originally the cup games were held over two 45 minute halves with two 15 minute overtime periods in case of a draw. if the score was still level after 120 minutes the game was replayed with the home field right reversed. in the 1939 "tschammer-pokal" the semi-final between waldhof mannheim and wacker wien was played to a draw three times before the game was decided by lot. the german football association decided to hold a penalty shootout if the replay was another draw after a similar situation arose in the 1970 cup, when the match between alemannia aachen and werder bremen had to be decided by lot after two draws.