dfb cup quarterfinal: fc augsburg vs 1. fc köln...
Last night I was at the stadium of my local football team, FC Augsburg, to watch them play the German cup quarterfinal against 1. FC Köln.
It was a tie of firsts: For the first time in the club's history, FCA reached the German cup quarterfinal. And for the first time in the stadium's (admittedly young) history, it was sold out for a FCA home game. There were 30,400 spectators there, 5,000 of which Köln supporters.
Augsburg had already kicked some prestigious opponents out of the cup, like top division side SC Freiburg (1-0) and second division rivals MSV Duisburg (5-0). However, Köln had won seven points from their last three Bundesliga matches, the most recent of which being the clash with Hamburger SV, where Adil Chihi scored the 3-3 in the 88th minute and won his team a point. On the other hand, Augsburg only reached a goalless draw against Union Berlin last weekend.
If you consider the clubs' history, it's practically David vs Goliath:
FC Augsburg has mostly been a nobody in football history. The club was founded in 1907 but seemed happy to play in the lower leagues for quite a long time, until Andreas Rettig took over the management position and invested some money. In 2006 they were promoted to the second division and finished 7th one year later, which was a sensational result and couldn't be repeated the three following seasons. Last year, the final match was a nerve-wracking one, and they were lucky to avoid relegation on goal average, being on equal points with relegated side Kickers Offenbach at the end of the season. The club officials decided to do something about this. They signed Jos Luhukay, formerly of 1. FC Köln and Borussia Mönchengladbach, as the team's new coach, and bought new players, either more or less unknown ones like Ibrahima Traoré, or others like Michael Thurk (Mainz, Frankfurt), Simon Jentzsch (Wolfsburg) or Uwe Möhrle (Wolfsburg), who had run out of luck at their old clubs. Most of them turned out to be real zingers for FCA, like Thurk, who is currently the league's top scorer with 19 goals in 20 matches. The club is currently 3rd in the second division, holding the position that, at the end of the season, means a relegation match against the 2nd to last from the first league. Naturally, as they've only played four seasons in the second division so far, I think a promotion would come too early for them, but it's still a great result at this point.
Köln, on the other hand, is a club with ample first league experience, and not just that. They played in the European Cup in 1965, where they went out of the competition after the quarterfinals against Liverpool FC. There were two 0-0 draws and a 2-2 in the third game, and since the penalty shoot-out hadn't been introduced yet, a coin was tossed. Ironically, the coin stuck vertically in the ground the first time, so it had to be tossed a second time. Köln has had some trouble in recent years, becoming more or less a "yo-yo" club which moves between the first and second divisions. The last time they were relegated was in 2006 after they conceded 71 league goals. They were promoted again in 2008 and have managed to stay in the first league since. Currently, they're 11th, ahead of last season's champions Wolfsburg. Their squad consists of, amongst others, Lukas Podolski, Portuguese internationals Maniche and Petit, Colombian keeper Faryd Mondragón, ex-Castilla player Christopher Schorch and Zoran Tošić, on loan from Manchester United.
Everyone possessing a little common sense would agree that it was highly unlikely for FCA to win this cup tie. They were the underdog, after all, and they didn't have any big names amongst them. But they fought hard, played an excellent first half (which was more or less going in one direction, namely towards Köln's goal, and if Faryd Mondragón hadn't made so many excellent saves, Köln could have been 3-0 behind at half time), and were rewarded for it by Michael Thurk's early goal (which Dad and I missed because we arrived late at the stadium thanks to a late tram). But at some point, the game got ugly. Köln's players realised that they didn't stand much of a chance against the agile, dedicated FCA players and started fouling, kicking and moaning. They didn't even stop after the referee sent off Adil Chihi for what looked like an elbow check into El Akchaoui's face but wasn't (as the TV images showed). Lukas Podolski played only eight minutes until he was sent off with a second yellow for dissent, and then Petit made an offending gesture towards the referee and received his second yellow, too. Funnily enough, FCA didn't manage to draw much of an advantage from playing against eight men. Usually, something like this worries me, because you only have to make one little mistake, and suddenly it's 1-1 and you have to start over again, but the body language of Köln's players after Petit's sending-off was quite clear: they didn't have the energy to fight any more. Nando Rafael's 2-0 was a beautiful goal but technically, the match had been decided a lot earlier. And even though it was freezingly cold and snowed throughout the entire match, and my toes and fingers almost froze, it was all worth it. I'm glad I was there, and I don't think I've chanted "Berlin, Berlin, wir fahren nach Berlin" with such pride in a very long time. ;)
Now, the underdogs have yet another first time before them: their first German cup semifinal ever. To be played in March against Werder Bremen - unfortunately not in Augsburg this time. I don't want to assume blindly that FCA will win this match. They've come a long way this season and achieved so many great things that I don't want to be greedy. But in case they do reach the cup final in Berlin, it won't matter whether they win or lose it: they'll play in the Europa League next season. And I can't even say how giddy this thought makes me. :)
It was a tie of firsts: For the first time in the club's history, FCA reached the German cup quarterfinal. And for the first time in the stadium's (admittedly young) history, it was sold out for a FCA home game. There were 30,400 spectators there, 5,000 of which Köln supporters.
Augsburg had already kicked some prestigious opponents out of the cup, like top division side SC Freiburg (1-0) and second division rivals MSV Duisburg (5-0). However, Köln had won seven points from their last three Bundesliga matches, the most recent of which being the clash with Hamburger SV, where Adil Chihi scored the 3-3 in the 88th minute and won his team a point. On the other hand, Augsburg only reached a goalless draw against Union Berlin last weekend.
If you consider the clubs' history, it's practically David vs Goliath:
FC Augsburg has mostly been a nobody in football history. The club was founded in 1907 but seemed happy to play in the lower leagues for quite a long time, until Andreas Rettig took over the management position and invested some money. In 2006 they were promoted to the second division and finished 7th one year later, which was a sensational result and couldn't be repeated the three following seasons. Last year, the final match was a nerve-wracking one, and they were lucky to avoid relegation on goal average, being on equal points with relegated side Kickers Offenbach at the end of the season. The club officials decided to do something about this. They signed Jos Luhukay, formerly of 1. FC Köln and Borussia Mönchengladbach, as the team's new coach, and bought new players, either more or less unknown ones like Ibrahima Traoré, or others like Michael Thurk (Mainz, Frankfurt), Simon Jentzsch (Wolfsburg) or Uwe Möhrle (Wolfsburg), who had run out of luck at their old clubs. Most of them turned out to be real zingers for FCA, like Thurk, who is currently the league's top scorer with 19 goals in 20 matches. The club is currently 3rd in the second division, holding the position that, at the end of the season, means a relegation match against the 2nd to last from the first league. Naturally, as they've only played four seasons in the second division so far, I think a promotion would come too early for them, but it's still a great result at this point.
Köln, on the other hand, is a club with ample first league experience, and not just that. They played in the European Cup in 1965, where they went out of the competition after the quarterfinals against Liverpool FC. There were two 0-0 draws and a 2-2 in the third game, and since the penalty shoot-out hadn't been introduced yet, a coin was tossed. Ironically, the coin stuck vertically in the ground the first time, so it had to be tossed a second time. Köln has had some trouble in recent years, becoming more or less a "yo-yo" club which moves between the first and second divisions. The last time they were relegated was in 2006 after they conceded 71 league goals. They were promoted again in 2008 and have managed to stay in the first league since. Currently, they're 11th, ahead of last season's champions Wolfsburg. Their squad consists of, amongst others, Lukas Podolski, Portuguese internationals Maniche and Petit, Colombian keeper Faryd Mondragón, ex-Castilla player Christopher Schorch and Zoran Tošić, on loan from Manchester United.
Everyone possessing a little common sense would agree that it was highly unlikely for FCA to win this cup tie. They were the underdog, after all, and they didn't have any big names amongst them. But they fought hard, played an excellent first half (which was more or less going in one direction, namely towards Köln's goal, and if Faryd Mondragón hadn't made so many excellent saves, Köln could have been 3-0 behind at half time), and were rewarded for it by Michael Thurk's early goal (which Dad and I missed because we arrived late at the stadium thanks to a late tram). But at some point, the game got ugly. Köln's players realised that they didn't stand much of a chance against the agile, dedicated FCA players and started fouling, kicking and moaning. They didn't even stop after the referee sent off Adil Chihi for what looked like an elbow check into El Akchaoui's face but wasn't (as the TV images showed). Lukas Podolski played only eight minutes until he was sent off with a second yellow for dissent, and then Petit made an offending gesture towards the referee and received his second yellow, too. Funnily enough, FCA didn't manage to draw much of an advantage from playing against eight men. Usually, something like this worries me, because you only have to make one little mistake, and suddenly it's 1-1 and you have to start over again, but the body language of Köln's players after Petit's sending-off was quite clear: they didn't have the energy to fight any more. Nando Rafael's 2-0 was a beautiful goal but technically, the match had been decided a lot earlier. And even though it was freezingly cold and snowed throughout the entire match, and my toes and fingers almost froze, it was all worth it. I'm glad I was there, and I don't think I've chanted "Berlin, Berlin, wir fahren nach Berlin" with such pride in a very long time. ;)
Now, the underdogs have yet another first time before them: their first German cup semifinal ever. To be played in March against Werder Bremen - unfortunately not in Augsburg this time. I don't want to assume blindly that FCA will win this match. They've come a long way this season and achieved so many great things that I don't want to be greedy. But in case they do reach the cup final in Berlin, it won't matter whether they win or lose it: they'll play in the Europa League next season. And I can't even say how giddy this thought makes me. :)