Gladbach and Kaiserslautern advance in DFB Pokal
Wednesday’s soccer news starts in the second round of the DFB Pokal. Jordan Pefok and Joe Scally’s Gladbach beat Lenny Maloney’s Heidenheim 3-1 at home. Maloney subbed out at halftime and Pefok followed in the 65th minute. Pefok put Gladbach up in the 3rd and doubled the lead in the 9th, with Robin Hack adding a third goal in the 44th. Heidenheim’s Adrian Beck scored in the 78th minute.
“Of course, for me as a striker it’s important to score goals and I’m happy to have played my part in the win today,” Pefok told his club’s official site. “But I’d like to take this opportunity to praise my teammates who gave me these chances in the first place. The team’s cohesion was generally super and everyone fought for their teammates. We can be pleased with the performance today, but the focus is now on the next Bundesliga game in Freiburg.”
Tyler Boyd subbed out of Kaiserslautern’s 3-2 home win over Cologne in the 76th minute. Richmond Tachie opened the scoring for Kaiserslautern in the 19th, KEny PRince Redondo doubled the lead in the 47th, and Marlon Ritter made it 3-0 in the 65th.Cologne scored in the 71st and 81st, but saw red in the 79th and 84th minutes.
Julian Green’s Furth lost 2-1 at Homburg. Down a goal from the 31st, Furth’s Branimir Hrgota equalized in the 52nd. Homburg scored again in the 83rd minute. “We picked up the pace too late in the decisive situation, underestimated the speed of the opponent in the situation, and then it’s 2-1 and we couldn’t turn it around in the end,” Furth coach Alex Zorniger said.
Brenden Aaronson subbed on in the 72nd minute of Union Berlin’s 1-0 loss at Stuttgart to a 45th minute goal. Ulysses Llanez wasn’t in the squad for Wolfsburg’s 1-0 home win over RB Leipzig. Vaclav Cerny scored for Wolfsburg in the 14th and RB Leipzig saw red in the 56th minute.
Moving to the MLS playoffs, later tonight Columbus hosts Atlanta in the opening game of that round one series. Both teams last played on Decision Day, where the Crew beat Montreal 2-1 to finish the season on a six-game unbeaten run. Atlanta drew 2-2 at FC Cincinnati to finish with back-to-back draws. The first of those was home to the Crew on October 7 with that game ending 1-1.
Also in the soccer news, FIFA officially confirmed that only Saudi Arabia is bidding to host the 2034 World Cup. With one bid for the 2030 edition, FIFA specified that “In accordance with these regulations, the FIFA administration will conduct a targeted dialogue with bidders, to ensure complete, comprehensive bids are received and evaluated against the minimum hosting requirements as also previously approved by the FIFA Council.”
THURSDAY’S SOCCER TV
No games on the broadcast TV schedule.
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Photo by Michael Titgemeyer – Action Press via ZUMA Press – ISIPhotos.com
