Meuselwitz U19

Twice ZFC Meuselwitz have reached the Thuringia Cup final and twice they have walked into FC Carl Zeiss Jena, in 2022 and again in 2024, losing both. May 2026 brings a third attempt, and Jena again stand on the other side — the fixture the club calls the kleines Derby. They have won the trophy outright three times, in 2010, 2011 and 2025, so the final is not unfamiliar ground; getting past Jena there is the part that has eluded them.

The club began life in 1948 as BSG Aktivist Zipsendorf, took the name Aktivist Meuselwitz in 1976 when Zipsendorf merged into the town, and became ZFC Meuselwitz only after reunification, in 1994. The nickname Zipser has outlasted all of it. Promotion through the league pyramid came in stages that read like a ladder rather than a single leap: champions of the Kreisliga Altenburg in 1994, the Bezirksklasse Gera the following year, the Bezirksliga Gera the year after that, then the Landesklasse Ost in 1997 and the Landesliga Thüringen in 2004, before the NOFV-Oberliga Süd title in 2009. BSG Aktivist Zipsendorf had shown the same habit decades earlier, taking the Kreisliga Altenburg three years running between 1954 and 1956.

Jena is not the only fixture with weight attached; matches against FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt carry their own name, the kleines Thüringer Derby. The club plays in white and red at the bluechip-Arena, known for most of its history as the Stadion Glaserkuppe, which holds 5,260, and one that will fill again next May when Jena come back for the final.