Köln II

In the second round of the 2004–05 DFB-Pokal, VfL Wolfsburg had to hand Köln II a match they had actually won on the pitch, 2–0, after fielding an ineligible player in the first round. The reserve side got the walkover, then lost 4–2 to Arminia Bielefeld in the round the win had bought them.

The team traces back to an amateur side that won the Amateur-Mittelrheinmeisterschaft in 1965, and it climbed higher still in 1988 with the German Amateur Championship.

Jonas Hector went through it on his way to the first team, sixty-three appearances and five goals between 2010 and 2012 before he became a regular for the club proper, and Lukas Podolski passed through just twice in 2003–04, a brief stop for a player who was headed elsewhere fast. That is the job of a side like this: hold a place at the Franz-Kremer-Stadion, currently in the Regionalliga West, and let players move through it rather than stay.

Local matches carry names of their own. Games against Borussia Mönchengladbach's reserves are called the Klassiker, and the meetings with Fortuna Düsseldorf II go by Rheinderby.

Its heaviest cup defeat came at the hands of Hannover 96, a 4–0 loss in 2005–06 — the year after the walkover against Wolfsburg had briefly suggested something more was possible.