The cheers with which 1. FC Köln fans greeted their team’s 2-1 win over Wehen Wiesbaden were born as much of relief as jubilation.
The home side had to survive a few second-half scares before edging the win. Köln keeper and man-of-the-match Faryd Mondragon summed up the club’s current situation concisely: “All that mattered was getting the three points. But we still have a lot of work ahead.”
“Reactive attitude”
Coach Christoph Daum agreed, saying, “I’d prefer just to talk about the fitst half. We were in great form and took control of the game. After they pulled one back to make it 2-1, we adopted a reactive attitude.” Daum was understandably full of praise for his last line of defence: “We have Mondragon to thank, he kept his nerve, saved the penalty and then the free kick late onas well.” On the subject of late on, incidentally, Köln have scored more goals (21) in the final half hour than any other team in the division - an indication of their overall fitness, a factor which could prove crucial by the end of the season.
Their victory against a strong Wiesbaden outfit, who were also playing much of the game a man down, put the hosts top of the “home” league, with eight wins and three draws from their 13 games to date in the RheinEnergieStadion. And with other results going their way on the day, Köln are very much back in the promotion hunt. The fact that they have the best chance/conversion ratio in the 2. Bundesliga - 16.1%, excluding blocked efforts - is another positive in their favour.
“Fatherly advice” for Novakovic
Striker Milivoje Novakovic spent the game on the bench, for disciplinary reasons. Afterwards, Daum said, “I still have faith in ‘Nova’. What happened today should help with his development as a sportsman, and be taken in the spirit of a little fatherly advice.” Novakovic thus looks set to return for the game at Kickers Offenbach on Sunday.
Daum has yet to decide whether Kevin Pezzoni will have his second first-team runout in that match. The 19-year-old mid-season signing had a solid debut against Wehen, saying after that, “It could hardly have gone any better in my first game. A 2-1 win in a great stadium in front of a fantastic crowd.”
90 minutes flat out
Looking ahead to Offenbach, captain Kevin McKenna said, “We need to get a run of form going. At Offenbach we’ll have to go flat out for 90 minutes, too.” That applies in particular to Nemanja Vucicevic, who scored his first goal of the season last Sunday. Köln sporting director Michael Meier commented, “It’s great that he’s broken his duck, but we would also expect to see him exerting more of an influence on games.” Vucicevic, at any rate, has set up the most scoring opportunities for his teammates to date this season (35), four of which led to goals.
Man of the moment Mondagron is one current source of worry for Meier and Daum. The keeper was grounded for several minutes with a shoulder injury after his brilliant last-ditch free-kick save against Wehen. According to the coach, however, the Colombian international is looking good to play against Kickers.
Days of reckoning
Should he do so, and continue in the same vein, and should Roda Antar and Vucicevic bring their shooting boots with them again, and with Novakovic back up front as well - perhaps Köln will indeed get onto the kind of run which will take them all the way back to the top flight…
Oliver Grothmann / translation Angus Davison
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