JOnas Hector seemed to be everywhere in the stadium in the Müngersdorf district of Cologne that evening. The captain of the 1st football club in Cologne not only stood out with his bright yellow band on his left upper arm with the club’s coat of arms, he was also almost always right in the middle when something happened. He gave the center forward to his team when they had no other. He ran through midfield and plowed tirelessly, he helped out in defense. But all the effort was not rewarded. In the end, the mood wasn’t just bad for Hector: 1. FC Köln lost 1-0 in the first leg of the Bundesliga relegation to Zweiligaklub Holstein Kiel. In the second leg on Saturday, the FC threatens the seventh relegation from the first division.
With the final whistle, Hector stomped to referee Felix Zwayer again and complained that he ended the game after a good three minutes of stoppage time, then the former international struggled determinedly and sullenly for the players tunnel to get off the pitch as quickly as possible. Hector was loaded – and only a little later stood in front of the microphone of the streaming provider DAZN to analyze the defeat. However, the interviewer and Hector did not get far. Whether it was due to the wrong questions, as Hector angrily suspected, or the irritability of the player, did not matter in the end.
The nerve game relegation with a defeat against the outsider in any case unfolded its effect on the beleaguered favorites. In the Hector case it sounded like this:
“Jonas, 0-1 in the first leg, just let off steam, please.”
“What should I let off steam here now?”
“Then I ask differently. It is always difficult to ask how big the disappointment is. Is this result a just or an unjust one? ”
“In terms of the game, I would say a draw would have been fair, that’s how I feel about the game. But it is now 0: 1. “
“How do you look? How empty do you feel? ”
“Always ask this sh …”
“I am sorry.”
“Empty, empty. It’s your job to ask stupid questions. You’re doing well. The thing is: I’m not empty. I’ve just played 90 minutes. I’m disappointed we lost the game. But on Saturday we have the opportunity to do better and turn the thing. “
“Well, then I might ask a stupid question at the end: How important is this mental work now, until Saturday to say to yourself: It’s only halfway through, something is still going?”
“Well, I really don’t have an answer to that now.”
“Good, thank you, Jonas.”
By Saturday (6 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and at DAZN), Hector and the other disappointed Cologne residents will have found each other again when the decision in this duel is at stake in the Holstein Stadium. Then it is for the FC to make up for the deficit with the goal of Simon Lorenz, who was substituted on just a few seconds earlier. The Kieler came and hit immediately after a corner with the head in the 59th minute. In this scene, too, Hector was right in the middle of it when he could no longer prevent the goalscorer, who came out of his back, from finishing well.
The 0: 1 was a shock for Cologne, from which they hardly recovered. The Bundesliga club was previously quite committed and played on the Kiel goal. But really good chances, let alone goals, did not jump out of this apparent superiority. Many saw FC at an advantage before the duel, as they had a second chance on the last Bundesliga matchday with a home win over Schalke, while Holstein had already missed two opportunities for promotion due to defeats in the second division. But the supposed psychological advantage turned out to be nonexistent.
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Now the trumps are on the side of Kiel. It’s not just the unconvincing sporting lecture by the Cologne team that suggests little good. The prospects are also clouded if you look back on the previous nerve games in the relegation. Since its reintroduction in the Bundesliga, there has been a winner seven times in the first legs. And in none of these duels could the loser in the second game turn the tide. One thing is clear: Cologne needs at least one goal in Kiel on Saturday and preferably no goal conceded. If that happens, two hits are necessary against relegation.
Substituted and with his head on the spot: Simon Lorenz (center) scores for Kiel.
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Image: AFP
Cologne’s hopes rest on the coach. Friedhelm Funkel, who took over from Markus Gisdol in mid-April, was 67 years old and had more than 900 games as a coach after the severe setback. “It is now halftime and Kiel leads 1-0. Hence, nothing is decided at all. I have already said before that the decision will be made in Kiel and that is how it will be, ”he said at DAZN. “We once did not pay attention to a standard situation. We warned against this very situation, we weren’t paying attention. Until then, Kiel hadn’t had a single option. We just didn’t create any scoring chances from our abundance of possession. ”It’s that simple.
The mood in Kiel was of course much better. “I am very satisfied,” said coach Ole Werner. “But it was also the first of two games and you don’t take the last risk.” You “still have the situation that we’re in the second division and can only win – we’re already in the second division. The pressure is on 1. FC Köln. ”The Kiel Joker couldn’t quite believe his luck:“ I still haven’t really realized it. It all happened very quickly, ”said goal scorer Lorenz. Either way: The mood at Kiel was much better on Wednesday than Hector and his teammates. Whether that is different on Saturday is up to you.
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