04/04/2017 Saarland Regional Cup Semi-final FV Diefflen - SV Elversberg Babelsberg-Stadion Result: 2:5 (1:2) Attendance: 1,450
A day after we arrived back in Germany, we had to get ourselves prepared for the Saarlandpokal semi-final before we could get rid of jet-lag. This time Elversberg were going to play against Diefflen from the Oberliga (5th league), who they met too in last year’s semi-final.
We didn’t really tell people that we were already back in Germany, and we were still uploading some photos from our days in Beijing (you know, we couldn’t do that because of the great firewall). We casually appeared at the car park outside the supermarket where some of the Elversberg fans decided to meet up at and gave them a small surprise. We started driving at 5pm and already felt a little bit sleepy on the way to Saarlouis, where Diefflen is based in.
There was a huge space outside the stadium which fans could park their car. Last year, the fans parked at the same space too on a rainy day that turned the space into a mud field. Some cars needed to be pulled out by a tractor in order to escape from the mud field! Thank god this day was in a good weather!
The ticket for this game was 7€! Well, we knew it was a good chance for smaller teams to rip people off, but wasn’t it a bit too much to charge 7€ for a game when we only had to pay 6€ in league games? But still there were more than a thousand people came to watch this game, which was actually quite impressive!
The home team Diefflen had a group of fans who gathered and chanted for the team close to the halfway line while the away fans gathered at the far side behind the goal.
The hosts started the game really well and didn’t look like they were from a tier lower. Although Elversberg opened the score sheet from a corner, Diefflen managed to score the equaliser just two minutes after the first goal. It was not easy at all for the guests.
Only in the second half, Elversberg finally started to show how they could be on the top of Regionalliga. The home’s goalkeeper probably saw Manuel Neuer as his idol and learned a lot from him – he came out from the box to try to clear the ball, however, SVE’s Moritz Göttel saw that coming and sent the ball into the goal, 2-1. Ten minutes later, Elversberg scored their third goal.
The bench players of the home team warmed up in front of us. For whatever reason, people thought the Asian player was called Suzuki (later we found out that his name was Matsuki) and decided to have a little bit of fun with him. Not sure if he enjoyed it but he had a laugh too. Later people started yelling “HEY COACH, let number 16 play now HE IS AMAZING” 😀 😀
Matsuki’s team scored their second goal but it didn’t make Elversberg panic. With ten minutes to go, the Black and Whites scored another two goals and easily secured their place for the final, against 1. FC Saarbrücken.
The winner in the final will qualify to play in the first round of the DFB Cup next season.