In Illertissen, a father is his son’s boss. In Walldorf there was a ball boy in the DFB Cup, now he could play himself. In Oberachern they hope for a hop. Stories about small clubs trying to annoy big ones.
The goal will not be forgotten in a hurry, even if it wasn’t decisive for the result of the biggest game in the history of the not so big SV Oberachern. On the last day in July 2022, Oberachern’s Nico Huber ran away from two defenders from Borussia Mönchengladbach after a long ball, he plucked the ball out of the air with his outside instep and then hit it right into the far corner. It was the 1st round of the DFB Cup and Huber scored the only goal for the outsider at 1:9.
1st round – all games right arrow SV Oberachern vs. SC Freiburg: This is how the Oberliga team wants to enjoy the cup highlight right arrow
About the SV Oberachern and the goalscorer Nico Huber, 30, was sometimes reported around this game. Huber, as we now know, studied mechanical engineering, while he was in Australia and was very enthusiastic about it. He came back anyway. He has already scored a number of goals for Oberachern, 64 in 188 league games. After important goals, even after the one against Gladbach, he sometimes jumps, which not only reminded the “Badische Latest News” of the great Gerd Müller.
Nico Huber (left) scored the only goal for his team from Oberachern in a duel with Borussia Mönchengladbach in the first round of the 2022/23 DFB Cup.
And the hope of everyone who supports Oberacher is that Huber will also hop against Freiburg on Sunday (13.08.2023). That he scores a goal again, it doesn’t have to be such a nice thing. His coach Fabian Himmel thinks that’s entirely possible. He told the “BNN” about Huber: “In front of the goal he is a killer, a full-blooded striker. It doesn’t matter whether it’s with the left, the right or the head.”
FV Illertissen – when the father with the son
Many years ago, in another millennium, Karl-Heinz Bachthaler took over as coach at FV Illertissen. He stayed for thirteen years, rose from the state league to the association league to the upper league, one of his players was Holger, his son.
When Karl-Heinz Bachthaler, 71, gave up coaching in 2012, when one era ended, a new one began straight away. Holger Bachthaler was responsible for the team from then on, he led the FVI to third place in the Bavarian Regionalliga and to the DFB Cup. After almost four years, Holger Bachthaler’s time ended, his father Karl-Heinz was already the sports director.
Holger Bachthaler, 48, then trained the youth of RB Salzburg, later SSV Ulm, Karl-Heinz Bachthaler stayed in Illertissen. When the club was in a sporting crisis in autumn 2022, the two got back together. Now the father is his son’s boss again, and that really is a special situation. And a successful one: Illertissen managed to stay up in the league and won the state cup in Bavaria, in the final the fourth division defeated FC Ingolstadt.
Holger Bachthaler meets Fortuna Düsseldorf with his FV Illertissen in the first round of the DFB Cup.
And now FV Illertissen is playing the DFB Cup, the opponent on Sunday is second division Fortuna Düsseldorf.
Astoria Walldorf’s Arion legacy – first a ball boy in the cup, now a player
Astoria Walldorf takes part in the first round of the DFB Cup for the third time in the club’s history. Once, in the 2014/15 season, the club lost to Hannover 96 and were eliminated right away. But in the 2016/17 season, Walldorf not only survived the first round, but even made it to the round of 16. There they lost to Arminia Bielefeld on penalties.
Arion Erbe, 22, was already there at the time. One evening in early February 2017 he was standing on the sidelines wearing a jacket, hat and gloves, it was cold. Heir was a ball boy, trembled and saw how Astoria Walldorf was close to a sensation and yet failed. Now that the club has qualified for the DFB Cup again, he’s back, but he’s no longer a ball boy. As a midfielder, Erbe is part of Walldorf’s first team.
Recently, however, Erbe has sometimes had to watch, he was injured, with a torn ligament in his ankle. But he is fit again just in time for the duel with 1. FC Union Berlin on Sunday. In an interview on the club’s website, Erbe said: “I really hope that I can make it into the squad against Union.”
Bersenbrück’s Reimerink and the Journey into the Past
When the Oberliga side TuS Bersenbrück host Borussia Mönchengladbach in the DFB-Pokal on Friday evening, they will do so in an unfamiliar environment. The game will be played in Osnabrück, just under 40 kilometers from the stadium in Bersenbrück. For Jules Reimerink, 33, it’s a journey into the past, he played for VfL Osnabrück from 2016 to 2018.
Once, in the 2017/18 season, VfL surprised when they defeated Hamburger SV 3-1 in the first round – even though they were outnumbered for almost 70 minutes after being sent off. Reimerink was initially on the bench in this game, but was substituted on twenty minutes before the end. Of course he’s been asked about this game lately. He told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” a few days ago: “That was crazy.”
In general, Reimerink is a cup specialist. In his career, he took part in the cup seven times with his clubs and reached at least the second round six times. With the then second division team Energie Cottbus, he won in 2010/11 against the Bundesliga teams from Hoffenheim, Wolfsburg and Freiburg, the end was only in the semi-finals.
It wasn’t a big surprise then when Reimerink recently outlined a plan for the game against Gladbach. He told the “Fußball.de” portal: “If we don’t concede an early goal, a small football miracle can happen under the floodlights on the Bremer Bridge.”
