The DFB-Pokal 2026/27 began on 21 August 2026, but Borussia Dortmund's first-round match against HEBC Hamburg was pushed into early September. The change came after Dortmund played in the Franz-Beckenbauer-Supercup on 22 August 2026, forcing the cup schedule to shift around one of the tournament's biggest names.
That is the detail readers are looking for now: the opening round is under way, and the postponement affects a match that was supposed to sit among the first wave of fixtures. The draw for the 1. Hauptrunde took place on 6 June 2026, and the rest of the round is still moving through the calendar toward early September, when the delayed ties are due to be played.
On the opening Friday, SC St. Tönis 11/20 faced Eintracht Frankfurt at 18 Uhr, while SV Waldhof Mannheim met the 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Preußen Münster played the Karlsruher SC at the same time. FC Augsburg then took on Energie Cottbus on Saturday, 22 August 2026, at 13 Uhr. The pattern changed once Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern München entered the picture in the Franz-Beckenbauer-Supercup a day later.
That is also why the other postponed tie involving FC Bayern München, the meeting with VfL Osnabrück, was moved back into early September as well. The scheduling gap is simple enough: the DFB opened the cup on 21 August 2026, but two clubs involved in the Supercup could not play their first-round cup matches on the same weekend, so those fixtures were held back while the rest of the first round moved ahead.
The rest of the tournament is already mapped out. The second round is set for October, the round of 16 for early December, and the competition pauses again until early February 2027 before the quarter-finals in February and the semi-finals in April. The final will be played on Saturday, 29 May 2027, in the Berliner Olympiastadion.
For now, the only unanswered point is the exact day in early September for HEBC Hamburg against Borussia Dortmund. What is clear is that the match is no longer part of the opening weekend, and the first round will continue around it until the delayed fixture finally lands.
