1. FC Köln is preparing to seriously flirt with Europe. On Sunday, the team of coach Steffen Baumgart defeated in a hard-fought and unexpectedly hectic game with 3: 1 (2: 1) – and moved up to sixth place in the table. The gap to the Champions League is only two points. “We want to play a great back series and see where we are headed,” said defender Luca Kilian at DAZN. There was also a little challenge to the upcoming opponent, FC Bayern: “We want to annoy them.”
It was a game that initially invited one to dwell on a series of trivialities. For example, the fact that the lawn in the Olympic Stadium (once again) did not deserve its name, but looked more like a crater landscape in green-brown camouflage color. Or with the fact that Cologne’s coach Baumgart literally appeared shirt-sleeved even when it felt like sub-zero temperatures. Until the game broke. And in no time at all, all the doubts that Hertha BSC have always had emerged.
At the end of the year 2021, Hertha had defeated Borussia Dortmund 3-2. But it was not apparent that Hertha had been able to save the self-confidence that such an unexpected victory usually gives into the new year. On the contrary. The deeper the potholes in the lawn, the more indecipherable the game of the Berliners became. And yet the game gave birth to a paradoxical phenomenon. Because just when Cologne director Ondrej Duda began to usurp the game and distribute the balls with elegant nonchalance, Hertha had a formidable chance.
Even after the connection hit, the Cologne team lost neither head nor control
Vladimir Darida cleared the summer signing Myziane Maolida in the penalty area. But nerves failed the French. Although he was able to lay the ball in peace, he failed from eleven meters to Cologne goalkeeper Marvin Schwänke, who had left the line to shorten the angle. And quite a few Berliners might have wondered how the Polish “Pistolero” Krzysztof Piatek would have dealt with the chance that Hertha gave to Fiorentina in Italy just at the weekend.
Trust of the coach justified: Cologne’s new goalkeeper Marvin Schwänke (in yellow) prevents a goal from Berlin’s Myziane Maolida in a one-on-one. Davie Selke (right) looks on in amazement.
(Photo: Engler / Nordphoto // imago)
Immediately after Maolida’s bad faux pas, the people of Cologne struck in all their mercilessness. And showed Maolida and the Berliners how to do it in front of the gate. Less than a minute after the great chance for Maolida, Mark Uth crossed from the left, and Anthony Modeste screwed his own myth into a new dimension. He scored his twelfth Bundesliga goal of the current season (29th). Three minutes later a cross flew from the right into the Berlin penalty area; Hertha’s captain Niklas Stark headed the ball out – just right in front of Duda’s feet. The Slovak pulled directly from the edge of the penalty area – and hit flat against his ex-team to 2-0.
That smelled like a preliminary decision. Because the Berliners, who went into the game badly replacement and corona weakened, were caught in a phase by the goals in which they had zero access to the game. Even more: In phases they reminded of the worst appearances of the current season – adjusted for the recognizable effort to maintain a solid basic structure. That didn’t change much after the break, during which, by the way, a remarkable change was made. Referee Tobias Stieler gave up due to an injury – and was replaced by the fourth official Alexander Sather.
And so it was Sather who put on record that Hertha came largely unexpectedly to the connection goal: Darida hit a free kick into the penalty area, and the ball only landed in the goal because Maolida stayed away and only hinted at a header. With which he decisively irritated Cologne goalkeeper Schwänke. All he could do was watch the ball sail into the goal.
But Cologne lost neither head nor control, at Hertha the uncertainty did not want to give way. This was best seen with a crazy back pass from Stark, which Hertha’s goalkeeper Schwolow had to parry – but with his hand. The result: an indirect free kick from six meters, which Uth chased on goal. Schwolow parried. That was the moment when the game got wild, opportunities arose here and there, and both teams tested their character on a deep and soapy run. Cologne withstood the late Berlin impetus – and came after a bad mistake by Darida by Jan Uwe Thielmann to the 3-1 final score. He ran up to goalkeeper Schwolow alone – and did better than Maolida.