Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Why Baumgart suits FC Köln
A painter saves the carnival club
An analysis by David Needy
Despite the threat of relegation, FC Köln can celebrate: With the signing of Steffen Baumgart, the right coach type will finally be brought to the Rhine. Because the coach could nip any carnival circus in the bud with his malocher way.
The Effzeh is “widder do”. So they cheered at 1. FC Köln when they were promoted to the upper house in 2019. Once again. Because the ascent and descent at the traditional club is not threatening to end and the coach Steffen Baumgart, who is signed up for the new season, could have to strive for the seventh Bundesliga promotion after 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2014 and 2019 in his first season. But regardless of whether the Effzeh kicks in the first or second division next season – with the commitment of the Paderborn coach, the club may have finally achieved the right coup.
Four coaches alone have worn out Cologne since their last promotion. There have been 13 in the past 10 years. Continuity looks different – but a character like Baumgart could finally bring peace to the club again, which historically has always been far too colorful running and there are too many secondary theaters of war. No matter whether in the lower or upper house. The Rhenish rainbow press should also be sympathetic to the media-effective trainer.
Of course, the potential relegation for FC Köln is not only the daily greeting groundhog, but also a great (economic) danger of not doing justice to former ambitions at all. The city and the club have become more realistic in recent years and do not speak of the Champions League straight away after two victories – but Baumgart’s task will also be to instill a healthy average of aspirations and a realistic path into the traditional club from the Rhineland. But who could do it better than the last Malocher coach of professional football?
Baumgart will leave SC Paderborn after four years at the end of the season and will now receive a working paper at Effzeh until 2023. The coach took over East Westphalia in April 2017 in a complicated situation in the third division, but initially could not stop the downward trend and rose with it SCP into the regional league – actually. Because Baumgart’s team benefited from the fact that TSV 1860 Munich did not get the league approval and remained in the 3rd division. Then the coach started his success story and within two years led the club first in the 2nd division and then back to the Bundesliga by marching through.
Baumgart and Cologne live football
In the upper house, the SCP then caused a sensation with extremely courageous appearances. Because Baumgart didn’t even think about letting his team play like a little climber. Powerful, aggressive and committed, the East Westphalia even put the very big ones under pressure. FC Bayern (once under Niko Kovac, once under Hansi Flick) could only just win 3-2 in both duels, while RB Leipzig even defied SCP in a draw. And then there was the great performance at BVB in the sold out Signal Iduna Park in November 2019: At halftime, the cheeky climber led 3-0 (!!!) in front of 81,000 spectators. It was only through two very late goals that Dortmund managed to achieve a flattering draw.
The immediate relegation followed, but the memory of the Bundesliga will remember Baumgart’s Malocher appearances on the sidelines. Always loudly and wildly gesticulating, the coach often had no voice at all during the interviews after the game. And if something didn’t suit him, he said that too. There is actually no longer such a type in the Bundesliga coaching team, the game leaders are too concerned about their public image today. But Baumgart liked to trumpet: “I will promise everyone that I will not shut up if I have the feeling that the referees have acted wrongly. Then I will say something about it,” he grumbled at the beginning of 2020 was warned again with a yellow card on the sidelines. “It’s much worse that the word ‘respect’ always comes up. I have respect for every referee, but I expect it from both sides.” As an honest guy, the trainer also admitted when he got too emotional and had no problem apologizing.
In the metropolis on the Rhine, people have longed for one type of coach – Markus Anfang, Achim Beierlorzer or Markus Gisdol – none of them were. Anyone who has ever seen Baumgart on the sidelines knows that the emotional trainer might not be the easiest person in the world, but that every footballer and fan can be carried away. The coach lives football. Just like the cathedral city lives football. He knows how to do a lot with few (financial, playful) means. In addition, he lets play a courageous football, for which the passionate Cologne supporters will love him. According to Willy Brandt, what belongs together could grow together here.
Carnival circus has run out of space
Baumgart’s speech of rage remains in the memory for eternity after the game in the DFB Cup against Borussia Dortmund that was lost in February: The second division team had dramatically caught up with a 2-0 deficit against the Champions League club, and then through a controversial VAR decision to receive the 3-2 fatal blow. Erling Haaland was offside, but an SCP player is said to have touched the ball minimally before it was passed to the Norwegian. “Respect also means looking at the shit and then making a decision. That is respectful treatment of the opponent and not of the little ones who we kicked in the ass again,” Baumgart railed after the game.
Steffen Baumgart is too honest, too much of a football painter for any carnival circus that has often dominated Cologne in the past and destroyed it from within. The new coach in the cathedral city could once again give Effzeh continuity on the sidelines and thus a uniform and successful style of play. The only question that remains is whether in the 2nd division or in the Bundesliga. As bitter as going to the lower house would be, the Cologne-based club, who has been stumbling for years, could not have wished for a better coach for the future: And both the club and Baumgart are very familiar with promotions.
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