DFB-Pokal Review: Hamburg and Bochum avoid a cupset

Late goals set up extra-time wins for Hamburger SV and VfL Bochum against teams outside the top three divisions.

After Arminia Bielefeld knocked Werder Bremen out of the cup for the second year running, we were very close to seeing more surprising results in Saturday afternoon’s two fixtures.

FK Pirmasens 1-2 (AET) Hamburger SV

Hamburg had a difficult preseason, struggling to score goals. That trend continued in the first round of the cup against Oberliga side Pirmasens. The fifth-tier team took the lead in the 52nd minute when Hamburg’s defense was disorganized by a short corner-kick routine.

Yannick Griess, a registered member of HSV’s fanbase, scored for what would most likely be his most cherished career moment. The 29-year-old center-back even had another chance a couple of minutes later, but he was unable to get to the end of a brilliant delivery.

The newly-promoted Bundesliga team were struggling to create anything of note at this point, but they had to thank Miro Muheim for a last-ditch clearance to deny Dennis Krob after he rounded Daniel Heuer Fernandes.

It took Hamburg until the first minute of injury-time to find the equalizer. Substitute Guilherme Ramos took the tie into extra-time with a powerful header. After his unsuccessful loan at Santa Clara, the center-back wasn’t expected to play a big role, but he saved HSV from a shocking start to the season.

And the winner comes from another player not expected to be at the club. From yet another set-piece, Ransford Königsdörffer, who saw his move to OGC Nice collapse, scored the winner in the first-half of extra-time to save Hamburg’s blushes.

BFC Dynamo 1-3 (AET) VfL Bochum

Extra-time was also needed to decide the other Saturday afternoon fixture. The Regionalliga Nordost side took the lead against last season’s Bundesliga outfit at the start of the second-half, thanks to a goal from the Belarus-born attacking midfielder Jan Shcherbakovski.

Noah Loosli scored Bochum’s equalizer with only five minutes before the end of regular time. BFC Dynamo were reduced to ten before the goal, and they started the second-half of extra-time with only nine men.

Bochum used this opportunity not to go all the way into a penalty shootout. Samuel Bamba and Mateus Bero, who missed a penalty in an eventful extra-time, scored the goals that send Bochum into the second round.