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Dense fog over the stadium on Thursday evening
Photo: IMAGO/Dalibor Gluck / IMAGO/CTK Photo
Throw-in time: Friday, 1 p.m.
This information alone should be enough to describe the oddity of Cologne's away trip in the Conference League to Uherské Hradiště in the Czech Republic.
The game against 1. FC Slovácko was originally supposed to take place on Thursday evening.
However, thick fog lay over the stadium.
Uefa tried it after a half-hour shift - and then broke off quite quickly.
After seven minutes of play that could not actually be followed on TV, in the stands or on the field.
The problem: The schedule in the European leagues is tightly scheduled, and Cologne will be playing in the Bundesliga again on Sunday.
The Winter World Cup in Qatar doesn't exactly help either.
And above all: Hundreds of fans traveled the almost 1000 kilometers by car to the Czech-Slovakian border, even though they were not officially allowed to buy tickets after the fan riots.
The game resumed on Friday afternoon, at seven minutes on the clock, with a throw-in in the half by Slovácko.
Around 18 hours after the original kick-off time.
For Axel Goldmann it is the story of one of the "top three away trips" of his fan life, as he says.
SPIEGEL reached the man from Cologne in his car on Friday afternoon on his way home to Cologne, around 50 kilometers from Brno (Brno in Czech).
There are still 930 kilometers on the navigation system, he says, and he should arrive around one or two-thirty in the night.
He left on Tuesday morning.
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Axel Goldmann in the stadium in Slovácko.
The Cologne fan is part of the football podcast drei90
Photo: Axel Goldman
Goldmann reports on a small town completely overwhelmed by German football fans.
"Apparently no one had fans from Cologne on their bill," he said.
At 1 p.m. on Thursday there was no more beer.
There are other similar reports on Twitter.
According to Goldmann, of the 8,000 seats in the small stadium in Slovácko, around 1,500 were occupied by Cologne fans.
The Czech authorities, who had previously announced that no shirts or scarves in the colors of 1. FC Köln fans could be worn, waved everything through.
"The conditions were only a theoretical construct that day, they actually played no role."
On September 8, there were violent riots at Cologne's away game in Nice.
About 40 people were injured, as punishment Uefa imposed two away games without fans.
In this case, that meant that tickets for the guest block were not allowed to be ordered.
And in the end, the Cologne fans in Uherské Hradiště went to the guest block.
In the block looking for a hotel
And these 1,500, 2,000 German fans who were in the stadium after all had to quickly reach for their smartphones on Thursday evening when the game was announced and ultimately implemented.
“Everybody in Cologne had their booking app on and was looking for a hotel,” says Goldmann.
And somehow you had to make it home after the game the next noon.
But nobody got angry because of the decision that was ultimately made by Uefa.
“It was more like everyone thought: yes, how cool is that?
That can actually only happen if you go to the heart of the Czech Republic with 1. FC Köln.
More of a kind of joy: What the heck, now we're here, now we can stay there.«
The Cologne team obviously didn't see it that euphorically.
Coach Steffen Baumgart said that he still knew the kick-off and throw-in times from his second division days.
But captain Jonas Hector, for example, who was injured in the final training session and was still on the bench during the first attempt in Uherské Hradiště, left on Thursday evening.
The Cologne captain missed an evening that did justice to the circumstances of the game's transfer.
"The few bars in the city closed relatively early," says Fan Goldmann.
So we went to »Disco No.6«.
“It was a youth village disco where all the 17 to 20 year olds were looking forward to a nice evening because today is free.
And all of a sudden 200 German football fans show up and say: Yes, hello, we're swinging along.«
On Friday morning, according to Goldmann, the Cologne fans met in the city at eleven o'clock, just like the day before, "just like groundhog day, just a little earlier".
Some people saw the hardships of the night, says Goldmann, and they also drank a lot of coffee.
Then it was back to the stadium, again past the relaxed security forces.
Only this time: no fog.
The game ended 1-0 (0-0) for 1. FC Köln.
Ondrej Duda scored a penalty in the 82nd minute to win, Cologne can secure progress with a win against Nice next week.
But Goldmann did not speak of that.
But about the small town, the friendly people, the small stadium and an unforgettable night in Uherské Hradiště.