Two defeats that hurt – but also two defeats that give hope: 1. FC Köln can hold their own against the top teams.
Anyone who loses two games in a row, and perhaps even unluckily, can start to have doubts. Is the quality of the squad sufficient for the season’s goals? Why don’t players reward themselves? Is the team unlucky? Small setbacks have often sent a team into a downward spiral. This seems to be different at 1. FC Köln.
After the devastating 0-1 defeat at Borussia Dortmund – because they were outnumbered due to Timo Hübers’ serious injury – and the elimination from the DFB Cup despite a self-sacrificing fight against FC Bayern Munich, the billy goats can even emerge stronger from the two games. Because one thing became apparent in these two 90 minutes: a lot fits together at FC.
The coaching team around Lukas Kwasniok gave the team match plans that worked in both games and surprised their opponents. In both games, the FC professionals were able to exploit so many of their strengths before the undeniably higher quality of their opponents prevailed in the end. And the FC was also close to a minor sensation in both games.
Even if it wasn’t enough in the end, as was the case against the top teams from Leipzig and Stuttgart, the two games against the best German teams were once again confirmation of the path that Cologne has taken. Under Kwasniok, FC works hard with and against the ball. Under Kwasniok, defensive and offensive mechanisms work early in the season. And many of the summer’s transfers have already turned out to be real reinforcements.
The quality of the squad in particular was put to the test in the games against BVB and FC Bayern. The two top teams can mercilessly expose a team’s weaknesses. But FC proved itself, and previously unknown players such as Kristoffer Lund, Sebastian Sebulonsen, Said El Mala and Isak Johannesson also held up impressively. And so the two defeats showed that FC cannot yet keep up with the top teams, but they did show that the billy goats can hurt any opponent at a high Bundesliga level.
It is in the nature of sport that every professional gets angry about a defeat. However, it is not self-evident that a team can emerge stronger from such events. This applies to FC. The Billy Goats may continue to be one of the league’s underdogs in the coming months. However, the Kwasniok troupe clearly feels right at home in this role. And she has all the prerequisites to play a stable role in the Bundesliga for the rest of the season so that she doesn’t have anything to do with relegation.