The latest edition of the annual DFB-Pokal competition gets underway this Friday, September 11, and 63 teams will be hoping to deny reigning champions Bayern Munich the opportunity the chance to defend their title. Realistically, there are only a handful of sides who can achieve this, but even the smaller, lower-tier sides will be seeking to go as far as possible. And that's not entirely a pipe dream, either: last season saw FC Saarbrücken make history as the first fourth-division side to make it to the semi-finals.
In 2017, Eintracht Frankfurt ended Bayern's stranglehold on the cup by defeating the Bavarian titans. Prior to that, Dortmund won it in a final featuring die Schwarzgelben and Frankfurt; that final was notable as it was the first time since 2011 that Bayern wasn't involved in it, and during that contest, Schalke cruised to a 5-0 victory over 2.Bundesliga side MSV Duisburg.
In any case, all but two sides will be playing their first round fixtures between Friday, September 11 and Monday, September 14. The only teams who won't feature are Bayern and their opponents, FC Duren, who feature in the lower tiers. The reason? Die Roten managed to get their fixture re-scheduled for Thursday, October 15th because of their participation in the prior Champions League tournament.
Recall, the 2019/2020 Champions League was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Bayern made it to the final, which was contested in August. They'll now have to resume Bundesliga action this month, meaning they had a shorter rest period, and will have a very congested September fixture list with domestic and continental action as well, so the DFB (German Football Association) agreed with their request and decided to move their DFB-Pokal game till October to ease some of the burden off them.
Obviously, from FC Duren's standpoint, they probably would have preferred to have a more tired Bayern to play against rather than a full strength opponent - but that's that, and the game will take place on October 15th.
In any case, here's the schedule for round one. Keep in mind, some of these games may not show on your local channels if you live outside of Germany or Austria especially if they're not featuring the bigger sides, but you can try checking out the DFB's YouTube channel to see if they're shown there. In addition, make sure to consult our bespoke DFB-Pokal page for updated listings throughout the course of the tournament:
