Sommer: “Important to get that winning feeling”

In an interview after Monday night’s 1-0 DFB-Pokal first-round win at 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Borussia goalkeeper Yann Sommer spoke about the atmosphere at the Betzenberg, the Foals’ performance and upcoming Bundesliga opener against FC Bayern München on Friday (20:30 CEST).

Yann, how did it feel to finally play a game in front of Borussia fans again?

Yann Sommer: It was really nice. We’ve waited for this moment for a long time. It’s great to finally have fans back in the stadium creating an atmosphere. It would have been even better if we could have had 20,000 because I really enjoy playing at the Betzenberg, but the 5,000 that were allowed in still created a fantastic atmosphere.

How do you feel the game went?

Sommer: We knew that Lautern wouldn’t make it easy for us. They played well, chased us down and kept things tight at the back for the entire 90 minutes. That made it difficult to build-up the play. Kaiserslautern put in a good performance and that’s why we only ended up winning 1-0, even though we did have a couple of other chances to add to the scoreline.

Like you say, there were some decent goalscoring opportunities that went begging…

Sommer: That’s true, and being clinical is something that will be important for us this season. If we had added to our lead, it would have made the rest of the game a lot easier for us, particularly as your opponents end up throw everything forward at the end of the game, and there’s always a chance that the ball can just pop up for one of them in the box.

You managed to keep a clean sheet in the end though. How did you think the team played defensively?

Sommer: You can’t keep a good opponent completely at bay, but I think that we defended very aggressively. We held a high line, covered well, got stuck in and communicated a lot. I think we implemented everything that the coach had spoken about before the game and that made it difficult for our opponents to create chances.

What can you take away from the win going into Friday’s Bundesliga opener against Bayern?

Sommer: It’s of course going to be a very different game against Bayern, but we’ve got that first win of the season under our belts and it’s important to get that winning feeling. Playing a cup game against good opposition is really valuable as it gives you a meaningful opportunity to look at things that went well and some things that didn’t necessarily. So now we’re raring to go in the new Bundesliga season.