“I thought we got off to a good start until the thunderstorm.” In context it was a standard, anodyne, flat-batted answer by Köln’s Marius Bülter as he strove to analyse his team’s efforts. Quite unwittingly, it captured the chaos of the afternoon perfectly. It was an afternoon that was supposed to be about VfL Wolfsburg as the club celebrated their 80th birthday with as much flourish as this industrial corner of Lower Saxony could muster, with billowing clouds of green and white smoke accompanying club legends including 2009 champion Grafite and iconic defender Naldo leading the team on to the pitch in front of a (rare) sold-out crowd.
Yet typically Köln, the club that does football drama like few others, rudely barged in and made it all about themselves. In Lukas Kwasniok they have a new coach who, like the club’s best down the years, knows how to lean into the emotion and Effzeh are already an invigorating watch. As they trailed 2-1 going into stoppage time, Kwasniok had thrown attacking substitutes such as Ragnar Ache and the lively teenager Said El Mala into the mix to make something happen. Little did the coach know his team would have to equalise not just once, but twice in that period.
But Köln did so with, of all people, Jakub Kaminski, netting the final leveller right at the end to make it 3-3. Still owned by Wolfsburg but currently on loan to Köln, the Poland winger had not scored in either of his last two seasons at the Volkswagen Arena. His sharp finish on the spin hit the net 13 minutes and 35 seconds into stoppage time, the latest goal in the Bundesliga since added minutes started being officially timed back in 1992, and it was his second already for his new club. Kaminski looked sheepish as his new teammates went wild.
So instead of celebrating in front of the home support and taking the plaudits, captain and club legend Max Arnold spent the period after the final whistle in animated discussion with the hardcore support behind the goal. A fortnight after letting in a late equaliser here against Mainz, this extended Die Wölfe’s current winless run at home in the Bundesliga to 10. “Maybe,” suggested a circumspect Arnold, whose sensational free-kick in the ninth minute of added time had looked like being the fairytale winner, “the frustration needed to be released from both sides.”
And though they were happy , with smiling Wolfsburg faces among the birthday celebrations and the introduction of new signing Christian Eriksen, on the bench and joining the sizeable Danish contingent at the club , there is still plenty to ponder for new coach Paul Simonis, an interesting appointment having improbably won the KNVB Beker with Go Ahead Eagles as a first-time head coach.
The 40-year-old is entering a different realm of expectation and pressure here, not just because of Grafite, Edin Dzeko and a glorious past, but because of everything here being on a different scale. Simonis has a budget, big names and egos to manage, with Mohammed Amoura licking his wounds after a move to Benfica failed to become concrete (though he did head the opener here).
After a crazy early season game like this, disrupted by prolonged VAR checks and referee Bastian Dankert ordering the players off to take cover from a thunderstorm for more than 10 minutes, it’s best not to draw any definitive conclusions. Köln, readapting to the top league, are grateful to be able to make transfers at all, and it will have given them pleasure to see newbies such as substitutes Ísak Jóhannesson (who scored the goal for 2-2) and Ache (who set up Kamniski’s goal) weigh in. Pleasure that, as always, they are more than happy to submit to. The weather can turn at any moment, as Köln know only too well, so it’s best to make the most of clear skies while you can.
Quick Guide Bundesliga results
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Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 Eintracht Frankfurt, Mainz 0-1 RB Leipzig, Heidenheim 0-2 Borussia Dortmund, Freiburg 3-1 Stuttgart, Union Berlin 2-4 Hoffenheim, Wolfsburg 3-2 Köln, Bayern Munich 5-0 Hamburg, St. Pauli 2-1 Augsburg, Borussia M’gladbach 0-4 Werder Bremen
Talking points
Leverkusen are up and running post-Erik ten Hag and have every right to feel buoyant after digging in to beat thus far impressive Eintracht Frankfurt in a Friday night thriller. The win was underpinned by two expert Alejandro Grimaldo free-kicks but after just two days of training under new coach Kasper Hjulmand it was about grit and graft. “Hjulmand hadn’t prepared gourmet football with his team,” wrote Kicker’s Stephen von Nocks, “but with home-style cooking made from simple ingredients uncharacteristic of Bayer 04.” They were compact, “intense” (as the excellent Nathan Tella told ESPN) and snappy , sometimes too much so with captain Robert Andrich and his replacement, debutant Equi Fernández, both dismissed for two yellow cards, meaning they had nine men by the time Grimaldo scored a sublime third Leverkusen goal in stoppage time to seal it. “This all sounds like I’m talking about youth football,” smiled Mark Flekken, “but that’s just how it is. The basics have to be there.”
Few are more delighted to see Hamburg back in the top flight than Bayern Munich after seven years away; on their previous eight visits to the Allianz Arena before this weekend, HSV had shipped an astonishing 50 goals. So they might be feeling chipper this Monday that they only conceded five in their latest drubbing, with a larger shellacking looking likely when they were hit by a Serge Gnabry rocket in the third minute and when they trailed 4-0 at half-time. It was a baptism of fire for 18-year-old Luka Vuskovic, on loan from Tottenham, who debuted having not yet met a couple of his teammates due to the international break, though the connection of his currently suspended elder brother Mario with the club has aided his early adaptation.
Dortmund gobbled up a routine 2-0 win at 10-man Heidenheim but their travelling fans weren’t happy, mainly on account of their new away jersey, or Das Grausamste Trikot der Liga (the most horrible shirt in the league) as it was described by a huge banner in the visitors’ section. “Borussia will stay black and yellow,” said another of the grey shirt (with just splashes of black and yellow). It has, according to club figures, already sold over 5,000 from the club megastore, roughly in line with previous away kits.
Leipzig have lost a lot of top line talent this summer but it felt as if there was renewed spirit in the camp as they won 1-0 at Mainz with a first goal for the club by Johan Bakayoko, one of the new generation. Post-Benjamin Sesko and Xavi it feels like there is a weight lifted from Leipzig shoulders , perhaps recalling their former coach Julian Nagelsmann’s words about potentially calling up players “with less quality who will give everything on the pitch” for Germany after the loss in Slovakia. Not that Ole Werner’s side are short on ability (and the opening games of teenage winger Yan Diomandé have been very promising) but this is a fascinating work-in-progress.
No goals and no wins so far this Bundesliga season; Borussia Mönchengladbach already look in big trouble and Sunday’s 4-0 home defeat by Werder Bremen could have been much worse, with debutant Victor Boniface only ready for a cameo (though already providing an assist for Justin Njinmah) for the visitors. Coach Gerardo Seoane is on the brink.
