Highest praise from the Cologne trainer: Salih Özcan (r.) Against Denis Zakaria (Mönchengladbach)
Photo: imago images / Eibner
Steffen Baumgart had a clear plan for the day after the big derby break in Cologne-Müngersdorf. The head tamer of the billy billy goat ensemble wanted to visit his old club again on Sunday, the Paderborners received Rostock’s promoted team in the early afternoon. For Ostwestfalen, who had left Baumgart in the summer after four years in the direction of cathedral city, it was the next chapter in the tight promotion race in the second division. And Baumgart saw the light of day on January 5th, 1972 in Rostock. So for the passionate flat cap wearer it was a kind of mandatory visit.
Baumgart’s player Mark Uth took it for granted that after Cologne’s 4-1 win against their worst rival in the Rhineland, Borussia Mönchengladbach, the coach gave him two days off as a reward. In exhilaration of triumph, the 30-year-old spread the idea for fun in the TV interview. Whereupon Baumgart substantiated his authority with a grim look and mentioned: “I made the demand for the days off myself. I don’t need Uth’s opinion for that. Thanks.”
Everyone in Cologne sent a thank you to Florian Neuhaus. The national player, for whom Borussia slipped into a frustrating reserve existence during the first half of the season, brought the hosts onto the road to victory in the 77th minute with a bad pass. The 24-year-old made the faux pas eleven minutes after being substituted on – and only three minutes after Jonas Hofmann had equalized the Cologne lead by Dejan Ljubicic for the foal elf. Captain Lars Stindl, who had left the field shortly before, clenched his fist in front of the Gladbach substitute bench. Because, like most of the people in the stadium, he thought the Rautenklub was well on its way to the next away win in Cologne.
This impression crept into Adi Hütter. “During the equalization phase, I had the feeling that we could still win the game.” But then Neuhaus made the fatal bad pass that Uth used to make it 2-1. Only 60 seconds later Ondrej Duda increased to 3: 1, the Swede Sebastian Andersson heaved the ball into the goal in stoppage time via the lower edge of the slat for the highest Cologne derby victory over Gladbach since 1996. And trainer Hütter admitted: “It is very, very uncomfortable to lose this derby as coach of Borussia Mönchengladbach in the form.”
Nevertheless, the Austrian then did his best not to pour additional oil into the ongoing personnel debate about Neuhaus, who was recently said to have intended to move to Naples. “We win together and we lose together. And I am responsible, “explained Hütter, who commented the seconds before Cologne’s second goal just as unmistakably:” That was definitely the key scene. Right before that, you had the feeling that the game could swing in either direction. “
A quarter of an hour before the end of the game, my colleague Baumgart had “already had the feeling that the game was about to tip”. The man whom the delighted Cologne fans, Südkurve, quoted after the end of the game for an exclusive jubilation, made a subtle attempt to defend Neuhaus at the same time. “Perhaps,” Baumgart speculated, “we forced the mistake a little before the 2: 1”.
The FC coach – like the other 50,000 eyewitnesses in the fully occupied World Cup arena in 2006 – was absolutely certain that Salih Özcan had played the leading role in the latest Cologne epic epic. The bearded midfielder has completed four derbies against Gladbach so far, and he has won all four. And not without reason. “I said before the game that I would try to go a little harder into the duels – and stick with it with full vigor. It was our job today to take away the joy of playing football from Gladbach. We managed that, which is why it is rightly 4: 1 in the end, «argued the 23-year-old.
The team already had a good feeling during the break when it was still 0-0, then simply delivered in the second half and made the fans proud, Özcan mentioned. “I’m not someone who singles out individual players, but I’ll do it with Salih today. As a boy from Cologne, he played an outstanding derby, used the atmosphere in the stadium for himself – and had a lot of fun in his duels. That was very important for us «, Steffen Baumgart decided to give special praise – before giving the Cologne lawn staff two days off.
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