Almost as if in slow motion, Steffen Baumgart stretched his arms in the sky at the final whistle and smiled: After more than 90 minutes of pure tension, the new coach of 1. FC Köln celebrated the end of the debut curse of his predecessors on Sunday in the midst of 16,500 euphoric fans even took time for selfies with some FC supporters. Before that, Baumgart had been playing on the sidelines in the 3-1 (1-1) against Hertha BSC at the end of the first day of the Bundesliga match, constantly whistling on his fingers and even firing his peaked cap on the ground once. Baumgart was fully there – and his team followed him. “Since I’ve never won an opening game like this, I’m glad we won,” he said on the DAZN streaming service. He was already there at the opening game against FC Bayern in Gladbach. “I saw a great game on Friday, I saw a great game today. It couldn’t be more.”
He owed the successful start to Anthony Modeste and double goal scorer Florian Kainz. After the 0: 1 through Hertha’s access Stevan Jovetic (6th minute), Modeste, who scored 25 goals for Cologne in the Europa League in 2017, scored his first league goal in 14 months (41st). He prepared the 2-1 for Kainz (52nd), then the Austrian met again (55th). “The boys can step on the gas. They did that. They stuck to the plan even after the deficit,” praised Baumgart, who is the first coach since Volker Finke to win his Bundesliga premiere with 1. FC Köln.
The people of Cologne benefit from the new interpretation of the rules for handball
Hertha returnee Kevin-Prince Boateng, however, was unhappy. “We had big plans,” he said. “After the 1-1 draw we break in and don’t come back into the game.” That was mainly due to the people of Cologne. They took Baumgart’s ideas to heart from the start, fought and ran. However, the new coach has not yet been able to remedy the fatal standard weakness from the previous season in preparation. After a free kick by Marvin Plattenhardt, Cologne keeper Timo Horn held Matheus Cunha’s header. The Brazilian Olympic champion passed the ball on to Jovetic, who has now scored in all five major leagues in Europe.
After a short shock phase, the Cologne team, who had only saved themselves from relegation in the previous season through the successful relegation from relegation, continued to play forward. FC was lucky when referee Robert Hartmann looked at the TV pictures after an alleged handball by Rafael Czichos in the penalty area, but did not give a penalty. It would have existed in the previous year, according to the new interpretation of the rules, in which the intention is in the foreground, the decision was okay.
Modestes compensation was also checked, but VAR Patrick Alt saw no clear foul in the duel with the trainer’s son Marton Dardai. “It wasn’t a foul for me,” said Boateng. After the change, the Cologne team took the guests by surprise. Kainz hit twice within three minutes. Although Hertha only made limited pressure after that, Baumgart was committed to the sideline every second, pacing up and down the sideline – and finally was able to breathe a sigh of relief.