Mainz 05 will travel to their first competitive match of the new season between August 21st and 24th deep into eastern Germany, where VfB Krieschow will face the Rhinelanders. This was determined by the draw for the first round of the 2026/27 DFB-Pokal on Saturday evening at the German Football Museum in Dortmund. The club from the 490-inhabitant village finished the 2025/26 season in eighth place in the NOFV-Oberliga Süd. The current scheduling of the 32 matches will take place in the further course of the summer break. The match will be played, as expected, at the Energie Cottbus Friendship Stadium. 05 sports director Niko Bungert comments on the draw as follows: "The draw is a characteristic piece of the special nature of the DFB-Pokal. We are facing a small club, for which the game will be an absolute highlight. Such duels make the competition. As a Bundesliga club, it's about doing justice to our favorite role in a certainly emotional atmosphere. This makes it exciting and we will by no means make the mistake of underestimating the task. For our fans, we would have naturally preferred a less adventurous journey to the first competitive match of the new season, but we take it just as it has come."