Ulm – Second division promoted team SSV Ulm is looking forward to its duel with record champions FC Bayern Munich in the DFB Cup. “This is obviously a big game for us, not just for us as a team. Also for us as a club, for the city of Ulm, for the whole region, for our fans,” said SSV coach Thomas Wörle before the cup kick-off on Friday (8.45 p.m./ZDF and Sky). “We’re really looking forward to it.”
The former Bundesliga club SSV, which is playing in the 2nd Bundesliga for the first time after 23 years in lower leagues, is the “absolute underdog” against Bayern, explained Wörle. But the club has “the will to put on a real cup fight” in front of 17,400 spectators in the sold-out Donaustadion. Under certain circumstances, “a very small chance of winning the cup can become a little bigger.” “Nothing is impossible and we will fight for it.”
Wörle also knows the FC Bayern club very well personally. Before joining the then regional league team Ulm in 2021, he coached the Bayern women for nine years and became German champions with them in 2015 and 2016. The 42-year-old is highly motivated for FCB after their second-round exit in the DFB Cup last season at third division club 1. FC Saarbrücken and with new coach Vincent Kompany.
The Ulm team knows how to knock a clearly favored Bundesliga team out of the cup: On August 18, 2018, the then fourth division team beat defending champion Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1.
