The 1. FC Köln has put a dream start to the Bundesliga. The climber fulfills the first promise that the FC bosses had given before the season.
After two match days, no team has reached a season goal, neither the relegation nor the championship. But for a club like the 1. FC Köln, the first game days of a season can be trend -setting. In the last three descents, FC started with zero points from the first two games of the season.
If you get into a negative spiral, you will find it very difficult to get out. Hardly any club can sing more songs than the billy goats. And so FC’s start of the season was eagerly awaited. It was a surprise bag anyway – new sports director, new coach, a half -renewed team. Who could know how the FC would start?
There were a tremor in the DFB Cup, a tremor in Mainz and a brilliant victory against Freiburg. Three games in which not everything was gold that shone. However, three games also in which the team compiled by sports director Thomas Kessler and trained by Lukas Kwasniok directly redeemed several promises that those responsible had given in the course of the preparation.
First, the team would be fit. Anyone who scores the decisive goals against Regensburg in added time and in Mainz in the 90th minute is fit. Anyone who runs four and a half kilometers more than the opponent against Freiburg is fit. Second, the team would play an intensive, aggressive football. No, this is not a new edition of the old tree gart football.
Kwasniok lets it play differently, intensively. But you already notice that the players are ready to invest a lot to be successful. And thirdly: the team would get faster.
Kessler has signed faster players in practically all positions. Not only on the distance, but also with the ball on the foot. The FC has become more quick in action compared to the stubborn game in the 2nd Bundesliga. Fit, aggressive, fast: Kwasniok had defined these properties as vital in the Bundesliga – and got on the lawn at the beginning of the season.
This does not mean that the FC will not have any problems this season. As is well known, there is always a counterexample for each example: the billy goats had started the Bundesliga season with two victories in the 2005/06 season and then relegated without a sound. So the Cologne team are warned. Nevertheless: Under Kwasniok, FC immediately shows how it can work and what the FC needs to win Bundesliga games.
And that is exactly what could be the key to a successful season for FC. Last but not least under Steffen Baumgart in his first season, early successes in the season had been decisive in order not to get into the lower table regions, but always to stay away from below. The six points in the account are therefore one thing above all: a first upholstered down. A cushion that FC wants to defend with skin and hair from now on.
And that with the support of the fans. Because on Sunday against Freiburg, they contributed to the fact that Müngersdorf for Freiburg was an impregnable fortress and FC professionals were carried to strong performance on a wave of euphoria. Should this symbiosis work in the coming weeks and months, the surprise bag FC could become a successful Bundesliga club of the 2025/26 season. The basics for this seem to be laid.