Memorable Monday: The History of the DFL Supercup

It sometimes seem like the DFL Supercup became an extra game in the German football calendar out of nowhere; this is because the DFL Supercup has undergone plenty of changes since its founding, unofficially, in 1976. In the 70s and 80s, only two matches were played in the unofficial Supercup. Borussia Mönchengladbach played Hamburger SV in the first edition. Gladbach had won the league and HSV the Cup. The battle turned out to be a worthy one with Gladbach edging it out, 3-2.

The Supercup, in those days, was played in West Germany; in the next edition, two legendary West German teams were again involved. Hamburger SV arrived, this time as champions of Germany, to play the Pokal winners, FC Bayern München. The game finished 1-1 and had to go to penalties as there was no extra time. Bayern ran out winners, 3-4, on penalties.

Finally, in 1987, the Supercup was made official by the DFB.  This time, extra time was introduced.  In the first official competition, Jupp Heynckes' league winners, Bayern, took on, yet again, Hamburger SV. The match finished 2-1 in Bayern's favor with center forward Jürgen Wegmann grabbing both the goals. As it turned out, Wegmann's time at Bayern would be short; he would spend two years with the club, grabbing 26 goals in the process, before moving on, for a rather dry spell as far as goals are concerned, to Borussia Dortmund.

In between 1987 and 1996, when the match was recognized as part of the DFB's calendar, Bayern went to the final four times and won twice. The biggest margin of victory in the competition until today is three goals. That occurred in 1990 in a tussle between Bayern (league winners) and Kaiserslautern (cup winners). Jupp Heynckes' side beat the Pokal champions 4-1, with goals coming from household names Stefan Reuter, Jürgen Kohler, Manfred Bender and Thomas Strunz.

Only one game went to extra time in the history of the competition. The final of 1994, contested by Bayern and Werder (Pokal winners) in Munich, finished 1-1 after normal time. Vladimir Beschastnykh's early goal was canceled out by a strike from Christian Nerlinger.  Goals from Michael Schulz and a Bremen legend from New Zealand, Wynton Rufer saw the match end 1-3 in Bremen's favor.

The final game in the competition before it was shut down in 1996 was played between Kaiserslautern and league winners Borussia Dortmund, with BVB running out winners, 4-3 on penalties. In 1997, the DFB introduced a rather unnecessary competition called the DFB Ligapokal in which the top five teams of the league along with the Pokal winners played each other. The competition was long and in 2008, was rendered difficult to schedule due to the Euros. As a substitute, the Supercup was played as the T-Home Supercup. Bayern played Dortmund and went on to lose 0-2.

The match returned to the German football calendar officially in 2010. This time, the DFB was no longer in charge. The DFL took over and decided to rule out extra time. Bayern played Schalke and ran out winners with two fine goals from Thomas Müller and Miroslav Klose. From 2011 onwards, Dortmund contested every final, meeting Bayern in three of those finals. The last finale was won by BVB, 0-2. Bayern last lifted the trophy under Heynckes in 2012, running out 1-2 winners courtesy of very early strikes from Mario Mandzukic and Müller.

Overall, in the competition's history, Dortmund is the most decorated team, having lifted the trophy five times.  Bayern have contested the most finals (eight), winning four. They can catch up with BVB by beating VfL Wolfsburg in the next edition.

*Thanks to Wikipedia