The 1964 Danish Cup final (Danish: DBUs Landspokalfinale 1964) was a men's association football match between Esbjerg fB and Odense KFUM played at Københavns Idrætspark on 7 May 1964. It was the final match to determine the winner of the 1963–64 Danish Cup, the 10th season of the Danish national-wide annual football knockout competition, the Danish Cup, open to all DBU member clubs. This was the first time that two sides had ever met in a domestic cup competition and only the third time in a competitive league game. For Odense KFUM, the match represented their first opportunity to win a title on a national level, having never reached the quarterfinals in previous seasons in the cup's current incarnation, while Esbjerg fB were participating in their third cup final, having lost on both previous occasions. This was the third consecutive year the tournament's final featured a team from Odense.
Esbjerg fB played in the then top flight of Danish association football, 1st Division, and bypassed the initial stages of the tournament with an entry into the third round proper, while 2nd Division club Odense KFUM entered one round earlier. The last three season's reigning Danish league champions Esbjerg fB's road to the final included victories over BK Fremad Valby, Vorup Frederiksberg BK, B 1909 and Akademisk BK. Odense KFUM secured its berth in the final by defeating Holbæk B&IF, Knabstrup IF, Brønshøj BK, Aarhus GF, and the previous league season's runners-up and reigning cup title holders, B 1913.
The crowd of 24,500 witnessed Esbjerg fB defeating Odense KFUM 2–1, winning the competition for the first time in the club's history. The final was the seventh time out of ten occasions, that a team from the Jutland peninsula won the cup title. Esbjerg fB's centre-forward Carl Bertelsen, who scored the first goal of the game, was named as the man of the match (Danish: Årets Pokalfighter). As the winner of the tournament, Esbjerg fB qualified for the 1964–65 European Cup Winners' Cup. The last moments of the final and most of the award ceremony were marked by the spectator's deafening antipathy towards the Esbjerg fB-players, which several Danish newspapers characterized as a scandal.
Route to the final
Esbjerg fB The Esbjerg-based team bypassed the initial stages of the cup tournament with an entry in the third round proper as one of the twelve teams from the top-tier of Danish association football — then known as the 1st Division — one round later than their opponent in the final, and one week after their culmination of the 1963 league season. In their first cup match of the 1963–64 season, Esbjerg fB were drawn against the fifth-tier Københavnsserien side BK Fremad Valby, and on 24 November 1963 the team and managers traveled to BK Fremad Valby's home ground Valby Idrætspark located in the Copenhagen district of Valby. In front of a small crowd of 1,200 spectators, they won the match plagued by pouring rain with an icy wind across the football field, scoring all six goals including an own goal attributed to John Madsen that shortly equalized the score after 12 minutes of play. Esbjerg fB scored first with a goal by centre-forward Carl Bertelsen within four minutes into the first half. Following Madsen's own goal, having hit the ball incorrectly outside the reach of second-string goalie Verner Beck, the match remained tied for 17 minutes until Esbjerg fB's right winger Knud Petersen scored twice in the remainder of the first half and successfully executed a penalty kick in the 68th minute of play, completing the first and only hat-trick of his footballing career. Fellow striker Carl Emil Christiansen netted the last goal of the game four minutes later, and Esbjerg fB moved on to the next round with a final score of 1–5.
On 1 December 1963, Esbjerg fB hosted the 4th Division club Vorup Frederiksberg BK — the only remaining team from a league outside the three top divisional structure, and who was relegated to the Jutland Series next year — at their home ground, Esbjerg Stadium, in the fourth round. Esbjerg struck first through Egon Jensen after only four minutes of play to take a 1–0 lead in the first half, but Vorup Frederiksberg's Poul Erik Jacobsen tied the match in the 27th minute. Centre-forward Eigild Frandsen restored Esbjerg fB's lead after 10 minutes in the second half, which was his last match and goal before his first retirement from football for the entire 1964 season. The Randers suburban-based club was narrowly eliminated with a single goal, when they were unable to overtake Esbjerg fB's 2–1 lead. Innerwing Egon Jensen commented in an interview with Berlingske Tidende that his team underestimated their opponent from the fourth tier and experienced some problems controlling the match.
The team now turned their focus to the quarterfinals, travelling to Funen's largest venue, Odense Stadium, to play a Wednesday evening game with no floodlight usage against their league rivals B 1909 in a repeat of the 1962 cup final, on 15 April 1964 in front of a 16,420 large audience. Esbjerg fB gained the upper hand with goals scored by forwards E. Jensen and K. Petersen in the 20th and 62nd minute, respectively. The Odense-based team's goalkeeper Svend Aage Rask was unable to save Esbjerg fB's second goal, achieved via a penalty kick, awarded for use of hands against the red niners' left halfback Per Jacobsen, which secured the West Jutlanders' qualification for the penultimate round of the main tournament.
A week later, Esbjerg fB met another top-tier side Akademisk BK in their third away match of the competition. The semi-final match was held at Københavns Idrætspark on 24 April 1964 with an attendance of 16,900 spectators. The Danish FA had forgotten to acquire two linesmen for the match and last-second replacements from the audience (H. Johansen of B 1901 and the former EfB player Erik Engermann) had to take their place. The academics went on top with a Henning Stilling goal, despite an injury, two minutes after half time, following an assist by forward Leif Hammer. The lead of Akademisk BK was created in a period with strong defensive tactics from both teams, with the Akademisk BK defense denying almost every goal attempt from the forwards of Esbjerg fB, who could not properly manage to organise their attacks, producing just one semi-dangerous goal attempt in almost of the match. Esbjerg fB finally broke through AB's effective 4–2–4 system in the 69th minute, when K. Petersen scored their first goal. With 20 minutes remaining of the game, the attacking play of the away team, headed by innerwing and playmaker C. E. Christiansen, began to unfold with C. E. Christiansen scoring twice in the 80th and 85th minute and Bertelsen scoring once in the 82nd minute, clinching Esbjerg fB's place in the final with a 4–1 victory.
Odense KFUM Odense KFUM entered the Danish FA sanctioned competition one round earlier, in the second round proper, together with the other eleven teams from the then second-tier in Danish football, named 2nd Division, which meant that they had to win a total of five matches to reach the final. The Odense-based team began its campaign for the 1963–64 Danish FA Cup with a home turf game in Odense on 8 September 1963 versus Holbæk B&IF of the 3rd Division, winning the match with a clean sheet of 4–0, and earning them a berth into the third round of the knockout tournament.
Due to the condition of the ground, the third round cup match facing Knabstrup IF, based in Mørkøv in north-western Zealand, scheduled to take place at Odense Stadium on 24 November 1963, had to be moved to the adjacent Odense Athletics Stadium. KFUM progressed by winning 8–3 against the sixth-tier club on a heavy and wet grass turf after leading the match 6–0 at 60 minutes of play, following a scoring spree of three goals within a seven-minute time frame in the first half. The high-scoring match involved the KFUM players Helge Jørgensen (one on penalty), Kaj Peter Larsen and Jørgen Nielsen each scoring two goals with Tommy Madsen and Karsten Wiingreen making the remaining goals. Tage Jørgensen saved one penalty kick awarded to Knabstrup IF at the beginning of the first half.
Odense ended the year by hosting their last cup and competitive match on 1 December 1963 at Odense Stadium against 1st Division club Brønshøj BK, winning the fourth round proper game 3–0 (with a half time score of 2–0) without losing control with the match at any point. Two weeks prior to the cup game, Brønshøj BK had narrowly avoided relegation from the top-tier division on the last matchday.
The quarterfinal spot was the Odense KFUM's best result in the nationwide cup tournament, not taking into account the 1940 edition of the defunct Danmarkspokalturneringen. During the off season, Peter Eriksen, Niels Erik Kildemoes and Freddy Hansen joined the senior squad directly from the youth ranks, making their senior league debut in the club's inaugural game of the season against Køge BK on 30 March and then against Aalborg BK on 5 April. The quarterfinal game against 1st Division team Aarhus GF had been postponed to 8 April 1964 due to bad weather in December 1963. The Wednesday evening home game against the Aarhus-based team was held at Odense Stadium under floodlights, a circumstance that only H. Jørgensen had experience with from other competitive games. 4,800 spectators witnessed KFUM win the match 3–1, with forward F. Hansen scoring the first goal in the 20th minute, his first goal in his senior career, and H. Jørgensen scoring his sixth and seventh goal in the first three matches of the year. An ankle injury meant that full-back Eriksen was replaced with Henning Larsen in the upcoming matches, eventually missing out on the semi-final and the cup final.
The senior team's performance in the league and cup got noticed in the media and public, which helped increase their match attendance figures. With the game once again being staged at Odense Stadium, every cup match leading up to the final had now being played in their home city of Odense. The semi-final clash on 22 April 1964 to a crowd of 9,200 spectators against the defending cup title holders, runners-up in the previous league season, local city rivals and the then neighboring club at Kildemosen sports park, B 1913, ended in a 2–2 draw after full time, necessitating 30 minutes of extra time. B 1913 wore white jerseys as away colours at the match due to the blue-green clashing of the clubs' home kits — a similar decision was however not repeated at the cup final. The thirteeners took the lead in the 16th minute with a header goal via right winger Eigil Misser, but KFUM scored twice in the next ten minutes to come on top, until Misser scored an equalizer 9 minutes before the end of the second half. A 3–2 victory to Odense KFUM was secured with the decisive goal netted by H. Jørgensen in the 104th minute, completing a hat-trick and propelling the club to the cup final.
Pre-match Venue The match was held at Københavns Idrætspark located at Øster Allé in the Østerbro district of Copenhagen and scheduled to take place on Ascension Day, Thursday 7 May 1964, which by now had become the traditional stadium and date for the cup final. The stadium had been the host stadium for the previous nine cup finals, and before 1953, the final of the regional cup tournament, KBUs Pokalturnering, took place at the venue. It was referred to as the national stadium for the Denmark national football team, the primary venue for the KBU representative team and several Copenhagen-based teams had their league and cup matches scheduled there, including exhibition games. At the beginning of the 1964 season calendar, more than 80 association football games were planned to be take place at the stadium.