Irate Said El Mala sounds the alarm! 1. FC Köln face a nightmare record
After their defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt, 1. FC Köln are in danger of setting an unwanted record. Said El Mala is furious afterwards and sounds the alarm.
After the 0-1 defeat, the Billy Goats have now gone 16 away matches without a win. Another failure to win on their next trip (against Union Berlin on 1 November) would see Cologne equal their own unwanted record. Cologne last went 17 consecutive away matches without a win in the 2003/04 season. They failed to win away throughout that campaign and were ultimately relegated in last place.
Cologne last won in the Bundesliga on 3 October under former coach Lukas Kwasniok (1-0 against TSG Hoffenheim). That has set alarm bells ringing for El Mala. "It's extremely dangerous. If we don't pick up points away from home, it will be difficult to collect enough points in the league overall," he told Sky. Nevertheless, the young forward remained confident: "But sooner or later things will click and we'll pick up points away from home too. It's only a matter of time."
Despite being badly hit by injuries, Cologne looked set to snatch a point from Frankfurt for much of the match. Then Younes Ebnoutalib fired struggling Eintracht to victory in the 77th minute. Without injured strikers Thijs Dallinga (26/torn cruciate ligament) and Ragnar Ache (28/torn muscle fibre), Cologne lacked attacking threat. El Mala, whom coach Rene Wagner had to field as a No 9, missed a promising chance.
El Mala: "It just hurts incredibly badly"
El Mala explained: "We perhaps played the best half of our season, but couldn't reward ourselves. We defended everything at the back and were more assertive in the challenges. I think Frankfurt were already pretty exhausted, so we had a good feeling at half-time. Then we came out of the dressing room and Frankfurt were suddenly perhaps a little more assertive than us, or had found even more motivation."
For the 20-year-old, "Frustration" had not yet set in: "We still put in a good performance. It's not as if we came here and were completely blown away. I think we made it extremely difficult for Frankfurt. Personally, I had a chance where perhaps I should have been a bit calmer. Maybe I was a little too hasty. But you also have to understand that it's not so easy when I set off from my own half. Those are the things I need to work on." Still, it "just hurts incredibly badly that we lost here".
Will Bayern Munich bring about a new unwanted record for Cologne?
El Mala also rejected the suggestion that Cologne's attack had become too dependent on him following his surprise contract extension in the summer. "No, not at all. I think it's nonsense to say something like that. After all, I'm not playing alone against eleven players. My success so far wouldn't have been possible without the team. That's why I think it's nonsense to say that. We play here as a team, not as individual players. I think you can see that too," he stressed.
Next weekend, Cologne can make amends at home to Schalke 04 before heading to Berlin. Curiously, they will face the Iron Ones at the Rheinenergiestadion in the DFB Cup just a few days earlier. If they fail to win the Bundesliga rematch too, Cologne risk surpassing their own unwanted record. After the international break, they face an away trip to Bayern Munich on 20 November of all dates.
