After years of instability FC Koln has found a winning formula with Peter Stoger, and 2016-17 has been no different.
Two seasons removed from their promotion FC Koln has gone with a different approach. Build a squad piece by piece that will ensure midtable finishes with the goal of moving up the table year after year.
FC Koln is a massive club with a passionate following that boarders on making the love of both Alabama and Auburn look like mere flirtations. They have a live goat as a mascot, a slow rock ballad as an anthem, and great kits for Carnival.
The key player in this years successes is the French strike Anthony Modeste.
Seen as a flop for not setting the English Premier League on fire in half a season he has found himself a home at FC Koln. After netting 15 Bundesliga goals in the last campaign he has scored 12 so far and is second in the race to be torschutzenkonig.
Other players have played big roles but one that is out for a considerable time is keeper Timo Horn. The keeper in the Germany team at the Rio Olympics has continued to be a standout and his long term injury, along with that of key defender Dominique Heintz has caused the squad to be slightly less sound as they ended the hinrunde.
Moment of the Hinrunde
When you play for FC Koln you are at a passionate club. The passion is never bigger than when they play rivals Borussia Monchengladbach. Down in the first half the leakiness of the Borussia defense was exposed and talisman Modeste scored the equalizer. Match seemed destined for 1-1 until in the 91 minute Marcel Risse scored from a long range free kick for the winner.
The ‘A Ha’ Moment of the Hinrunde
Traveling to Hoffenheim can be tricky for some teams and so it was for FC Koln. Last season they visited an unstable Eintracht Frankfurt side and lost in spectacular fashion 5-2. Apparently that is still in the FC Koln DNA and they won’t become an elite team until they stop performances like this. End result was a 4-0 demolition in favor of Hoffenheim.
Ruckrunde Prediction
Anthony Modeste is what the successes of this squad are hinged on. They better send out some scouts of players to give support because a finish of seventh, outside the European qualification places is all that should be expected. If they make it to Europe, and they can, then they need to bring in two more faces for squad depth because there is not enough.
