Game Ottensen-Leipzig questionable: Contaminated lawn continues cup odyssey

Game Ottensen-Leipzig questionable
Infested lawn continues cup odyssey

Teutonia Ottensen takes part in the DFB Cup for the first time – really complicated for the club. A home game is not possible due to the artificial turf pitch, the other Hamburg stadiums are not available. The game against RB Leipzig is supposed to take place almost 400 kilometers away, but now there are new problems.

The staging of the DFB Cup game between the regional soccer team Teutonia Ottensen and the defending champion RB Leipzig is in question after a contamination of the lawn in Dessau, the venue. Unknown people dumped an apparently toxic substance on the lawn of the Paul Greifzu Stadium, which seriously damaged it. The police confirmed this to the MDR. Whether the game as scheduled on August 30th (8.45 p.m./ZDF and in the ntv.de live ticker) can take place is open.

The police are investigating property damage. Both penalty areas and the area around the center circle are particularly affected. The areas affected by the attack are brown instead of green. “As it looks now, you can’t play like that. That’s dead grass. That’s dead grass that won’t grow back anytime soon. We’re looking for a solution with everyone involved. A decision will definitely have to be made this week,” said Benjamin Völker, Department of Sports of the City of Dessau, the MDR.

Both clubs are working together with the DFB to solve the space problem. An exchange of home rights is not possible.

But why should the game take place in Dessau at all – almost 400 kilometers from Hamburg-Ottensen? Teutonia is not allowed to use their own stadium because of an artificial turf pitch. The second division clubs FC St. Pauli and Hamburger SV did not want to make their stadium available. St. Pauli referred to the critical attitude towards RB Leipzig, in the Volksparkstadion a fair will take place on the same day, according to HSV.

What should be a home game for Ottensen is now really far away. That makes it complicated for the fans too. So far, just over 7,000 of the 20,000 tickets have been sold – and that was the historic first entry into the DFB Cup. With the Hamburger Pokal, Ottensen celebrated the first title in the club’s history.

The date is also unusual, most of the first round games in the DFB Cup took place at the end of July. The encounter could not be played at this time because Leipzig was still in action against champions Bayern Munich (3:5) in the Supercup. Bayern start the cup on August 31st at third division club Viktoria Köln.

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