Matchday 02: Karlsruher SC – FC Sankt Pauli 1-2

Like a pro…

source: http://www.abendblatt.de

With a really bad signal leading to an extremely terrible streaming session, the only hope for a proper view of the game without any noticeable come and goes and frame freezes was, to leave the comfort of the air conditioned room in Kefallonia island where I was currently on antichristian vacation and horrendous pig grilling sessions along with Gerasimos and the boys from TheAnalTreatmentXxxperience, and head on to the balcony where everything was boiling. No shit. Didn’t matter anyways. Once the laptop stood over by the balcony, the signal became pretty decent and the heat was suddenly of no importance. Eyes on the game.

 

The action started early on the first half and remained for the rest of it. On 2’ Krebs shoots a really distant one, but no worries for SP as his shot went way above the nets. SP seemed a bit skeptical in these early minutes and KSC tried to take advantage of it. It all stopped on our Captain’s feet though and the yellow he received for stopping an attempt from Hoffer.  And then all hell breaks loose. Alushi on the free shot finds Sobiech (the usual suspect), and his header ends in the nets. 0:1 for SP and all seems to be working here. On 14’ though we survived a mini heart attack when on a corner from KSC Himmelmann misses the ball and Alushi repels it by kicking off and practically saving the day literally in front of the post line. On 19’ Maier‘s shot has potential but no luck. Ends a little off the poles. SP seemed to be bringing the heat to KSC box. Seemed to have control over things whithout that meaning that KSC wasn’t dangerous at all. The corner from Nazarov finds SP defense sleeping(juuuust a bit though), and Gordon’s header ends inside SP nets. 1-1 on 29’ and the answer to the previous header. SP keeps pushing to KSC area and sets our pace to the game. Rzatkowski and Maier kept opening balls through KSC defense and with the proper ball circulation, the second goal for SP wasn’t far. On 34’ Rzatkowski’s shot licks the Orlishausen’s poles. On 39’ a great high ball from Thy to Sobota gets stopped and KSC really seemed desperate here as SP had the show on their box exclusively. On 40’ the siege ends with a really distant shot from Halstenberg which finds everyone in KSC sleeping. 1:2 for SP and the fun did not stop there. On 41’ Maier attempts to do the same but his shot has no luck, and on the second minute of extra time Halstenberg tries another shot which makes Orlishausen fall for the ball and lead it to another corner. Whistle blew halftime and we couldn’t be more happy with what we were watching so far.

source: http://www.sport1.de

Second half sets off and seems Karslruher needs the early goal. Hoffer’s shot on 49’ gets repelled by Himmelmann. On 62’ Sallahi makes a great march through the midfield. Rzatkowski pulls him to the side cleverly so his coming shot ends 1 meter off Himmelmann’s posts. Midfield battles took over most of this second half. Both teams needed an urgent goal. KSC needed to even the score and SP needed a third one to secure the three points. On 68’ a big opportunity for SP goes to waste as Maier takes advantage of Gordon slipping and is left practically alone with Orlishausen. He manages to send the ball directly to his hands.On 77’ SP decides to repeat the same thing. This time Thy opens the ball nicely for Choi, who entered the game just 2 minutes earlier taking Maier’s place. Choi cleverly breaks through the man in front of him, just before KSC poles. He shoots but his shot goes about a meter away from the poles. Harmless second half carried on harmless til the end. A couple of corner kicks, midfield battles and yada yada. Nothing of importance after that. Whistle blew for the last time in Wildparkstadion. End of game.

source: http://www.eurosport.de

This Sankt Pauli has nothing in common with last year’s team. The whole philosophy behind the game has changed. Ewald Lienen has made clear that with no defense you can’t build middle and of course you can’t build offense. Does our defense play 100%? Definitely not. Does our defense need improvement? Of course. As of course other aspects of our game. For example we could work a lot on times when players get left alone with the keeper. Damn it we cannot miss such opportunities. Or we could even work a bit more on passing the ball from the middle to the front. The thing that has changed this year is the effort. Last year we were playing ball not knowing what we had to do in order to set the ship straight. Now we KNOW where to focus. And it seems we’re working on it. We were worthy of this victory 100% there’s no doubt about that. Steady and patient, we built our ground there and set our own pace. Everything smells like victory damn it. High hopes are with us. Next game is with Greuther Fürth on Sunday 16^th though as in the middle (August 10th, 20:30 CET) we have the 1^st round of DFB-Pokal against Borussia Mönchengladbach. Can’t Wait.

Line Up:

Himmelmann

Nehrig Gonther L. Sobiech Halstenberg

Alushi, Rzatkowski,

Sobota (Kalla 62′) Maier (Choi 72′) Buballa

Thy (Ziereis 82′)

Match goals:

0:1 L. Sobiech (10′, Header, Alushi)

1:1 Gordon (29′, Header, Nazarov)

1:2 Halstenberg (40′, Right foot shot)

Spectators: 21899

Sankt Pauli cards: Gonther(2), Halstenberg(1)

Marcel Halstenberg’s imperial winner-goal

Further reading:

• Kicker (German)
• Der Übersteiger (German)
• Kleiner Tod (German)
• Grenzenlos Sankt Pauli (German)
• Idiotensport (German)