Amid grumbles, a winless run and negative banners, there are signs of life for Köln after a narrow loss to the champions
W
e didn’t see this coming, and not only because of the fog of pyro lingering over the RheinEnergieSTADION field that furnished us with 11 minutes of first-half stoppage time. In October’s equivalent fixture in the DFB Pokal, Köln had really rattled Bayern Munich in the first half and even taken the lead through Ragnar Ache – and still ended up on the wrong end of a 4-1 scoreline.
The world around Geißbockheim has not been a particularly happy place since. Effzeh came into this Englische Woche on a run of seven games without a win, which was even harder to swallow after an extremely promising start. Worse still, head coach Lukas Kwasniok – who started this season embracing the city and the club’s spirit with his wearing of replica shirts on the touchline – was recently targeted by Köln fans in Saturday’s draw at Heidenheim, with a banner reading “Kwasni Yok” (“yok” being no in Turkish), credited to the Wilde Horde ultras group.
It had as much to do with Kwasniok’s perceived off-field demeanour as the waning results, which the coach responded to in denying he had stopped players from going to a fan event. With sporting director Thomas Kessler having to sort out relations between the coach, the hardcore supporters and a pair of disgruntled players in Luca Waldschmidt and Florian Kainz, it did not bode well for facing the champions and runaway leaders. “I just hope that we might be able to annoy Bayern,” Kwasniok had said, seemingly more in hope than expectation.
