Fortuna Cologne gets the spot in the new NRW-League!

Oh what a day. When I received the news (German) on Thursday I was stunned. The objection of VfL Leverkusen, last season's Verbandsliga Mittelrhein champion who were denied a spot in the newly established NRW-Oberliga because certain requirements haven't been met (stadium too small, financial basis unstable, etc.), was rejected by a court and this means Fortuna Cologne will take the spot reserved for the Verbandsliga Mittelrhein champion as runner up to Leverkusen. Fortuna had only drawn the final game against Leverkusen on the last day of matchplay and ended up in 2nd place.
It has been 35 years since Fortuna earned their last promotion to a higher league. In 1973 they went up to the Bundesliga, the only season they played at the highest level of football in Germany. To this day the club takes pride in the fact that they were the best team to get relegated. They only stayed one year and since 1974 they had played in the newly established 2nd division 2. Bundesliga for more years than any other team. They still lead the all time table of all teams who ever played in the 2nd division. There were chances to once again play 1st class football, but the failed every time they tried. Things came to an end in 2000 when the club was relegated to the 3rd division. From there on things went downwards and it all ended up at 5th level Verbandsliga and even there Fortuna was frequently facing the threat of relegation. So all my football life I have only witnessed my favourite club going down one level after another, so this means a lot to me. This is the first time I can celebrate. Although I (and I believe that is true for all the other guys who come to watch the games) would have liked to settle this on the pitch instead of in front of a court. What a celebration we would have had in June had the club won the match back then.

Whatever, Fortuna will play in the NRW-Liga and that's all that matters now. I am very, very happy.

Fortuna on the verge of being promoted to the NRW-Liga (Fifth division)

The news broke rather silently but Fortuna Köln finally got the license for the NRW-Liga which means that they will be rewarded the promotion spot they lost in their last game of the season against VfL Leverkusen. Still things are not that safe. Leverkusen objected to the ruling and now the whole thing is back with the sports law courts. Honestly this is dragging on for far too long now. the teams need to prepare for the next season and even if there aren't the ridiculous amounts of money involved that are being dealt with in the top leagues it's still shameful. The players need to a security, as does the club and the coach. Right now the officials are making complete idiots out of themselves.
The facts are clear:
* Leverkusen doesn't seem to have the money to keep up a team in the NRW-Liga
* Leverkusen doesn't have a stadium fit for the NRW-Liga

Both of those rule out a place for them. Fortuna has all that and still they have to wait and wait and wait. This is just ridiculous.

It wasn't meant to be: Fortuna lacks one point for promotion

I have never been the biggest enthusiast when it comes to cheering from the terraces. Of course I get excited and I yell stuff at the players, but I never felt close to those cheerleading sections in the stands of the stadium. I also haven't been very emotional about the results of my team. Of course I checked the games section of the newspaper or the team's website when I wasn't able to go, but I never really took it to heart. Maybe that's because my club never gave me anything important to cheer about. Important - in this sense - means the chance for promotion, a chance to win a cup, something like this. There were numerous chances, but somehow it never boiled down to that one final match which would decide everything. It was always done before we had the chance to compete.
Fortuna Cologne has always been my team ever since I begged my father to take me to a match against Eintracht Braunschweig in 1988. Two years earlier the club squandered its chance for promotion in a three game series against Borussia Dortmund. They won their home match 2-0 and lost at Dortmund 1-3 with the deciding goal being scored in the final minute. The deciding match was lost 0-8 because half of the team were down with the flu. Three years earlier they lost the final of the german cup competition in a close match against city rivals 1.FC Cologne. Fortuna was the better team back then but they lost. I somehow think I know what it must have felt like to be a Boston Red Sox fan before 2004. We have always been close, but we never made it. We had our joyous moments when we beat our rivals in the 2nd division in 98/99 twice (4-2 and 3-0). But that's it.

So today we had the chance. It came down to the last match and the whole city was buzzing. Fortuna (61 pts) was to play against VfL Leverkusen (62 pts). Fortuna needed a win, Leverkusen a draw. The match was moved to Sportpark Höhenberg, the home ground for Viktoria Cologne. And the people were pouring in. Remember, this is 5th division german football. And the turnout was more than 6.000! What a crowd. What a match.
Right from the start it was clear that Leverkusen wanted to settle for a draw. Fortuna wasn't creating any chances instead they were lucky they didn't have to concede a goal. After the break Fortuna got in control, hitting the post and the crossbar, getting their chances, keeping the hopes of their fans alive. And only a few minutes from time the scored. They scored! Oh what a joy, oh what a roar. I don't know who I hugged but I tried to catch as many people around me as possible. We were on cloud nine ........... and then we fell. Hard. Brutal. A deflected shot bounced in front of a Leverkusen striker who scored the equalizer in the 90th minute. Although evrybody says that you never experienced a crowd fall silent so instantly this was what happened. I was stunned. Speechless. Shattered. Broken. At a loss for words. The injury time was like a trance. I am still completely out of myself. I feel nothing. We came so close and yet here we are with nothing in our hands. It could have been the party of a lifetime. Our first promotion in 35 years. And now we have to start all over again.
The biggest hope, my biggest hope, is the support. The people refused to go home until the team came to them. Those guys were completely devastated. One player was crying. Honestly crying. The whole atmosphere was so gloomy. The train ride back home was so silent. Completely different from when we arrived there.

I think I will need a few days to get over this. But when I am I will look forward to the next season.

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.

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.

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?

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

Bundesliga - Day 30: So that's it then...

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

So the german championship seems to be decided by now with Bayern winning comfortably against Stuttgart last Sunday, they now are 12 points ahead of the 2nd place and with only four more games to play they should take the title this year. So a rather boring season is coming to an end, at least when you talk about the top of the table. When you look down to the bottom it's a completely different ballgame. There are still five teams in contention for the three relegation spots and they do everything they can to stay down there. Last weekend Nürnberg looked like they were about to finally leave the cellar of the Bundesliga when they were leading 2-0 against Bielefeld at halftime. Cottbus were 0-1 down against Rostock, Duisburg looked good against Bochum leading 1-0. 45 minutes later the tables had turned and verything was back to take one. This is the only exciting stuff happening in this league at the moment. Funny trivia fact: A few minutes from the final whistle on Saturday all matches expect one (Hamburg vs Schalke) were tied.

In the 2nd division of german football, the 2. Bundesliga, it seems that no team really wants to get promoted. Borussia Mönchengladbach seem to stay out of trouble at the moment, but they only drew this weekend and Hoffenheim seems to ressurect themselves. Cologne plays their usual up-and-down form which noone seem to understand. They play great matches and then a week later they look like a completely different team. If they manage to get promoted they will go down again at the end of that season. Right now it's M'Gladbach, Hoffenheim and Mainz on the three lucky places at the top of the table.

Way down the slope at Verbandsliga level, Fortuna Cologne finally started a winning streak and is now in third place, only behind local rivals Viktoria Cologne and VfL Leverkusen. It seems that all the promotion for the project www.deinfussbalclub.de finally seems to pay off a little bit as the attendance figures have risen slightly over the past few home games. around 1.000 people showed up which is quite a lot for 5th division football in Germany. The president, Klaus Ulonska and Sönke Wortmann, the man who started the project, have been going to lots of events and talkshows lately. They even have a story in THE german football magazine "11 Freunde" this month. And although I really don't know what to make of the whole thing it still feels good that a club like Fortuna is getting a little more attention. Past weekend's game against Hennef was won 2-0 and seemed to have been a lucky win with the second goal scored in added time.

So with the excitement gone from the Bundesliga the eyes of german football fans turn elsewhere, to England, for example. Last weekend's clash between Chelsea and Manchester United was an interesting one from the german perspective, since Michael Ballack is that captain of the german national team and the audience doesn't get that many chances to see him play over here. Most of the action takes place on pay-per-view TV so the chances to see him on free TV are limited to the top games in the Premier League. The way he presented himself must have been very reassuring for the german fanbase. He scored twice and looked like the "leader" most people expect him to be during this summer's Euro championship in Switzerland and Austria. The 2-1 victory over ManU brought back some excitement to the English championship. Both teams are now level on points and only the goal difference puts ManU up front at the moment.

And while I had the chance to watch a J-League game I really found it interesting of how the fans in Japan participate in the game. They are singing constantly, something which also happens in baseball. This may sound like they are trying to hard and some people might even say that this is all because of the strange discipline and collective thinking of Asians in general, but just to hear the crowd sing in the match between Urawa Red Diamonds and Consadole Sapporo was very refreshing. Urawa was down quickly, then equalized, got behind again, scored another equalizer and finally went in front in the second half and all the time the crowd was there singing and chanting. So there wasn't any real difference from a european game. There was though with the goalkeepers. Both didn't look good at all so it might be a good idea to get someone like Oliver Kahn to go to Japan. Although he already might have abandoned that idea in favour of staying in Germany.
The level of play was rather decent although I have to admit that I am a bit biased when it comes to japanese football. I really like their way of playing a very fast and technical football, they try to play like Arsenal. Something they can't accomplish, that's true, but it's nice to watch. The level is definetely higher than the one played in the american MLS. The season over there is just getting on the way so it might be a little too early to make predictions. The Reds got off to a lousy start and it seemed they were just continuing from where they left off at the end of last season when the suffered a meltdown losing the championship to Kashima Antlers on the last day of play. But they regrouped and now seem to do just fine. The last goal of the match against Sapporo was a wonderful counterattack with former Frankfurt and Hamburg player Takahara Naohiro laying up the ball for teammate Edmilson (4-2).