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Leipzig's goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi celebrates winning the cup
Photo: Lukas Schulze / Getty Images
No reason to be happy:
it took a good half hour for the cup winner to be honored.
That had nothing to do with the game, nothing to do with the teams involved: it was a medical emergency that cooled the atmosphere in Berlin's Olympic Stadium.
A photographer was affected, informed the DFB.
His condition is stable.
Only after the summoned ambulance had left the interior of the arena did the ceremony continue.
Accompanied by whistles, the victorious team from RB Leipzig entered the stage, captain Willi Orban raised the DFB Cup in the air.
It is the first title win since the club was founded in 2009.
The result:
Leipzig beat SC Freiburg 4-2 on penalties (1-0, 1-1, 1-1) in the final of the DFB Cup.
Read the match report here.
Duel for the soul of the game:
What do RB Leipzig and head coach Christian Streich have in common?
No, that's not a joke: For both of them, the cup final should be the 396th competitive game in professional football.
It's a blink of an eye for a club, an era for a coach - and part of the larger narrative that surrounded the cup final.
On the one hand, the glittering marketing product RB, only landed in Leipzig because Red Bull could not find any supporters for their own football plans in Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf.
On the other hand, the Freiburger, cliché of the small traditional club, already rooted in the region through Streich's dialect.
In the run-up, the sports club had prevented a joint fan scarf with RB – that in itself was a declaration of war on the identity of the Leipzig project.
The small differences:
On paper, the sixth in the Bundesliga challenged the fourth in the Bundesliga, but felt like a challenge to David Goliath.
Whereby: If you took the fan culture as a benchmark, the Freiburgers won the size comparison by far.
This was less due to the almost continuously burning Bengalos in the SCF block and the whistles at the Leipzig ceremony, but rather to how cold this potentially historic game seemed to leave the Leipzig supporters.
The choreography before kick-off read simply »Rasenballsport Leipzig« – more of a product description than a passionate message to the team.
The eliminated final goalscorer:
It's been nine months since Maximilian Eggestein was eliminated from the DFB Cup.
In round one, 0:2 against VfL Osnabrück.
Then Eggestein changed the club, from Werder Bremen to SC.
Eggestein took revenge on Osnabrück with the Breisgauers, then threw Hoffenheim, Bochum and HSV out of the cup – and suddenly found himself on the lawn of the Berlin Olympic Stadium.
The story could only be completed by a final goal by Eggestein, logically the already failed scored with a placed low shot to Freiburg's lead.
Submitted personally
: Eggestein's team-mate Roland Sallai set up the opening goal in an exemplary manner.
Only: Because that happened to the arm, tempers heated up.
Handball before a goal is scored, isn't that always whistled?
Denkste: Since the beginning of the season, this black and white rule interpretation only applies if the hand also belongs to the goal scorer.
Sallais' action was judged according to the same standards as any other hand game, and according to them there was no clear criminal liability.
Ten and Tedesco:
A Freiburg liberation already seemed to bring the preliminary decision: Lucas Höler wound around Marcel Halstenberg, got the long ball first and was brought down by the Leipziger with the emergency brake.
An undisputed red card - but one after which the ten remaining Leipzigers really got into the game.
And they equalised: Konrad Laimer lifted an already clarified free-kick into the penalty area again, Willi Orban headed across to Christopher Nkunku, who had just been voted Bundesliga player of the season.
Of course he scored, it was his 55th goal involvement in all competitions this season.
Coach Domenico Tedesco was so enthusiastic that he threw himself into the cheering crowd with the players.
Bad aluminum for a good game:
Freiburg only got back together in extra time after Benjamin Henrichs (82') and Dani Olmo (85') still had chances to decide the game for Leipzig in 90 minutes.
Then the sports club closed in again: Ermedin Demirović headed against the post (92'), Péter Gulácsi deflected Janik Haberer's attempt to the inside of the post (104'), and Haberer again missed the crossbar (115').
But that wasn't the last point of this breathless game, not even the penultimate one.
Adlerauge Stegemann:
Because even before the actual shootout, Leipzig thought they were lucky from the penalty spot - and was quite perplexed that referee Sascha Stegemann did not point to the point.
Hadn't Nicolas Höfler clearly brought down Olmo?
Yes, but before that, and far less clearly, he had also played the ball.
Stegemann looked again in slow motion at what he had already recognized correctly in real speed.
In the end, all the excitement led to nothing but yellow-red for Kevin Kampl from Leipzig, who had already been substituted.
And you have to give them credit for it:
All Leipzig shooters then scored in the penalty shoot-out, Freiburg captain Christian Günter shot the ball over the goal and Demirović over the crossbar.
For many football traditionalists, the last bastion of the sport they love fell: In Germany, that is certain as of today, a billionaire can invent a football club ready to win the title in just 13 years, if he invests properly.
This is a defeat for the idea of the democratically run club, also for the idea that clubs have to work out the financial foundation for sporting success themselves.
But the Leipzig players, including coach Tedesco, deserve to be recognized for their performance.
Turning a deficit through passion and joy of playing when outnumbered,
