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.

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.

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