VfL Wolfsburg: Rarely have six goals been less fun

It may sound like a contradiction in terms, but Wolfsburg dressed up quite nicely on Saturday. The celebrations began early in the morning with a legends match, featuring several prominent Mittellandkanal veterans, including the reliable Roy Präger and the Brazilians Grafite and Naldo. Afterwards, the fans were driven to the Wolfsburg Arena, where they were transformed into veteran walk-on players and accompanied the teams onto the pitch. A beautiful special jersey was also made, in dark green and creamy white; it looked classy. The home fans had also prepared an elaborate choreography, wrapping the stands in Wolfsburg's club colors and draping words typical of the location: Factory. City. Club.

There's no doubt that the organizers and fans did everything in their power to celebrate the club's anniversary with joy and enthusiasm. VfL Wolfsburg turned 80 this weekend – the only downside was that the celebrations were extremely unfortunate, coinciding with a home game for the Wolfsburg first team. Although: Could there have been a more symbolic football match for this occasion than this 3-3 draw against 1. FC Köln ?

"I feel a great deal of emotional emptiness," said Wolfsburg captain Maximilian Arnold. That sounded like a summation of the mood from the Mittelland Canal, where in recent years there have been two things to see time and again: sedative football matches – and a lot of mediocrity. Even the generally tolerant Wolfsburg fans were visibly incensed after the final whistle. No wonder. In this far too long football match, which seemed to stretch out into a game lasting at least half an eternity due to the storm, pyrotechnic smoke, and video review procedures, the spectators were once again asked to endure a lot. Rarely have six goals been less enjoyable. And rarely has an afternoon fit so precisely into the overall picture of an entire football club – regardless of the fact that Wolfsburg's start to the season with five points from three games may, at least on paper, look quite decent.

As you continue to browse, you come across worrying facts and figures. Wolfsburg are now without a win in ten home games across the season (seven draws, three defeats); a negative internal club record that inevitably accumulates bitter jokes. On Saturday, it was this: The 3-3 equalizer in the 14th minute of stoppage time, the latest goal in the history of Bundesliga statistics, was scored – of all people! – by former Wolfsburg player Jakub Kaminski, who since his move to Cologne has once again looked like a fully capable first-division footballer. So, it can't be the quality of the players alone. Various types of coaches have been tried out, with the smart Dutchman Paul Simonis taking over at the start of the season. But what is the reason?

Captain Arnold attempted to find an answer to this question after the final whistle, in a virtually spontaneous crisis meeting with a leading member of the Wolfsburg fan base. Judging by his gestures and facial expressions, it wasn't exactly a gentle conversation. "They're just as disappointed as we are," Arnold explained afterward, "perhaps both sides need to let out their frustration." The midfielder, who had scored a stunning free kick to make it 3-2 in stoppage time, sounded as if he hadn't yet fully vented his frustration. Which is understandable, given that no one knows the Autostadt better than the 31-year-old: Arnold joined VfL Wolfsburg's first team just a few years after Wolfsburg won the league in 2009, and he played in Milan and Madrid with his youth club, winning the DFB Cup.

With impressive reliability, Wolfsburg have slipped back into league mediocrity after such highs – not least because of football matches like Saturday's, during which TV commentators are allowed to ask 80 times who is actually the newly promoted team and who is the comfortable factory club that spent more money on Croatian Lovro Majer alone than Cologne did on their entire starting eleven. "We've done something wrong," Arnold said, referring to Wolfsburg's overall situation. After all, the thought of the celebrations, Arnold continued, makes one's eyes "shine." With that in mind: Happy 80th birthday, dear VfL Wolfsburg!