Köln Hit Mülheim for Five and Go Top — On Warweg’s Big Night
Some players get a trophy in the morning and a hangover in the evening. Justus Warweg’s Friday was weirder than that.
A few hours after being named the FIH Men’s Rising Star of the Year in Doha, Warweg stepped up for Rot-Weiss Köln under the floodlights against Uhlenhorst Mülheim with a penalty stroke to take. He missed it. Twentieth minute, game still scoreless, and the league’s newest global award-winner put it wide.
Köln didn’t need him to make it. They were already 1-0 up through Raphael Hartkopf’s second-minute strike, and Mülheim’s reply, Ben Möltgen’s eighth-minute corner, turned out to be the sum total of their evening. Jakob Brilla converted a corner in the 21st, Christopher Rühr made it 3-1 in the 27th, Brilla struck again from a corner in the 45th, and Rühr completed his brace in the 50th. Five-one. Under the lights. Statement made.
The table matters as much as the scoreline. Köln have overtaken Hamburger Polo Club to go top of the 1. Bundesliga, and the timing is delicious: Polo travel to Club an der Alster on Saturday afternoon (14:30 CEST, 5:30pm PKT) knowing only a win retakes first place. Alster just put four past TSV Mannheim, so that’s no formality.
Mülheim, meanwhile, keep sliding the wrong way. Conceding five in Köln is no disgrace on its own, but the champions look nothing like champions right now, and the gap to the top two is starting to look like a gap rather than a blip.
Our take
The Warweg footnote is the best part of this. Missed stroke on the day of your global award, and your team still wins 5-1 without you. That’s the depth Köln have built, and it’s why they’re top. Polo have 90 minutes on Saturday to prove they’re still the team to beat. If Alster hold them, this title race gets very interesting, very fast.
Related: Friday Night Lights in Köln: Rot-Weiss Host Uhlenhorst Mülheim in Last Home Game of the Field Season, Bundesliga Weekend Preview: Polo v Mannheim Is a German Final Rematch, and the Hamburg Derby Opens It, Rankings
