The DFL Supercup from A to Z
DFB Cup winners Borussia Dortmund will host Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich in the 18th edition of the DFL Supercup on Saturday (20:30 CEST/18:30 GMT). Bundesliga.com has compiled an A to Z on all you need to know about the curtain raiser for the new German season.
A is for all the silverware
The DFL Supercup is the first of several trophies on offer each year. A German club can in theory win three national titles – the Supercup, the Bundesliga and the DFB Cup – and three international titles – the UEFA Supercup, the FIFA Club World Cup and the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Champions League.
B is for blighted
In 2013, Bayern almost captured this sextet of titles. In the 2012/13 season they won the league, the DFB Cup and the Champions League before following up later in the year with the UEFA Supercup and the Club World Cup. They only failed to win the DFL Supercup as Pep Guardiola’s first official match in charge of Bayern ended in a 4-2 defeat against Dortmund.
F is for frustration
The Supercup winners have only gone on to win the league in the same season on three occasions. Dortmund managed it in 1996 and Bayern have done it twice – in 2012 and again last term.
G is for great crowds
The seventeenth edition of the Supercup was played in front of a full house as an impressive 81,360 fans watched Bayern beat Dortmund at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK last year. Every Supercup match has been sold out since 2010.
H is for home advantage
Since 2011, the Supercup has been held at the stadium of the DFB Cup winners or Bundesliga runners-up. Until 2015 there were only home wins, the last of which was Wolfsburg’s victory over Bayern in 2015. The reigning German champions therefore had no success in the competition for five years until Bayern bucked the trend last year.
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I is for interest
Interest in the Supercup is huge again this year. As well as a capacity crowd in Dortmund for the second year running, the match will also be broadcast live in around 200 countries.
J is for jubilation
Both Bayern and Dortmund have won the Supercup five times. The winner of Saturday’s match will become the record champion.
K is for know-how
Three Bayern players hold the record for most appearances in the Supercup. Philipp Lahm retired at the end of last season but Thomas Müller and Robert Lewandowski – who has three appearances with Dortmund and three with Bayern - could this weekend feature in their seventh Supercup match.
R is for Rufer
The record goalscorer in the Supercup is former New Zealand international Wynton Rufer. The striker netted four times in the final of the competition for Werder Bremen – or five times if you include the 1991/92 semi-final.
S is for series
For the fifth time in six years, Bayern and Dortmund will meet in the opening game of the German season. Since the return of the Supercup in 2010, Bayern have only missed out on playing in the competition once. That was in 2011, when league winners Dortmund took on DFB Cup winners Schalke in Gelsenkirchen.
T is for trophy
The current trophy has been awarded to the Supercup winners since 2010. It is 53 centimetres tall and weighs six kilos. The silver ball at the top is held by two symbolic arms – one in silver that represents the league winners and one in gold for the cup winners. It is insured for €40,000.
X is for X factor
Both teams have strengthened in the summer. Along with ex-Hoffenheim players Sebastian Rudy and Niklas Süle – who helped Germany win the FIFA Confederations Cup – Bayern have also signed midfielders James Rodriguez and Corentin Tolisso. Dortmund have picked up former Leverkusen captain Ömer Toprak, midfielder Mahmoud Dahoud from Mönchengladbach and ex-Freiburg attacker Maximilian Philipp. Young French defender Dan-Axel Zagadou has also arrived from Paris Saint-Germain.
Y is for youngster
In the 2014 Supercup, Bayern coach Pep Guardiola put 17-year-old Gianluca Gaudino in his starting eleven. A more experienced Dortmund line-up won thanks to goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Z is for zoom
The 2017 Supercup will see a Video Assistant Referee [VAR] used in a competitive match in Germany for the first time. The VAR is designed to offer additional assistance to the match referee, allowing for video footage to be reviewed to see if there was a violation in the build-up to a goal, for penalty and red card decisions, and to check for mistaken identity in the case of a yellow or red card.