It will be one of the longest away trips of the season: nearly 621 kilometres separate the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart and Rostock’s Ostseestadion, where VfB begin their 2019/20 DFB Cup campaign on Monday evening (kick-off 18:30 CEST). Their opponents are 13th in the 3. Liga with four points from the first four games, and VfB head coach Walter is well aware his side are the favourites in this encounter – a role they will have to get used to this season. “Everyone sees us the favourites in our 2. Bundesliga games, and it’s the same this time in the cup,” he said. “For that reason, we don’t have to prepare specifically for being favourites. We know what we’re up against and we’ll play accordingly.”
That means having the attitude that this match – as with the rest of their league games this season – is akin to a final. “Every team that plays against us will give 150 per cent, so we need to treat these games like finals,” continued Walter. “Every game is important for us. We can’t talk big if we see ourselves as too good for the little tasks. We’re going there to win. For us it’s about going as far as possible in the cup.”
With a couple of training sessions to go, Walter remains open as to who will be in the squad that travels to Rostock on Sunday evening. It is also not yet decided whether new signing Nathaniel Phillips will be included. “He’s been with us for two days and first needs to learn how we play, and settle in and get to know the team,” said Walter. Meanwhile, Mario Gomez is in full training again following his recent muscle problem and Emiliano Insua also returned to the fold on Friday morning having recovered from his muscle tear. Likewise Philipp Klement, another one recently nursing a muscular issue, is “on the road to recovery and back in training”, Walter confirmed.