1. FC Cologne
FC comes last in the city tournament – Kwasniok
10/10/2025 – 06:47 amReading time: 3 minutes
In sixth place in the Bundesliga, bottom of the city tournament: 1. FC Köln experienced bitter disappointment at the Cologne Cup in the Südstadion on Thursday evening.
The currently sixth-placed team in the Bundesliga suffered a 1-2 defeat against third division team Viktoria Köln and regional division team Fortuna Cologne – and thus ended up with last place in the charity city tournament. While Fortuna won the title and ultimately lifted the trophy into the evening sky in front of just over 2,000 spectators in the Südstadion, FC only had the consolation that the proceeds from the charity event would benefit children and youth work in socially disadvantaged areas.
Coach Lukas Kwasniok deliberately used the two games to give his second row some match practice. National players and several regulars were missing, but the Cologne line-up was correspondingly diverse. The two U21 defenders Yannick Mausehund and Luc Dabrowski started alongside Cenk Özkacar in the back three. In addition, Jusuf Gazibegovic, who was not in the squad for four games in a row, also got his chance from the start.
But the players who wanted to make a name for themselves in the absence of the established players missed their chance. The team appeared erratic, harmless in the finish and vulnerable on defense – a clear contrast to the strong start to the season in the Bundesliga.
At the start against Viktoria Köln, the Billy Goats fell behind after half an hour when Soichiro Kozuki scored for the third division team. Ragnar Ache, who had previously missed several great chances, equalized to make it 1-1 shortly before the break. But in stoppage time, of all people, former FC young player Samuele Carella scored to give Viktoria a 2-1 win. “The only thing that pissed me off a bit tactically was the 1:2,” Kwasniok said afterwards. “We were working on the box defense and didn’t even have any escort today, we lost our bearings.”
In the second game against Fortuna Cologne, a win with a two-goal difference would have brought victory in the tournament – but nothing came of that either. Ache gave FC the lead after ten minutes, but then Fortuna striker Enzo Wirtz turned the game around: first he converted a penalty to make it 1-1, and a little later he took advantage of a bad pass from keeper Ron-Robert Zieler to score the winning goal into the empty goal. “We fooled ourselves,” Kwasniok commented matter-of-factly. “They earned the penalty because they were there when there was a technical error. Then there was Ron’s unfortunate situation – congratulations to Fortuna.”
Despite the last place, the new FC coach refrained from loud criticism. “The attitude was absolutely fine, I was okay with that,” Kwasniok said. “The games don’t have to end like that. We had good communication on the field. One or two guys showed a decent performance, two or three guys didn’t quite do that. That’s what test games are for: to draw attention to yourself – or not.”