Baumgart and Selke comment on Köln's haul-down into relegation race
Köln trainer Steffen Baumgart and goal-scorer Davie Selke were naturally in no mood to mince words following Saturday night's humiliating defeat at Dortmund.
A calendar year that began with a big win for 7-1 1. FC Köln against Bremen in front of their hometown fans has now degenerated into a 1-6 embarrassment at the hands of Dortmund. Having won just one of nine league matches since then and gone winless in the last four, Steffen Baumgart's Geißböcke are now most assuredly in the relegation race.
Augsburg passed Köln in the table today courtesy of their 1-1 draw with Schalke. The cathedral city side are now in 13th place on 27 points; just six points off the relegation playoff place. The tight pack of relegation candidates continue to pick up points whilst Köln are picking up none. A team struggling mightily to score goals are being hunted by no fewer than five teams who have proven that they can.
The Domstädter were able to break a long goalless drought against Dortmund in Saturday night's "Top-Spiel". Striker Davie Selke - finally opening his account for his new club - snatched back an early 1-4 consolation just before the first half was out. Selke didn't bother celebrating.
Asked how it felt to help his new team break a scoring drought that spanned over 360 minutes of league football, the notoriously moody Selke replied that such statistical streaks "gets on my nerves". Selke proceeded to explain to the Sky mics that he felt it was really about the team; also the reason he declined to celebrate his tally.
"For me personally, it [the goal] was irrelevant," Selke said, "goalless minutes for strikers or teams are also irrelevant. No point in saying anything else. We have to do our talking on the pitch."
Head-coach Baumgart also lost patience with fielding obvious questions during his post match interview. The gruff gaffer just went ahead and summed it up in his usual fashion.
"I'm the one responsible," Baumgart noted, "I've been asked twice now and twice I've supplied the answered. We just got our asses handed to us."