For the "Lion" script for a cup spectacle against the mega favorites Borussia Dortmund, 1860 coach Michael Köllner quickly used the unloved neighbor FC Bayern.
"I can still remember Vestenbergsgreuth...", said Köllner, who was born in the Upper Palatinate, with relish in memory of one of the biggest cup sensations that happened in Franconia almost 20 years ago. In 1994, the then regional league club TSV Vestenbergsgreuth defeated Bayern Munich's star ensemble around goalkeeper titan Oliver Kahn and world champion Lothar Matthäus as well as coach Giovanni Trapattoni 1-0 in the first round - boom!
1860 Munich in the limelight
On Friday (8.45 p.m. / ZDF and Sky) Köllner would be only too happy to arrange an evening with the former German champions and current third division club TSV 1860 Munich in the time-honored Grünwalder Stadion, which is sold out with 15,000 spectators, and which will also go down in the history of the DFB Cup . "The football focus is on us," said the 52-year-old on the special importance of the game for the club: "Nine quarters, the lights go on in Giesing, many people will be watching." How loud can the "lions" roar against the completely renewed BVB, who in the first competitive game after the departure of top scorer Erling Haaland has to put up with the shock of the long-term absence of his successor Sébastien Haller (tumor surgery).
Köllner: "Will have to suffer"
Dortmund has been warned: A year ago, Köllner's sixties threw the Ruhrpott rivals FC Schalke 04 out of the cup. And in the last cup duel in 2013, the "Lions" - at that time still a second division team - forced BVB into extra time in round two. The sixties had also set the tone for their black and yellow week with a crazy 4: 3 at the third division start at Dynamo Dresden, which had been relegated to the second division.
Of course, the bare facts speak for BVB, and Köllner knows that too. "I think they can do everything better than us," he said: "Dortmund is a team that will reach at least second place in the league. We are number 70, 60, 50, maybe 40 in Germany. That's a mismatch for us, actually we don't have a chance."
But this "actually", that's exactly what Köllner and his young team around captain Stefan Lex are banking on. "If there was no chance at all, I would change my job," said the full-blooded coach. A "frenzy audience" should possibly carry his eleven into extra time or the penalty shoot-out, said the 52-year-old ex-coach of 1. FC Nürnberg: "We will have to suffer a lot!"
Dortmund wants to take steps towards the title
Dortmund should appear with their new national team trio Niklas Süle, Nico Schlotterbeck and Karim Adeyemi - but also without Haller. The serious illness of the 30 million euro striker weighs heavily on the BVB team. How much, coach Edin Terzic and his professionals at Giesing's heights have to give an answer. Köllner spoke of "a brutal cut" for Haller and Borussia.
The DFB Cup is very important to Terzic. Just over a year ago he led BVB to win the cup before making room for Marco Rose. Now the 39-year-old is making his coaching comeback as Dortmund coach in the DFB Cup of all places and announced: "This competition is very important to us. BVB always want to play for the title. And this is the fastest to achieve."
But it is also a competition in which each team quickly knocks out. can go - even a big one with a supposedly small one. By the way: Köllner plans no frills to motivate his players, as he announced. In any case, he would not lead a "living lion" from the neighboring zoo through the 1860 cabin before kick-off.
