Fortuna Cologne’s 2-1 victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach means the “Cathedral City” team has now gone 17 games unbeaten. The “Young Foals” coach is frustrated by one particular play.
For Fortuna Cologne, the season so far could hardly be going better. Unbeaten since Matchday 3, and boasting the best offense and the best defense in the Regionalliga West, the numbers speak for themselves. Fortuna remains unbeaten for the 17th consecutive game, prevailing 2-1 over Borussia Mönchengladbach’s U23 team.
Fortuna made its mark early in the match. In the sixth minute, a precise corner kick from Rafael Garcia found Seymour Fünger, who simply had to nod the ball in. Just ten minutes later, Nico Thier extended the lead to 2–0, but the comfortable advantage didn’t last long. Nico Vidic scored the first goal for the opposition as early as the 18th minute, and no further goals were scored for the remainder of the match.
After that, the clash between the two rival cities grew increasingly heated. Several scuffles marked the rest of the first half, with Gladbach’s Joshua Uwakhonye receiving the first yellow card. About a minute later, the young left back got into a tackle with Tom Geerkens, during which the two collided, prompting referee Kristijan Rajkovski to issue a second yellow card.
“There are things in soccer that you can influence and things that you can’t,” summarized Gladbach coach Oliver Kirch. “After reviewing the footage, it’s clear that the 1-0 goal resulted from a clear foul on our goalkeeper, who was tackled while in the air. The yellow-red card was another key moment. The first card was silly, but the ejection was completely excessive.”
From Gladbach’s perspective, the criticism from the former Dortmund player is understandable, as these two incidents had a decisive impact on the outcome of the match and both were ruled in favor of the home team. However, nothing else happened in the second half, so Fortuna deservedly kept the three points in Cologne.
Despite all the discussion surrounding the two refereeing decisions, Fortuna coach Matthias Mink is extremely pleased with his team. “The first 20 minutes set the tone. We got off to a good start and were able to solidify our lead with the 2-0 score. We did face some difficulties after the red card, but we handled it more than respectably,” Mink said.
As a result, the Cologne team now has 43 points after 20 games and has managed to pull slightly ahead of its pursuers. However, appearances can be deceiving, as Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and FC Schalke 04 II each still have a game in hand.
But even if the competition does its part, the league leader will still hold at least a three-point lead. For the “Young Foals,” on the other hand, this fourth loss in five games means they are out of the promotion race for the time being.
Next week features the top matchup in the Regionalliga when Fortuna Cologne visits Oberhausen this coming Saturday. Mönchengladbach, meanwhile, faces a supposedly easier opponent as they host SSVg Velbert.