There’s nothing like a derby triumph to get you back on your feet. All four of them. “I was the tree for a long time, now I’m happy that I’m the dog again,” a relieved Steffen Baumgart said.
The Cologne coach very much had his tail up after his side’s first win of the season, crying tears of joy after beating Borussia Monchengladbach 3-1. “The way the boys played today, despite the difficult situation, put a big smile on my face,” he added.
All around him at the Rhein Energie Stadion, supporters were barking mad with happiness as well, serenading the players with a club anthem as the stadium DJ sensibly turned down the volume on the four-to-the-floor playlist. There had been plenty of talk of all the mistakes made by the coaching staff and club leadership during the international break after Cologne’s worst start to a Bundesliga campaign. A defeat by the ‘Fohlen’ — Foals — would have left Cologne at the bottom of the table with nearly a quarter of the season gone.
But on Sunday, this limited but hard-working team at last got the breaks that hadn’t gone their way all season. With the help of the VAR, referee Deniz Aytekin awarded a penalty to the home side, sent off midfielder Manu Kone and ordered a repeat of Cologne’s second spot kick since Gladbach ‘keeper Moritz Nicolas had moved off his line too quickly before saving Florian Kainz’s shot. All those decisions were contentious but correct, as was Aytekin awarding Cologne the second penalty after Nicolas channelled his inner Harald Schumacher and collided with Luca Waldschmidt in the box.
Baumgart admitted that Cologne still have a long way to go to find safety, but their chances are boosted by the fact that the noisy, unruly crowd in Mungersdorf are standing by them during these difficult times, in line with last season’s trend that saw other troubled clubs receiving unqualified support from their hardcore fans as well. In the not-so-distant past, Bundesliga crowds often turned on the players in similar circumstances, creating a toxic environment of constant fear and ugly “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” recriminations.
On this occasion, however, ultra capo Stephan Schell gave the team a moving pep talk before the final whistle, assuring them of the fans’ backing for the entire game, irrespective of the result. “Those were good and motivating words,” said defender Jeff Chabot. “They gave us a good push. And then we went for it.”
Albeit, with a slight delay. The south stand had let off enough flares to cover the entire pitch in smoke and it took six minutes before adequate visibility returned. Cologne will have to pay a few hundred thousand euros in fines for the illegal fireworks but they might consider it money rather well spent. If the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne upholds FIFA’s transfer ban for the club after their signing of teenage Slovenian striker Jaka Cuber Potocnik from Olimpija Ljubljana in January 2022, funds that cannot be spent in the January transfer market could go towards creating the most hostile atmosphere possible in the ground instead.
With the help of Cologne’s amazing supporters, Gladbach shouldn’t be the last side to get a taste of big dog Baumgart’s special Eau de Cologne this season.
Further up the ladder, it was business as usual, with all the top five sides winning. League leaders Bayer Leverkusen couldn’t quite play their trademark thrilling football away to Niko Kovac’s obdurate Wolfsburg, but they found a way to eke out a result like the best teams often do. Dutch wing-back Jeremie Frimpong was particularly brilliant, with a goal and an assist in the 2-1 win.
Frimpong celebrating against Wolfsburg (Oliver Hardt/Getty Images)
Second-placed Stuttgart, the subject of of a great piece by my colleague Seb Stafford-Bloor, were impressive again in their 3-0 away win against Union Berlin, who are now on an eight-game losing streak.
Bayern Munich (3-1 at Mainz) and Borussia Dortmund (1-0 against Werder Bremen) have found stability, getting decent results without playing particularly well. However, Thomas Tuchel is running out of players now that Leon Goretzka will miss a few weeks after breaking his hand. Honorary president Uli Hoeness doesn’t agree with his coach that the squad is too thin but the numbers don’t lie: Bayern are only taking 18 players, including just two centre-backs, to Istanbul for the game against Galatasaray this week.
Dortmund have stealthily amassed the most points per game of all teams in the top five divisions in Europe this calendar year: 2.44. Their football is more functional than thrilling but the results bear testament to Edin Terzic’s clever pragmatism. (It helps that Julian Brandt, Friday’s goalscorer, is having a superb season.)
As for Leipzig, they made rather hard work of what should have been an easy win at Darmstadt, considering they were 2-0 up after 16 minutes. Lois Openda’s second goal secured all three points for Marco Rose’s men.
On Sunday, Augsburg’s “new-manager bounce” looked more like someone pushing the hyperdrive button. Danish manager Jess Thorup won 5-2 at Heidenheim on his debut at the club, coming back from two goals down. Midfielder Fredrik Jensen was the on-pitch hero, with a hat-trick, and signs are that Thorup will completely change Augsburg’s style and probably their fortunes, too. For the first time in years, their football looked enjoyable.
Augsburg’s comeback was pretty good but not a patch on the showing from second-division Fortuna Dusseldorf. They were 3-0 down against Kaiserslautern within 32 minutes in their first “free of charge” game but rallied back to win 4-3 in front of 50,000 delirious fans. The only sour note was Kaiserslautern’s Ragnar Ache getting hit by a plastic bottle. Fortunately, he could continue playing. The visitors are unlikely to log a protest.
Later this week, we will be running a separate piece about the impact the war in the Middle East is having on German football.
(Top photo: Lars Baron/Getty Images)
