COLOGNE, GERMANY - MAY 18: Alexandra Popp of VfL Wolfsburg and team mates celebrate with the DFB Cup ... [+]
After a season of disappointment, VfL Wolfsburg aim to reassert their authority in the German women's club game by winning an incredible 50th consecutive match in the DFB Pokal Frauen on Thursday.
The most successful side in the domestic German women's club game, VfL Wolfsburg have won a joint-record seven league titles, and a record ten German Cups or the DFB Pokal Frauen. The last nine of those have been won in consecutive years. If they can defeat their perennial rivals, FC Bayern at the Rhein-Energie Stadion this week, it will be ten titles in succession.
The last side to defeat VfL Wolfsburg in the competition was 1. FFC Frankfurt on November 13, 2011. Since then, Wolfsburg have won through five rounds in nine consecutive seasons to claim the trophy each time. They have come through four rounds again to reach their tenth final in a row.
Their opponents will be the German league champions, FC Bayern, who retained their Frauen Bundesliga title last month having already defeated Wolfsburg home (2-1) and away (4-0). They remain unbeaten in 24 domestic league and Cup matches and have only lost one game all season, in the UEFA Champions League away to Ajax.
However, unlike VfL Wolfsburg who have completed six league and Cup doubles in the last twelve seasons, FC Bayern have never won the Frauen Bundesliga and DFB Pokal Frauen in the same campaign. In fact, despite winning six league titles, one fewer than Wolfsburg, Bayern have only ever won one German Cup competition back in 2012.
COLOGNE, GERMANY - MAY 12: Muenchen players celebrate after winning the Women's DFB Cup Final ... [+]
Bayern coach Alexander Straus admitted that "it will be a tough match, it will be a close match. But of course we have the opportunity to beat Wolfsburg. We managed it twice in the Bundesliga this season. But we have great respect for VfL's achievements - not just in the DFB Cup, but because of all their achievements and successes in recent years."
No woman in history has won more German Cups than Wolfsburg's Alex Popp, having won it twice with FCR 2001 Duisburg before signing for Wolfsburg in 2012 and playing a part in all ten of their victories in the competition during the last eleven seasons.
COLOGNE, GERMANY - MAY 15: Head coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg of Duisburg is showered with ... [+]
She understands how extraordinary the achievement is. "There is no way to correct a slip-up or a bad day. We have the quality to be there at the crucial moment. We also have a lot of experience because we know how to win the DFB Cup. We are really happy that we did it again. The stadium will be sold out. What could be nicer than holding the DFB Cup into the Cologne evening sky?"
This week's match will be the 14th final in a row staged in Cologne. Last year's game between Wolfsburg and SC Freiburg was the first-ever to sell-out the 50,000-capacity Rhein-Energie Stadium. This year's final, the first between the country’s two premiere clubs since 2018, is also due to fill the arena.
Having won so often at the ground, Popp and her Wolfsburg team-mates are well-versed in how to celebrate in Cologne. She told the DFB website, "there is a cool relaxation pool in the cabins at the Rhein-Energie Stadium. We like to drink a beer or two together there. The DFB Cup can of course also swim along! After the official part in the hotel in the evening, we like to move further into the city. Cologne's nightlife has a lot to offer."
Win or lose, it will have been an underwhelming season for VfL Wolfsburg, for so long the standard-bearer for the German club game across Europe. European champions in 2013 and 2014, Wolfsburg led FC Barcelona 2-0 at half-time in last season's Champions League final only to succumb like so many others to the Catalans.
From reaching that pinnacle, Wolfsburg were embarrassingly eliminated in the qualifying stages of this season's Champions League, failing to reach the lucrative group stage for the first time. Domestically, not only have FC Bayern won the Frauen Bundesliga for the third time in four seasons, but they have already signed Wolfsburg's star midfielder Lena Oberdorf ahead of the next campaign.
Despite all this, Popp feels it will take a lot more for Bayern to be able to claim supremacy over their historic rivals. "I don't think it's right for us to talk about a changing of the guard at this point in time. Of course we know that Bayern are doing an incredible job right now. We see that and we feel that too. We have great respect for it and are happy that such work is also being done in other clubs. But now it has to be delivered over several years before we should talk about such a word."
