Cologne vs Aachen - A Great Derby (R)

[olafgb]

Amazing game tonight between Cologne and Aachen. Aachen was superior almost throughout the whole first half without creating major chances though. In the stoppage time of the first half. Cologne ran a counter attack and scored the 1-0. After the break Cologne was more self-confident, added the second goal soon (52') and looked like the secure winner when scoring the 3-0 after 66'. Then it was showtime for a forward who's turning 20 tomorrow and played his first 2.Bundesliga game (had 3 games as substitute for Dortmund in Bundesliga last season though): Emanuel Krontiris. He came in in the 57th and brought some hope back for Aachen in the 71st with the 1-3 - a wonderful goal. The hope grew with an ejection for Cologne four minutes later, but a stupid foul of an Aachen defender made it 10 vs 10 just two further minutes later. In the 83rd it was Krontiris again to make it 2-3, and in the 90th he finished his hattrick to tie game.

Really a superb thriller, good pick by DSF for the live game of the week.

[Brihodge]

Very good summary Olaf,

I was at the game and I saw it mostly the same way, in my of course a bit biased view. Aachen really dominated the game for all but those 20 minutes in the middle. The first red card on the Koeln defender was definitely deserved as he was the last man. The red on the Alemannia defender was absolute crap and I believe only made because the ref thought he blew the first call even though he got it right. This play happend right in front of me, i am sure it wasn't even a foul let alone a red, and so was the linesman who was standing right in front of where it happened and didn't even blink an eyelid, horriblely undeserved send off. Two fantastic goals and lucky one makes for a great start to Krontiris' loan spell. Great come back by TSV. The thing that stuck out in my mind most was how ugly of a game Koeln played. The would gather the ball in the back and then go old route one and pray that one of their forwards could knock down a header, i've only seen the two games of theirs that they'be played against Aachen, plus one other, but they've played an ugly style everytime. Is this normal, and apparently it's effective against most teams as their at the top of the table and unbeaten in the league but i just can't see how it works week in and week out.

Just wanted to say what a wonderful comback it was and about how there is no atmosphere at all in Rhein Energie Stadion, though the one missing end could have something to do with that. Fantastic match.

[olafgb]

On TV it appeared that rather the red card for Cologne was critical. It was possible that another Cologne defender, who was on the other side of the middle circle, might have caught Spizak - I think that the ref calculated Spizak's speed and also the fact that Cichon made a very hard foul although a simple check or holding would have been enough to stop him. With Lanzaat the situation was that the foul was rather a minor one (but it definitely was a foul), but when the opponent struggled, he did an additional mean kick to the heel - this surely was difficult to see as it appeared to be within the move, but the TV proved the ref to be right; basically it was the assistant, who saw it (was just about five meter away) and signalled the ref to give the red card.

Cologne's playing style is a bit simple, that's right. This is Funkel's way of playing. He's rather the typical coach for the relegation fight in Bundesliga where you have to concentrate on the essential things. In 2.Bundesliga it is enough as mainly they got a run (they won many of their games very luckily) but also have outstanding individual players, who are too good for 2.Bundesliga (mainly Lottner). Back in Bundesliga they might cause some attention as they did the last time they promoted as they played simple counter attacking style, but after the hype is over they'll be deep down if they don't improve

[Brihodge]

I only caught minutes 15-30 on the replay this morning, so I have nothing new to really say about the red cards, but if you say the replay showed that it was a clear red I'll believe you, it just didn't appear to me as though the linesman standing right there signalled anything at all, not even just a foul, let alone a send off. Either way, great game.

Glad we can agree that Koeln plays ugly ball :) . I've noticed from the highlights of their other games that they have been a bit lucky in most of their wins, lets just hope that someone beats them this season in the league. For the first time in my life I'm happy that Bayern actually won, just because it was so fun to endlessly sing "acht zu null" to the home crowd, i don't think that that one will ever get old.

[Mattbro]

Wait, is Mungersdorfer now called Rhein-Energie-Stadion? More commercialization of the game, yippee. Although I never really liked FC Cologne to begin with, so who really cares. The old Mungersdorfer was kind of a dump though, although I attended some interesting events there: a one-all draw with Leverkusen (got a nice beer shower from above in the Leverkusen section), a Leverkusen away victory, a derby victory by Fortuna (:)), a Bon Jovi concert and an AC/DC concert.

[Brihodge]

Yeah, they changed the name, made it harder to find. The renovations aren't finished yet, they only have 3 sides as the back (North) end isn't finished, but I still don't like it. There's a track around it which really hurts the atmosphere. I'm not a fan, and I hope that the US doesn't get drawn to play there in '06 because I want to be on top of the pitch.

[Mattbro]

You're kidding me: they're going to all that trouble to renovate that dump and they've left the f-ing track in?!! Jeez Louise.

[olafgb]

I haven't been there yet, but I can't imagine that they left the track and field lane. Also, I can't detect one at their stadium website www.stadion-koeln.de - the new stadium looks like a clear improvement. I've been to the old one about maybe eight years ago (the historic matchday, in which the refs stole Bremen - with a giant young Mario Basler - the championship and donated it to Dortmund; Dortmund was back 0-1 with five minutes to go until Möller did his famous dive that allowed Dortmund to win 2-1 in a game they wouldn't have scored a goal with additional 200 minutes without a penalty kick; and in Cologne Polster was not ejected after a brutal foul, and in the stoppage time, Werder got a clear pk refused, which would have been the 2-0, and in the counter attack they got the 1-1 instead) and it clearly needed improvement. I would have preferred Düsseldorf though as their construction IMO is outstanding, belonged to the top 3 of the stadium bids - but sure NRW got many stadiums and it could only be Cologne or Düsseldorf.

I can't agree with you, Matt, regarding the commercialization. There is absolutely no way today that you can finance a stadium with public funds only. You need private investors and you can be glad if you find someone paying really much for the right of the name. Top sports is commerce, it couldn't live without.

[O'Dubhghaill Rules!]

Stadium with track
http://www.stadion-koeln.de/Stadionguide/Stadionfotos/Nordkurve/Nordkurve_Umbaustufe-01.html

Renovations - Demolition, stands rebuilt closer to field, no more track
http://www.stadion-koeln.de/Stadionguide/Stadionfotos/Suedkurve/Fotos_Sued-Umbau_01.html

[Mattbro]

I can see what Brihodge means, though: track or no track,there's a ton of space between the field and the stands.