The DFB-Pokal is a traditional competition in German football. In the first round, 64 teams meet and compete for a place in the next round. The defending champion is FC Bayern Munich, who won the final of the 2025/26 season with 3-0 against VfB Stuttgart. Borussia Dortmund goes into the DFB-Pokal 2026/27 as a Bundesliga team. The BVB ended the 2025/26 Bundesliga season with 73 points in second place and qualified for the UEFA Champions League. In the DFB-Pokal 2025/26, Borussia Dortmund was eliminated in the quarterfinals. Due to participation in the Franz-Beckenbauer-Supercup, the vice-champion will only enter the competition on September 1, 2026, with the away game against HEBC Hamburg. Both teams meet in the DFB-Pokal 2026/27 for the first time. Accordingly, there are no compulsory league matches between HEBC Hamburg and Borussia Dortmund. The match in the first round is therefore the first encounter between the two teams. Since HEBC Hamburg, as a fifth-division team, meets the Bundesliga vice-champion Borussia Dortmund, the BVB is the clear favorite in the match. However, surprises are possible in the DFB-Pokal, as outsiders regularly try to cause a sensation against higher-class opponents. HEBC Hamburg plays in the 2026/27 season in the Oberliga Hamburg, the fifth-highest league in German football. The club has been a member of the league for seven years and finished the previous season in 12th place. For HEBC, participation in the DFB-Pokal 2026/27 is a premiere. The club qualified through the win of the Hamburg Landespokal, in the final of which they defeated SC Vorwärts-Wacker 04 5-1. This means that HEBC has been in the modern DFB-Pokal main competition for the first time since 1935. The first-round match between HEBC Hamburg and Borussia Dortmund will take place on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. Kickoff is at 20:45. The home stadium of HEBC, the Professor-Reinmüller-Platz, does not meet the safety requirements of the DFB and offers only about 2,500 seats. Therefore, the match will be played in the Volksparkstadion with a capacity of about 57,000 spectators. The broadcast of the DFB-Pokal 26/27 remains unchanged compared to the previous season. Sky shows all games of the competition from the first round to the final live and both as a single game and in the conference. Selected matches will also be broadcast in free-to-air television by ARD, ZDF, or RTL. If a match is missed, the highlights can be followed afterwards, among other things, by ARD, ZDF, RTL, DAZN, Sport1, and on the platforms of kicker. The first-round match between HEBC Hamburg and Borussia Dortmund will be broadcast live in free-to-air television by RTL. The broadcaster will show the match on Tuesday evening parallel to the broadcast in the live stream on RTL+. In addition, the duel will also be seen on Sky. The pay-TV broadcaster will transmit the match both as a single game and as part of the conference.