Soccer German Cup is shortest road to a title, Dortmund coach Kovac says
Dortmund are starting the domestic season with Monday's first round match while their opponents already have two third-division league matches under their belt.
"We want to advance. We are playing a third division club, playing away, with a good atmosphere," Kovac told a press conference. "We will have to work but we have clear goals of advancing. The shortest way to the title is the German Cup."
Dortmund will also be competing in this season's Champions League after finishing fourth last season. The Bundesliga season kicks off next week with Dortmund travelling to St Pauli in eight days.
"It is always an advantage if you have two competitive matches under your belt," said the coach of their Cup opponents Essen. "We are now in the third training week. I am not saying we don't have an advantage. Quite the opposite. But they have already played (a couple of) 90 consecutive minutes."
Kovac's Dortmund had a shortened preparation this season after reaching the quarter-finals in the Club World Cup in the United States in July.
"We would have wished a couple of more weeks of preparation work. We are happy to have been part of the Club World Cup ... and there are no alibis. We know of the responsibility we have," he said.
"It's a third-tier team but it is a professional team," Kovac said. "We will take them very seriously and then we have a chance to advance. If we think it will come by itself, it can turn out to be a very difficult evening."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
27 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Football transfer rumours: Spurs eye Monaco's Maghnes Akliouche? Tyler Dibling to Palace?
After all the excitement surrounding the prospect of Savinho leaving Manchester City to join Tottenham, it might eventually transpire that the Londoners are not willing to pay a whopping £70m for a winger who does not score. Therefore they need to construct a cunning plan B. Conveniently this is already on the big blackboard in the recruitment room. Maghnes Akliouche of Monaco is the second option and would be considerable cheaper than the Brazilian, coming in at round £47.5m. Tottenham, as is well-documented, are in talks over the signing of Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace. If that goes through, one potential replacement for the winger at Selhurst Park is Southampton's Tyler Dibling, who is still waiting for his big summer move after interest from Nottingham Forest, Everton and some Bundesliga clubs. Nicolas Jackson's name has cropped up on more days than not in this daily column of transfer tittle-tattle. Needless to say, a lot of what is said about the striker has little substance but the latest talk might not head into the ether quite so soon. Aston Villa really need a new No 9 and Chelsea are quite eager to get rid of the Senegalese frontman, which could make this a gloriously symbiotic move for everyone. As the opening weekend proved, Wolves and West Ham really need to do some business before the window slams in their faces. It might not therefore be particularly helpful that they both want the same player, nor to mention it might be difficult to convince Marc Casadó boyhood club Barcelona to move to Premier League teams who will almost certainly struggle this season but it is worth a try. Everything is going swimmingly at Marseille after one game this season. And by that, we mean it's absolute chaos. An opening night defeat to Rennes on Friday concluded with England Under-21 international Jonathan Rowe have a good old fashioned dustup with teammate Adrien Rabiot, a man no stranger to controversy. Both were almost immediately placed on the transfer list. The good news for Rowe is that he is already in talks with Bologna about going to Italy, only a couple of months after completing a permanent move to the south of France from Norwich. Rabiot, one assumes, will be linked with every Premier League club as he has been for most of the past decade. Veteran striker Jamie Vardy is still looking for a new club after leaving Leicester. The 38-year-old still has plenty to give despite his veteran status and has been linked with a move north of the border to Celtic where he would link up with his former Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers. 'Listen, I would not speak about any individual player,' said Rodgers of the rumours. 'Of course I worked really well with Jamie, he was brilliant for me in my time at Leicester. But there's been so many names floated about. I wouldn't disclose either way.' Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Ipswich are keen to bolster their ranks in midfield and make a cheeky little loan offer to sign Newcastle teenager Lewis Miley but Eddie Howe is eager to keep the 19-year-old at St James' Park and give him more of a chance. Elsewhere in the Championship, the former West Ham forward Dapo Afolayan may St Pauli leave St Pauli this month and is wanted by Leicester, West Brom and Blackburn. There's also interest in Belgium from Gent and Genk.
Scotsman
29 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Celtic's game of chicken begins - and poker players should be sitting comfortably next week
Many feel Rodgers has not been properly backed - but this Champions League tie is navigable Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A return to past assignments awaits Celtic on Wednesday night. After three seasons of automatic qualification to the Champions League, they must negotiate a play-off to reach the promised land and a £40 million bounty - starting at Parkhead on Wednesday night. It seems a little unfair for a team that reached the knockout stages last season and performed so admirably in European football's top-tier competition to be given such a task. With Scottish football's UEFA coefficient having slipped in recent seasons, this is the by-product: a two-legged shoot-out with Kazakh champions Kairat Almaty. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Celtic have not successfully navigated a Champions League qualification campaign since midway through current manager Brendan Rodgers' first spell in charge of the club. Back in the 2017/18 campaign, they defeated another team from Kazakhstan - Astana - to qualify for the group stages. Since then, at various hurdles they have lost to AEK Athens, CFR Cluj, Ferencvaros and Midtjylland. Nobody is taking Kairat lightly. Celtic's Kieran Tierney leads training ahead of the match against Kairat Almaty. | SNS Group Memories of running Bayern Munich close in Bavaria just six months ago have long dissipated into the air. Facing Kairat is not a glamorous tie. Their home city of Almaty is further east than Afghanistan, on the outer reaches of UEFA's span. Kairat edged past Slovan Bratislava - a side that Celtic spanked 5-1 in the Champions League last year - in the last qualifying round on penalties. They chucked away a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 on domestic duty at the weekend. Celtic are warm favourites to progress. Much has been made of Celtic's transfer business so far this summer and the lack of arrivals. The fear amongst a jittery fanbase is that Rodgers and his coaching staff have been left short for such a pivotal match. Only left-back Kieran Tierney, signed on a free transfer from Arsenal, and attacking midfielder Benjamin Nygren (£1.5 million signing from FC Nordsjaelland) have made it into Celtic's starting XI. The lack of recruits in the forward line is irritating many. That would include Rodgers, who has made little secret of his wish for more firepower in his team. Their current No 9 Adam Idah has yet to score this season, while last season's top-scorer Daizen Maeda only opened his account on Friday night. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad hghghg Nicolas Kuhn has been sold to Como for £16m and Jota has a long-term knee injury. Doubts remain over the suitability of wide players Yang Hjun-jun and James Forrest for elite-level matches, while the deputies to Idah - young Irishman Johnny Kenny, new Japanese 24-year-old Shin Yamada and Fulham academy player Callum Osmand - are unproven at Champions League level. It is a narrative that has dominated Celtic's season thus far, although results have not been impacted. In their three competitive matches so far, Rodgers' side have beaten St Mirren 1-0, Aberdeen 2-0 and Falkirk 4-1. Old Firm rivals Rangers have made ten new signings and are in a worse position. One wonders whether there are some smug smiles in the Celtic board room. Why the mass hysteria? However, with Rodgers entering the last 12 months of his contract, some feel that the directors' reluctance to back him properly before a Champions League qualifier is akin to playing a game of chicken with a manager who previously walked out for Leicester, no doubt partly spurred on by the club's recruitment policy back in 2019.
Daily Record
29 minutes ago
- Daily Record
Russell Martin risks Rangers mutiny with startling claims about three players in cross hairs of raging fans
Martin raved about his summer signings but pundits and punters cannot get along with his effusive verdict Russell Martin claims a trio of Rangers stars rose to the challenge despite being panned for their efforts in the chastening 3-1 collapse against Club Brugge. Martin raved about summer signings Joe Rothwell and Max Aarons claiming both enjoyed their best game in Light Blue while Danilo came alive after he reduced the arrears in the second half. But Record Sport didn't see it that way with Aarons receiving a paltry three in our player ratings, Rothwell landing a four and Danilo scraping by with a five thanks to his goal. The under-fire Ibrox boss suffered seething anger from the stands as the Belgians capitalised on disastrous defending to race into a three-goal lead after only 20 minutes and move on the brink of qualification for the Champions League. Martin and his Rangers sinners were slapped with fury at half time and the final whistle but the man at the helm is adamant the bad vibes will soon disappear as he waxed lyrical about his side's efforts in the second half. The gaffer said: 'The first half was completely different because of the anxiety in the crowd. 'In the second, we hurt them as much as they hurt us. We were playing against a very good team so they were always going to have moments when we were 3-0 down and throwing men forward. 'We're seven and a half weeks in and usually at this point you've played only a couple of games. 'We're at a club where the demands are totally different. We've had some guys who've found the start tough but tonight they came through it brilliantly. 'It was Joe Rothwell's best game, Max Aarons' best game, Jayden Meghoma was fantastic. Danilo will be better for scoring and Djeidi Gassama grows with every game. 'There's lots for us to be excited about moving forward. And the tie's not over. 'Our focus is to win on Sunday at St Mirren playing with the same level of intensity we showed in the second half. 'And then we have to go next week and really attack it.' You can get all the news you need on our dedicated Rangers and Celtic pages, and sign up to our newsletters to make sure you never miss a beat throughout the season.
