Cologne (dpa) – Steffen Baumgart will have to do without the calming paws of family dog Jory on his shoulders on Friday evening.
In return, the coach of 1. FC Köln can finally let off steam again on the sidelines after his one-week Corona break instead of making the living room unsafe at home. “I love being on the edge,” said the 50-year-old on Thursday, visibly motivated before the opening game of matchday 22 with the runners-up on Friday (8:30 p.m. / DAZN).
He greeted the journalists early in the morning with the humorous words. “It’s important for me to be back. I don’t know how important that is for you.” At home, Baumgart explained with a wink, “everyone is happy that I’m out”. He converted the living room into a coaching zone during the game against Freiburg. A video posted by daughter Emilia, in which Baumgart emotionally follows the game against Freiburg in the living room, went viral last week.
Dog as a secret star
And Eurasier Jory, who kept putting his paws on Baumgart’s shoulders to calm him down, had become the secret star. “The dog is like the fourth official trying to calm him down,” even England football icon Gary Lineker tweeted. On the WDR website, the Cologne dog trainer Sebastian Marx analyzed the animal’s behavior under the heading “This is how Steffen Baumgart’s dog Jory ticks”. “It’s easy to see that the dog is under stress,” Marx said: “He’s panting and yawning. The reaction is also completely normal. If I freaked out like that, it would stress my dog too.”
But just as Baumgart does not moderate himself at home on the one hand, the fourth official on Friday obviously does not need to be afraid that back in the stadium it will break out of him oversized. “The excitement won’t be any different than at home,” he explained. “When my boys are playing, it doesn’t matter where I am. You don’t change as a person just because you’re at home.”
His daughter did not agree to the recording and publication of the video with him. “But she doesn’t have to,” assured the 50-year-old: “The children know how I am at home. There have already been one or two games that they have experienced like this.” In general, he tried not to go into great detail about the video and dismiss it as a side note. “You can’t think about what’s big today and what’s not,” he said. “But anyone who knows me knows that it wasn’t anything abnormal.”
Free tested
Baumgart tested positive last Wednesday and was able to test free this Wednesday. His assistant André Pawlak represented him as boss against Freiburg (1-0). Leipzig colleague Domenico Tedesco was “first and foremost pleased that he is healthy and that he did not have a difficult course”. And added with a smile: “I think the video showed that again.”
It is curious that the Cologne team, who were only saved in the relegation last year, go into the game in sixth place after 21 games, one point ahead of the runners-up. Baumgart said that was just “a snapshot”: “We are well above our goals, Leipzig is lagging behind a bit. But the goal is to win in Leipzig too”. Tedesco assured: “It’s no joke that I haven’t looked at the table for weeks.” This will only become important later in the season. RB’s clear goal remains fourth place and thus qualification for the Champions League. In Cologne, meanwhile, people are not yet openly talking about Europe.
After a week-long dispute, which RB also conducted legally, significantly more spectators are allowed to go to the Red Bull Arena again. 15,000 are admitted on Friday.