern have met second division opponents in the opening round with trips to Regensburg and Braunschweig, but Saturday’s draw sees the men from Munich return to the largely uncharted waters of the lower leagues. Perhaps unsurprisingly, BSV Schwarz-Weiß Rehden represents entirely new territory for FCB, as the clubs have never previously met.
Rehden is a village in the north of Lower Saxony with just 2,000 registered inhabitants. The fourth-tier club play their home matches at the Waldsportstätten sports facility, but as the ground boasts a capacity of just 4,350, there is a high chance the minnows will opt to maximise the occasion and move the lucrative tie to a bigger stadium nearby.
Rehden’s second cup adventure
Bayern’s first round opponents, who qualified for the new five-stream Regional League by finishing fourth in the state Premier League in 2012, can point to one previous DFB Cup adventure in the past – and on that occasion a decade ago, the Lower Saxony outfit also hosted visitors from Munich. BSV put up a brave performance against TSV 1860 München, but ultimately fell to a clear-cut 5-1 defeat. The men in black and white now take on the treble winners and new coach Pep Guardiola, on what is sure to be one of the biggest days in Rehden’s history.
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