Monday 26 May 2008

Verbandsliga: Let's go f*ckin' mental, Fortuna wins again!

Usually when sporting events are pretty close calls german media tends to label those games "directed by Hitchcock". And one could not describe it better when it comes to Fortuna Cologne's last home game this season. The situation before the game was clear: Fortuna was in 2nd place with 4 points behind leaders VfL Leverkusen. Leverkusen was playing in Alfter who had only lost two home games. So all we needed was a win against Borussia Freialdenhoven and a loss to Leverkusen at Alfter. When the game started the atmosphere was almost like 10 years ago, when Fortuna was still playing in the 2nd division. 2.100 spectators, cheerleaders accompanying the players onto the pitch, chants, banners, flags, everything. Still the game started porrly. Fortuna was behind early (14') and from that point on it was a very onesided affair. The equalizer came after 22 minutes when Rachid Boullal scored a volley screamer after a header from Marc Böing. The score stayed like this until halftime and when the news spread that Alfter went up 1-0 against Leverkusen the mood was suddenly getting better.
in the 2nd half things looked good. Until Fortuna lost Yannick Moudoute. He kicked away the ball after commiting a foul and then he complained which led to another yellow card. So here we were, down to 10 men and still tied at 1-1. Things didn't look good, but all of a sudden it was only Fortuna playing. True, Freialdenhoven was approaching Fortuna's goal every now and then, but there was never any immediate threat. Instead Fortuna missed quite a few chances themselves. Then, in the 84th minute Kevin Kruth scored and the whole stadium errupted. In the meantime people were notified that Alfter was leading 2-0 against Leverkusen and there we were. It all comes down to the one final game. The last game of the season. VfL Leverkusen will host Fortuna next week to decide who will be promoted to the new Oberliga NRW. Leverkusen can settle for a draw, Fortuna needs a win. And, oh boy, have they won in the past few weeks. They are at eight in a row now and while the team was celebrating with the fans you could hear people say "only one more, guys, only one more!".
I have the feeling that I am witnessing something very special. This is a special team and what they have achieved up until now is already impressive. If they get promoted they will become immortal. Only one more.

Thursday 22 May 2008

Champions League Final: United have done it again

The fourth final since 2001 which was decided in a penalty shootout and the funnny thing for the Germans is that those were two english clubs going at it after extra time. England always has the image of failing in a penalty shootout as they had done so very often in the past, especially on the national team level. But let's start from the beginning.
You can break down the match in to different intervalls. The first half was completely dominated by Manchester United who controlled Chelsea for most of the time and went ahead 1-0 on a header by Christiano Ronaldo (26') who scored following a very nice combination on the left side which led to a beautiful cross by Wes Brown. They should have gone up 2-0 only minutes later when Tevez (with a header) and Carrick (with a shot from 12 m) found their master in Chelase goalkeeper Petr Cech (35').
There really was nothing to see of Chelsea. The attack was taken out of the game by Manchester, Drogba, Joe Cole and Malouda didn't create any chances, the midfield wasn't in charge at all, although the german TV commentary always praised Michael Ballack for his efforts. The equalizer came as a bit of a surprise only seconds from half time. Lampard scored on a deflected ball (45').

But this all turned around as soon as the teams came out for the 2nd half. Now Chelsea was dominating the game, pressing Manchester back into their half and even striker Wayne Rooney had to help out in the defense. Chelase created a lot of chances and while the german TV commentary was all praise for Ballack one should not forget the efforts of the lone striker Drogba, who got close to scoring when he hit the post (78'). But there weren't any goals in the 2nd half so the game went into extra time. from there on the game got a little ugly, mainly because there were a little too many breaks in the action. A lot of players went down with cramps causing the referee Lubos Michel to stop the game very often. Still both teams were looking for their chances with Chelsea having the better ones, the biggest coming from Lampard who hit the crossbar (94'). There was turmoil in the 2nd half of extra time after some fighting on the field following an argument between Vidic and Drogba which saw the Ivory Coast international sent off with a red card (116'). But that was it, they were going to penalties.

Ronaldo was the first to miss and he did so with his very own arrogant style. When you shoot a penalty the run up to the shoot has to be one fluent motion, you are not allowed to stop in between. Now what do you think is Ronaldo doing? He stops half way to irritated Cech who the blocks the ball. I simply get annoyed when Ronaldo does something like that. He is such a talented player but I simply hate his arrogance. Chelsea should have won this had only John Terry scored. He was the last of the five Chelsea players to shoot the penalty and he only hit the post. Anelka then missed his chance and by doing so he was giving the tile to Manchester who once again are champions of Europe. Congratulations.

An exciting match which lost a bit of steam in the closing minutes and in extra time, but the will power of the players and the intensity was always there. The most annoying thing to me was the german commentary. It is a real nuisance to listen to those idiots talking about stuff they don't know anything about. Most of what they say is about sthings which are not taking place on the pitch. Hey, let's be honest, I want to hear a comment about the game, not about something which happened last evening in the players' lounge or whereever. German TV will never get this.
The other big story was Michael Ballack who is still waiting for his first win in a big final match. He lost with Leverkusen in 2002, he wasn't in the World Cup final that year because he was booked in the semi against Korea and now he lost with Chelsea. A friend of mine is really worried that this might affect his performance during the Euro 2008. I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

German Bundesliga: The Season Recap

So this season is finally over and Bayern are champions again. Who would have thought...
There weren't any really big surprises apart from Nürnberg going straight down to the 2nd division after they had won the german cup a year ago. The almost did the same thing 40 years ago, when they were relegated after winning the championship, the only club to do so in the history of the Bundesliga. Having said that Bielefeld is staying in the Bundesliga which, I think, will be of some relief for other teams because I don't see Bielefeld strong enough to stay on top. Moving up the ladder the race for the Uefa-Cup was a close one. Four teams had a chance, but in the end only two remained. Hamburg and Wolfsburg will represent Germany in next year's competition while Stuttgart will test their luck in the UI-Cup and Leverkusen will have to watch it from afar. Apparently they are so frustrated at Leverkusen they immidiately fired coach Michael Skibbe, which is something I cannot understand at all. That man has built up something there, bringing in a lot of young players and having them play some really exciting football. Now having him kicked after a season which didn't earn the club a spot in international competition is way too much.
Speaking of changes, Borussia Dortmund finally got rid off coach Thomas Doll and that was the best that could happen to the club. Doll stepped down at his own will after a more than mediocre season with the appearance in the german cup final being his only accomplishment. He completely ruined the team, though I have to admit that some of his players are simply not fit for Bundesliga football.
Looking forward to next season I don't really see that many changes. Bayern will make it again, I think. Behind them there will be Schalke and Bremen (just as this year) and behind those two there will be two other teams out of Wolfsburg, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Leverkusen, maybe one surprise team as well. Somehow this is getting a little boring...
The final table:

1 Bayern München 34 22 10 2 68:21 47 76
2 Werder Bremen 34 20 6 8 75:45 30 66
3 FC Schalke 04 34 18 10 6 55:32 23 64
4 Hamburger SV 34 14 12 8 47:26 21 54
5 VfL Wolfsburg 34 15 9 10 58:46 12 54
6 VfB Stuttgart 34 16 4 14 57:57 0 52
7 Bayer Leverkusen 34 15 6 13 57:40 17 51
8 Hannover 96 34 13 10 11 54:56 -2 49
9 Eintracht Frankfurt 34 12 10 12 43:50 -7 46
10 Hertha BSC 34 12 8 14 39:44 -5 44
11 Karlsruher SC 34 11 10 13 38:53 -15 43
12 VfL Bochum 34 10 11 13 48:54 -6 41
13 Borussia Dortmund 34 10 10 14 50:62 -12 40
14 Energie Cottbus 34 9 9 16 35:56 -21 36
15 Arminia Bielefeld 34 8 10 16 35:60 -25 34
16 1. FC Nürnberg 34 7 10 17 35:51 -16 31
17 Hansa Rostock 34 8 6 20 30:52 -22 30
18 MSV Duisburg 34 8 5 21 36:55 -19 29

Going down one floor in the 2nd division you had some last minute drama on the last matchday. While almost everything was clear on top with M'gladbach and Cologne having secured promotion at the bottom of the table there were four teams fighting for survival. Former top level club 1.FC Kaiserslautern pulled themselves out of it by beating a team from Cologne who looked as if they had too much party after their promotion last weekend (3-0). So it had to be Kickers Offenbach, who lost to Osnabrück who are now joing Paderborn, Jena and Aue in what will be the new third division of german football next year. Meanwhile perhaps the biggest surprise was the promotion of Hoffenheim, a very small village in the south of Germany. Backed by the financial powers of Dietmar Hopp, the man behind computer giant SAP, this club went all the way from the pits of amateur football to the first division. Hopp, who actually played as a striker for Hoffenheim when he was young, achieved this not only by spending some money but also because he hired the right people for the coaching staff. Ralf Rangnick, former coach of Schalke, Hannover and Stuttgart is in charge and behind him there is Bernhard Peters who coordinates the training regimes for the youth teams. Peters, a former national hockey coach for Team Germany, was also in the mix for the german national football team before the World Cup in 2006, but was not considered, much to the anger of Klinsmann. So now those two are working in Hoffenheim and they brought this village of around 4.500 inhabitants to the Bundesliga. Which annoys a lot of those traditionalists who would rather see big clubs with a lot of history and big stadiums play on the top level. Still Hoffenheim earned it and, to be honest, I'd rather watch some decent football by a small club than see struggling big clubs who are simply not delivering. Welcome Hoffenheim.
The final Table of the 2nd Division:

1 Borussia M'gladbach 34 18 12 4 71:38 33 66
2 1899 Hoffenheim 34 17 9 8 60:40 20 60
3 1. FC Köln 34 17 9 8 62:44 18 60

4 1. FSV Mainz 05 34 16 10 8 62:36 26 58
5 SC Freiburg 34 15 10 9 49:44 5 55
6 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 34 14 10 10 53:47 6 52
7 Alemannia Aachen 34 14 9 11 49:44 5 51
8 SV Wehen Wiesbaden 34 11 11 12 47:53 -6 44
9 FC St. Pauli 34 11 9 14 47:53 -6 42
10 TuS Koblenz 34 12 11 11 46:47 -1 41
11 1860 München 34 9 14 11 42:45 -3 41
12 VfL Osnabrück 34 10 10 14 43:54 -11 40
13 1. FC Kaiserslautern 34 9 12 13 37:37 0 39
14 FC Augsburg 34 10 8 16 39:51 -12 38
15 Kickers Offenbach 34 9 11 14 38:60 -22 38
16 Erzgebirge Aue 34 7 11 16 49:57 -8 32
17 SC Paderborn 07 34 6 13 15 33:54 -21 31
18 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 34 6 11 17 45:68 -23 29


Which still leaves open who will be promoted to the 2nd division from the Regionalliga as there are still some matchdays left on their schedule.

And, of course there are the final two rounds on Verbandsliga level where Fortuna Köln is trying to get into first place to earn promotion to the new NRW Oberliga. Fortuna are four points behind leaders VfL Leverkusen who have to play at 13th place VfL Alfter who play their home games on ash which will be tough. While Fortuna take on Borussia Freialdenhoven (6th). If Leverkusen loses and Fortuna wins then we will have a real final at Leverkusen on the last day of the season as Fortuna will travel up north to take on the leaders. It's going to be close. If you're capable of understanding german here's a page where you can follow the action.

Friday 16 May 2008

KölnCampus: College radio in Cologne

There had been an urgent need for an independent radio station in Cologne for ages and since the local college radio station "KölnCampus" went on air a few years ago it's fun to listen to the radio again. Although the program is far from perfect the main difference to the established corporate and public radio stations is the choice of music they play. And that's where it really gets interesting.
Cologne is dominated by the WDR, the public radio and TV station Westdeutscher Runfunk". They air five radio programs and one TV broadcast. Their radio stations range from youth orientated programs ("1Live") to spoken word programs (WDR5) to a station for the music of, well, let's say elder people (WDR4) to an information based program for everybody else (WDR2). "1Live" was my preferred choice over the past few years although it's rather hard to listen to it because of the crappy chart music they play. Still when the clock changes to 8 pm their program suddenly becomes better with lots of in depth broadcasts about bands, famous people, they do reports on all kinds of topics and they have the german version of John Peel in Klaus Fiehe whose Sunday evening program is really worth listening.

What "KölnCampus" did was introducing a whole new load of bands to the airwaves. Sometimes the mixture is rather strange because when they don't have a program in the studio they have a computer streaming a shuffle mix of the music they have. Which leads to rather abrupt and weird combinations. Like havning a classic rock song first which is followed by a hip hop song which is followed by a hard trance track which is followed by a country song which is followed by a grindcore stomper. You get the picture.
Today though they have an hour of hardcore and punkrock tracks and that's pretty neat because I got to listen to some bands I had never heard of before or some bands I had long forgotten. That's what I really like about the station. Sometimes the really dig deep to bring up stuff which reminds you of something and then you can continue from there. This is the playlist up until now (it's still running as I write this at 11:44h am):

11:43 raised fist you ignore them all
11:40 agnostic front dead to me
11:37 bubonix fashion tattoo
11:33 Refused The Shape of Punk to Come
11:30 propagandhi anti manifesto
11:28 no fun at all catch me running around
11:25 millencolin twenty two
11:23 good riddance united cigar
11:21 bad religion against the grain
11:19 pennywise i get around
11:17 nofx whats the matter with parent..
11:15 anti-flag you can kill the protester...
11:11 against me white people for peace
11:09 lagwagon know it all
11:06 far from finished disaster
11:02 be your own pet love your shotgun
11:00 distillers, the drain the blood

Great stuff. Maybe it's the overture to tonight's Hellfire Radio broadcast, the punkrock show on "KölnCampus".
There's the chance to listen in via livestream which can be found here. I don't know the capacity of the bandwidth but for me it worked fine every time I checked it out.

Home sweet home

It was always rather funny to listen to those rap songs in which the lyrics describe the surroundings of the rapper, how he grew up, how hard and tough his life was roaming the streets of his hometown district. And maybe it was always funny because the cities and their disctricts were always somewhere else. There are songs about my hometown Cologne, but those were either pretty weird and bad (as in wanna-be gangsters singing about their oh-so-tough part of the town) or they were referring to other parts of the city I never lived in.
Now while listening to our local college radio station I came across a song which deals with the south side of Cologne, exactly the part of the city in which I grew up in. The video below is kind of interesting to me since it shows a lot of streets and places I frequently go to and I think the breakdance action was shot at the "Adler" memorial which is roughly 200m from where my parents live. I am in no way an expert on hip hop, but I found the chorus rather boring, still it's a nice song and a fine description of what life was and is like on the south side. Take a look:

O-Flow feat. Kurt Hustle aka Retrogott - Köln-Sued

There can be only 23: Germany's national coach chooses his team for the Euro 2008

(1:55 pm)
The press conferences continues and I will drop out for now. They just have the usual questions which won't be very interesting or productive in any way. Thanks for tuning in, have a nice day.

(1:49 pm)
There's the question about who was the player who wasn't reached via phone, but Löw doesn't want to answer. Why?

(1:47 pm)
Those are 26 names so three players will have to pack their stuff before the tournament starts. I personally think that one of them will be Trochowski since he wasn't convincing in any of his appearances with the national team.
The press now ask about the Hildebrandt affair. Although this isn't nearly as huge as the stand off between Kahn and Lehmann before the World Cup it is quite a blow. One will have to see how he copes with this decision.

(1:44 pm)
Let's try to straighten things out a little bit. The rumors about Hildebrandt were true. I wasn't following the spanish league that much, but it's only natural that Adler and Enke would follow up since they have been the best goalkeepers in the Bundesliga this season.
As for the defense I was a little surprised about Westermann. When he played on the german team he was, frankly, not playing well. I would have preferred Manuel Friedrich (Bayer Leverkusen). But since the central defenders will be Mertesacker and Metzelder (or should we call them M&M?) I suspect he won't be playing that much anyway.
Marin is quite a surprise in the midfield section, as is Odonkor. Jones was rumored to be on the squad but he always talked way too big to the press so he wasn't quite sure. I don't know if I like the idea.
No surprises for the strikers, although I wouldn't have picked Neuville since he is simply too old.

(1:39 pm)
Here we go, this is the squad:

Goalkeepers:
Jens Lehmann (Arsenal London), Robert Enke (Hannover 96), René Adler (Bayer Leverkusen)
Defenders:
Christoph Metzelder (Real Madrid), Peer Mertesacker (Werder Bremen), Philipp Lahm (Bayern München), Arne Friedrich (Hertha BSC Berlin), Marcel Jansen (Bayern München), Clemens Fritz (Werder Bremen), Heiko Westermann (Schalke 04)
Midfielders:
Michael Ballack (Chelsea FC), Thomas Hitzlsperger (VfB Stuttgart), Simon Rolfes (Bayer Leverkusen), Thorsten Frings (Werder Bremen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern München), Piotr Trochowski (Hamburger SV), Tim Borowski (Werder Bremen), Jermaine Jones (Schalke 04), David Odonkor (Real Betis Sevilla), Marko Marin (Borussia Mönchengladbach)
Strikers:
Miroslav Klose (Bayern München), Lukas Podolski (Bayern München), Mario Gomez (VfB Stuttgart), Kevin Kuranyi (Schalke 04), Oliver Neuville (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Patrick Helmes (1.FC Köln)

(1:29 pm)
Hm, as Löw notes one player didn't have his phone with him, as it seems. So he doesn't know if he's in or if he's out. That's kind of interesting. Now everyone can speculate who that player is.

(1:27 pm)
Nice trivia fact: Germany hasn't one a match at a european championship in the past 12 years (last win came in the final 1996)

(1:22 pm)
Felix Neureuther used to ski and play football with Bastian Schweinsteiger and since his name was dropped so often in the past 5 minutes one can be sure that his name will be on the list.

(1:19 pm)
Right now press coordinator Harald Stenger is talking to the Neureuther-Mittermaier family who are promoting the Ski World Cup 2011 which will take place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

(1:15 pm)
Oh, Phoenix have Sven Pistor, WDR2's host for the radio coverage of the german Bundesliga, as the expert in the studio. That's interesting.

(1:12 pm)
Since there will be the final round of matchplay in the german Bundesliga tomorrow none of the players will be present for the nomination. Instead there will be children from a local community who will wear the jerseys with the players' names, at least that's what BR3 is reporting right now...

(1:08 pm)
Germany's team manager Oliver Bierhoff just revealed on BR3 that there will be more than 23 names on the list today.

(1:04 pm)
BR3 does its very own predictions. Although I have to admit that the names all make sense. Still why not wait for Jogi Löw to announce the squad. I really find it funny if it turns out that some of the predicted names were wrong.

(1:00 pm)
Most of the other TV stations join in. ARD and ZDF will broadcast the nomination in their "Mittagsmagazin", the bavarian state television channel BR3 has its own program since the Zugspitze is on its territory.

(12:52 pm)

The other names filling up the 26 player roster lead to wild speculation. Germany's biggest newspaper and tabloid Bild thinks those names will be Oliver Neuville and Marko Marin (both Borussia Möchengladbach). Marin is one of the biggest talents in german football. Still under the age of 20 he's a very good midfielder/winger with lots of technique and speed. he would be just as much of a surprise as was David Odonkor before the World Cup in 2006.

(12:39 pm)
The big question which moves the inhabitants of Cologne is whether 1.FC Cologne striker Patrick Helmes, who will move to Bayer Leverkusen for the next season, will be on the roster. Cologne tabloid Express thinks it's true.

(12:25 pm)
The actual press conference will take place some time around 1:15 pm. In the meantime Phoenix is still showing this official Uefa magazine. This will give me some time to take a shower since I got up a little late today. And I am happy that our local college radio station is providing me with a nice mix of punk, hardcore and other stuff over the past hour. You can listen to the live stream if you click here. The shuffle stream will go on until 1:00 pm. I will post something about "Kölncampus" later this day.

(12:12 pm)
There are some rumors about Löw nominating 26 players on a first run and then he will downsize the team to 23 at the date on which he has to name the final squad. German newspapers Die Welt and Süddeutsche Zeitung have reports

(12:08 pm)
Let's be honest, it's horrible to listen to Franz Beckenbauer nowadays. Well, actually it was always terrible. He's now talking about the 1972 Euro winning team.

(12:00 noon)
The Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that Löw will not rely on goalkeeper Timo Hildebrandt. Instead he will go for René Adler and Robert Enke. If that is true it's quite a blow for Hildebrandt.

(11:56 am)
Phoenix is now showing some offical program by the Uefa about the Euro. They concentrated on the German team, so I am not quite sure if Phoenix cut it to size. It's rather funny to listen to Jürgen Klinsmann talk in English.

(11:48 am)
Phoenix is on air. The studio decoration is rather spartanic and funny. A german national team shirt, a ball with the flags of Switzerland and Austria. And that's it.

(11:35 am)
I choose to watch the whole thing on Phoenix, a public TV station mainly broadcasting parliamentary debates and documentaries. But from time to time they tune into football, especially with big tournaments coming up. They have days dedicated to one topic, for instance. So some day they show classic football matches for hours and hours. Apart from Phoenix I read something about 7 TV stations broadcasting live. So don't give me anything about Germans don't take football like the fans in southern Europe. Germans are just as crazy and obsessed as any other big football nation.

(10:28 am)
Since Jürgen Klinsmann took over the job of Germany's national coach things have changed quite a bit. Most of the talk was about the changes made in the training regime with new methods adopted from american professional sports. But there has also been a change in how the German FA, the DFB, presents itself in public. The unveiling of the players who made it on the roster of the World Cup team in 2006 was made into a huge show with video clips, short portraits and so on. So this year for the Euro 2008 they are taking it to another level (quite literally). This year they will present the team on top of Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze. I will update this post as it happens.

Fan friendly sports action

In a time when football players in Germany get booked for climbing on fences to celebrate a goal with their fans (which is one the most ridiculous rules in the whole of football) it is always nice to see that some sports still take pride in close contact to their supporters in the bleachers. Here's the footage of a nice play by Manny Ramirez against the Orioles. Ramirez was chasing a long ball, caught it, climbed the wall to high five a fan, spin around to get the ball to 2nd baseman Dustin Pedroia and they get the double play at first. This was fun to watch. The game was eventually won by the Orioles who came back from a 3-0 deficit to turn the game around with a grand slam home run for the final score of 6-3. Anyway, here's the clip:

Sunday 11 May 2008

Bundesliga - Day 33: Two decisions on the last day of play

VfL Wolfsburg - VfB Stuttgart 4:0
MSV Duisburg - Bayern München 2:3
Hansa Rostock - Bayer Leverkusen 1:2
Hertha BSC - 1. FC Nürnberg 1:0
Energie Cottbus - Hamburger SV 2:0
Karlsruher SC - VfL Bochum 1:3
Arminia Bielefeld - Borussia Dortmund 2:2
Werder Bremen - Hannover 96 6:1
FC Schalke 04 - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:0

Most of the season is settled now that there is only one day of matchplay left on the calendar. Bayern are champions and that's what most of the public said at the start of the season anyway. The same goes for Schalke and Bremen in 2 and 3 so there is some sort of boredom. 4 teams are still in the race for the two remaining Uefa-Cup spots, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Leverkusen and Wolfsburg are all tied at 51 points, that should be interesting next week. The real fight will be in the cellar though with Nürnberg and Bielefeld battling it out. Nürnberg has to win, Bielefeld's goal difference is horrible so a draw won't help them.

Meanwhile downstairs in the 2nd division 1.FC Cologne gained a promotion spot today and now the whole city is going crazy. And because tomorrow is a national holiday I suspect they will keep this up the whole night. Honestly if they hadn't made it they would have been the laughing stock of the nation for the next few seasons. They pumped an enormous amount of money into the team and still they weren't able to come up with decent results over a long period. I wouldn't be too surprised if they go down again. after the season.

The most important matches for me will be played in the 5th division though. Fortuna Cologne will face city rivals FC Junkersdorf tomorrow and if they win this their chances for promotion will be saved at least for another round. After their glorious win over Spvgg Wesseling-Urfeld everybody around the team is confident that they can come up with the results they need. And if now 1st place VfL Leverkusen struggles over the next few games we will have a final showdown at their homeground on the last day of the season. What more can you wish for. If the really go up one league this will be their first promotion in 25 years. Is there a better way to celebrate that anniversary?

Saturday 3 May 2008

Fortuna vs Wesseling 6-0: Oh, what a night!

It was one of those special evenings when everything just seems to fall into place. Just a perfect night at the Südstadion. The weather was brilliant, the crowd who showed up was huge (at least for 5th divison football standards) and the atmosphere was great. And what better way to start off the game than with a goal for your favourite team after only 2 minutes (Daniel Blankenheim scoring on a header from Marco Stasiulweski). To be honest, I was rather afraid going to the match. The last game I had seen was the disastrous 0-4 loss against local rivals Viktoria Köln and since then I was slightly boycotting the team. But ever since I stopped going to the matches they put up an enormous winning streak. This coincided with the launch of the project where fans can own their football club (www.deinfussballclub.de), an idea picked up by german director Sönke Wortmann from the english original www.myfootballclub.co.uk. So Fortuna was doing fine and although I was slightly superstitious I showed up for Friday's match against Spvgg Wesseling-Urfeld, a team from a small industrial town just a few kilometres south of Cologne.
As said, the game got off to a great start and from there on Fortuna waas in charge. I can hardly remember a match in which they were so dominant. Wesseling only had one shot at the goal of Günther Schumacher, albeit a dangerous one. But the offense was clicking and by halftime the score was up 3-0. Rachid Boullal scored the 2nd after a wonderful solo dribbling (40') and Stasiulewski, after missing a huge chance only minutes before when he hit the post, made it 3-0 (45').
With such a lead the crowd went for their halftime enjoyment (buying a beer at a nearby liquor store) and was looking forward to some more brilliant football in the second half. They had to wait for 20 minutes though, but then captain Stephan Glaser exploded. He was great in the first half when he had two chances where he went through the Wesseling defense like a hot knife through butter, as they would say in Germany. This time he got the ball in the right corner of the penalty box, took out two defenders and slotted the ball in the far left corner of the goal (64'). He even scored another one 20 minutes later after a brilliant pass from Kris Morton (87') and the final blow came from Morton himself with the final whistle (90'). Wesseling was absolutely no match for the boys in red.
The crowd then refused to leave until their heroes walked down the line of outstretched hands hi-fiving everyone there. So every now and then it's one of those very special nights where everythings seems to fall miraculously into place. The singing didn't seem to end and everybody, I'm sure, is looking forward to the next home match. There is a webpage which posts some game summaries with videos a few days later (in german), so I'm really looking forward to watching the goals over and over again.

Official Homepage game report