More than a football match: BVB visit creates moments for the ages | OneFootball

Niko Kovac could hardly contain his excitement about what happened before, during, and after the 90 minutes at the Volksparkstadion. “The boys are enjoying this, and I’m truly happy for them,” he said, addressing the amateur players from Eimsbüttel: “The group photo together shows that this was a great match, a great atmosphere. The boys will carry that with them for life — and so will my boys.”

“That’s what the cup is all about!”

For the joint group photo — and this is almost unique — the players and staff of both teams came together after the final whistle. “You could sense from them that something like this is almost a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Julian Ryerson said afterward: “That’s what the cup is all about: beautiful, special moments for many people who don’t get to experience this every weekend.” The professional could have added, “like we do,” and emphasized: “It’s good for us too, to take something like this away as a memory.” Niko Kovac expressed something similar in conversation with World Cup winner and TV pundit Lothar Matthäus: “At some point, we all started small.”

However, very few from the Hamburg fifth-division side can hope to relive such an occasion in front of 45,917 spectators at the Volksparkstadion. Goalkeeping heroes Jannik Schoon (26) and Nils Ahmann (33), who had agreed to split the 90 minutes and were under constant fire (38 BVB shots), said: “We’ll never play against Dortmund again.” One is a childcare worker, the other a teacher. For the two of them, the cup match was a night for eternity: “To have that crowd behind you and then make a save — it’s an incredible feeling!”

Ryerson would have liked even more goals

BVB needed 30 minutes to break down the compact wall of the Hamburg side, who lined up in a 5-4-1 formation. Julian Ryerson was involved in all four first-half goals with three direct assists and one indirect one. “Three assists is great, but I would have liked us to score even more goals,” said the Norwegian, before summing up after the routine 5-0 win: “Overall, the job is done. There was a lot of good in it.”Boris Rupert

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.