DFB Cup final: In a state of hunger

It’s not often that the Alpha and Omega of a season look alike; the beginning and end of a season are, so to speak, congruent. But this time it is like this, the end of the season resembles the beginning like one egg to another.

The Supercup, which according to the DFL is the official start of the new season (although the teams have to qualify via titles from the previous season), brought together the newly crowned DFB Cup winners VfB Stuttgart and the eternal champions FC Bayern in August; FC Bayern won 2-1. The 2026 DFB Cup final is on Saturday in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium (8 p.m./ARD and Sky), and Stuttgart and Bavaria will compete again. The cup defender and the record winner both traveled to Berlin in a state of hunger. “It feels like the whole team has been talking about this trophy since the first day of training,” reported Bayern coach Vincent Kompany. “We tasted blood,” said VfB coach Sebastian Hoeneß – quoting a sentence that his captain Atakan Karazor had said the previous year.

Hoeneß, 44, agreed with a journalist on Friday whether the Stuttgart team saw themselves as self-confident outsiders: “That’s a description that I would subscribe to,” he said. What is also understandable: Not only was the 2025 Super Cup final lost, FC Bayern also won the two league games; the sum of the goals from the three games resulted in a very clear 11:3 in favor of the record champions. But there is also a huge one on the other hand.

Because: Hoeneß recalled that his team had mastered some pressure situations well in the past few weeks – in the cup and in the ultimately successful fight to qualify for the next edition of the Champions League. But we also go into the final confidently “because we like these games”. And obviously also because the Stuttgart team has plenty of personnel to draw from – in contrast to FC Bayern, who have to do without DFB goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

However, Neuer’s absence is only a very marginal part of the factors that make Saturday a special date for the Munich team. The fact that they have never been allowed to touch the DFB Cup since the victory in 2020 has a much deeper effect. At that time it was still impossible to win in company because of the Covid pandemic; the Olympic Stadium, which was sold out tomorrow, was empty at the time. “It’s something special to come here,” emphasized Bayern captain Joshua Kimmich.

Kompany has only been in a cup final once as a coach – and he lost that

He was well aware that “from the outside, only the titles count”; But as if he wanted to take the pressure off, he emphasized twice that he was “still not basing the season on one game”. Coach Kompany, on the other hand, reacted almost nastily to the question of what winning the cup would mean for the overall season. An answer to that would be on the verge of disrespecting the opponent, he said. Therefore: back to the boots: “Now we have to put the football boots on again (on Saturday). That’s the only thing that counts for me,” said Bayern’s Belgian coach. And oh yes, he also said this, just in case: “I’m really keen on a win tomorrow.”

One of the reasons for this is that he has never won a DFB Cup at Wembley in Germany. But as a player he won the FA Cup at the “real” Wembley – twice, each with Manchester City, for the first time in 2011. Kompany, like Kimmich, also seemed to be trying to show a basic level of relaxedness. At least Kompany was almost amused that a six-year cup drought at FC Bayern was perceived as long. Manchester City waited four decades for an FA Cup in 2011.

Either way: I think it will be “a historic moment if you can lift this trophy,” explained Kompany, who has only been in a cup final once as a coach: During his time as head coach at RSC Anderlecht, his team lost to KAA Gent on penalties in 2022. But that probably doesn’t have to serve as a warning sign.