After some back and forth, there is now clarity.

This Sunday, at the best football time at 3:30 p.m. (in the FAZ live ticker for the DFB Cup and on Sky), 12,000 spectators will be in Mannheim's Carl Benz Stadium.

At least 1250 of them, according to the status of the distribution of tickets for Frankfurt fans on Thursday, will sympathize with Eintracht when the new coach Oliver Glasner prepares to take the SV Waldhof cup hurdle together with his first-class team.

Ralf Weitbrecht

Sports editor.

  • Follow I follow

DFB-Pokal at the friendly third division club from the Kurpfalz: There was this game once already, two years ago. Eintracht struggled to prevail 5-3 after a hard fight - also and above all thanks to the three goals scored by Ante Rebic. The Croatian has not been on the ball for Eintracht for a long time, but Raffael Borré. The 25-year-old Colombian is supposed to cause storms on the offensive, supported by outside player Christopher Lenz, staged by creative forces such as Daichi Kamada, who turned 25 on Thursday, or Amin Younes.

Scoring goals, but of course also preventing goals: For Glasner, this is one of the keys to the desired success - not only in the DFB Cup in Mannheim, but also in the Bundesliga, which starts in mid-August.

There are many indications that he is trying a three-way defensive chain.

Evan Ndicka on the left, Martin Hinteregger in the center, Tuta on the right.

New energy and confidence

The Brazilian Tuta is happy, like the rest of the team, “that after intensive preparation, the crucial weeks are finally starting. Cup, that's great or top, ”says the 22-year-old defender, who made 19 Bundesliga appearances in his first season. Tuta sees the new Eintracht team “in the growth process” and hopes “that we as a group bring quality to the pitch,” as club interpreter Stephane Gödde translates it. Dejan Joveljic and Nils Stendera are no longer there. As expected, Joveljic joined Los Angeles Galaxy from the American Major League Soccer, a permanent, no loan deal, Stendera moves to Hessen Kassel in the Regionalliga.

Tuta has so far done everything to convince Glasner of his abilities and to continue to employ him as a regular in the future. “I think that I have his trust,” says Tuta - “and that of my teammates too”. On Thursday, when the practice session ended with flanking, beheading and shooting, Tuta recommended herself with a previously unknown quality: as a goal scorer. Absolutely, without a defender, but at least: the Brazilian scored goals with his head reliably. “It would be nice if that would work out in the game.” The right-back is waiting for such a sense of achievement there.

The fact that Tuta first had to complete a two-week quarantine in Frankfurt after returning from home leave in Brazil "was of course not particularly pleasant," he says. “Because I was dying to get in straight away. But I wouldn't say that it was two lost weeks, I also worked a lot at home. I have now been able to catch up on the training deficit. ”And draw new energy and confidence for a new season under a new coach. Tuta says: "I feel ready."