AndyChristos
evoulino
FCSP Athens South End Scum
sidkaya
St. John
ZouzBitter Sweet
FCSP paid the simply indescribable entry to the game and ended up with a home 2-2 draw vs Jahn Regensburg, in a match that could end in better way but could aso have gone a lot worse. A full weekend, a full of emotions match but, as the picture above suggests in a metaphoric way, something is missing from the Millerntor… Read on one way or another, a lot of stuff in there this time 😉
Saruday: in the Buda
Arrived in Hamburg around 15:30, missed the Ladies 13:00 match at Feldarena (better this way, seeing them for the first time and combining it with the first defeat of the season would be somehow traumatic 😀 ), luggage drop off, off to Jolly for a quick drink and the first “hellos” and directly to the Buda accross the street for the Saturday evening Handball double dealer!
The known cozy familiar athmosphere. place almost full and first ones in line the Boys, playing vs THW Kiel II. Not so much into handball but seems somehow safe to say that the ref was simply suffering from Friday hangover during the first half. A penalty galore in favor of the guests, lots of cards (including a red) against the Boys in Brown, in a few words, something like 7 vs 8. However, the Boys in Brown managed to show some character and actually reach the half time leading by a couple of goals. The 2nd half was a slightly different story. A lots of ups and downs, a much better, comparing to the first half guest squad and game reached an intense climax, with the Boys in Brown who were trailing 3 goals less than 3′ before the end, turning again the game upside down and losing victory in the very last seconds, thanks to another penalty awarded to the guests. Final score 25-25 with the squad from Kiel being the one feeling slightly happier.
Men, end of match
The Ladies that immediately followed (in front of slightly less people, c’mon now, evening drinking can always wait!) were proven a completely different story. Playing against a defacto much weaker team (Preußen Reinfeld) the girls showed already from the beginning that they will have an easier evening than the men. Closed the first half five goals ahead and tortured mercilessly the opponent during the second half (fair enough to say that the guests quit the game at a certain point, you don’t do that), put just a little the foot on the break towards the end, and won eventually with an impressive 29-12 😉
Ladies’ end of match
Four hours in the Buda and every single minute of them was absolutely worth it! Lots of clean fun, lots of nice things happening, people than haven’t been seen for a long time (actually Buda itself had been badly missed!) and some others that “knew” but haven’t met for a long time. Hello to Ole, whose FCSP painting is still one of the few priceless things in my living room, hello to Steve and his crew from England, hello also to Sven, Handball media man… and latest Bundesliga champion as keeper of the Blindenfussball squad 🙂 🙂 🙂
To everyone that hasn’t been around there before, this is STRONGLY suggested. If anyone thinks that FCSP is only pro football, he is simply terribly wrong. As repeatedly has been written here, there are lots of more things happening in the Viertel, maybe no Pyros or lots of thousands but the FCSP spirit is there and actually much stronger than the spirit you will find in certain areas of the Millerntor… So next time, do yourself a favor and try to combine your profi football weekend with an FCSP amateur activity, call it Handball, call it Ladies, U23 or Blind football, just do it 😉
Sunday: finally Millerntor!
Up with an intense feeling of lack of sleep (business as usual in Hamburg, play on), off to Jolly for ticket pick-up (this time my money were not accepted, words are cheap here, thanks Hans 🙂 ), hello here to St. Pauli Belgium met in there and off to the stadium for a series of meetings that most of them, due to a series of mix ups (no surprise here, next time FC Sankt Pauli Netherlands 😉 ) didn’t take place. Alright, no disaster, a lot of known and friendly faces found there instead – lots of good chat, quite optimistic mood despite the bad series of home results this season (an optimism that really tried but couldn’t share in full) and finally off to the Gegengerade!
Everybody’s (except me, prefer “Das Herz Von St. Pauli” right before, goosebumps!) favorite, Hell’s Bells and entrance!
…talking Hell’s Bells, allow a short intermission here and a moment of remembrance for Malcolm Young who passed away the day before the match, at the age of 64, sufferring from dementia for the past 3-4 years. He’s maybe not still here (he wasn’t actually for the past years), AC/DC are for sure not here since a lot of years (even though that they continue to fill stadiums, this is also really sad) but certain things, especially when related to childhood and teenage, can never be forgotten, RIP Malcolm Young…
Game on in front of a full house and from the early stages of the game things did not look good. Nothing much happening but this wasn’t the bad news. The bad news was FCSP having obvious development problems, being unable to exchange the ball even back in the defense and Regensburg, having already figured it out, pressing high and creating a lot of uncertainty in the back for us. In this sense, the opening goal for Regensburg on 21′ (Grüttner header, following a corner from the right) came as no real surprise. What came as a surprise and somehow as a shock was the 2nd one, just a couple of minutes later (24′), with Adamyan putting the fiishing touch after a counter attack while the lost in general FCSP defense was simply observing helpless the sequence of events. 0-2 on 24′, not the best way to start your day… This could be the very end of the game but fortunately wasn’t. Regensburg satisfied with what they had achieved until then and probably certain about themselves gave us the required space and the Boys in Brown, with 30′ already on the clock, slowly started to appear in the pitch and the last around 10′ of the half were for sure 10′ to remember 🙂 First brown white signs of pressure towards to the opponent and first occasion on 34′ with a Sobota 20m shot, taken safely care of by Pentke. All in for Jansen, 2 substitutions on 35′ (Bouhaddouz for Sobota, Flum for Nehrig) and signal for the all out counter offensive that fortunately started paying off really fast. An Avevor (!!!!!!) goal called off as offside on 39′ (probably correctly) and then the comeback! Long diagonal pass from Flum to Sobiech on 40′, excellent ball control and penetration via dribbling into the box from the right by Lasse and BAAAAAAM with the ball ending up in the far corner! 1-2 for FCSP and the last minutes of the first half were really insane. Regensburg in a state of panic, FCSP in a state of rage and Millerntor sounding like a vulcano 🙂 As result of it, 2-2 on 45′ with an Allagui (he was also involved in a dangerous occasion on 42′) diving header following a Buballa cross from the left but, in order to be fair here and with the luxury of fcstpauli.tv replay, have to admit that Sami was at least one meter offside and the fact that neither the assistant (having the right angle) raised the flag nor any of the entire Regensburg defense raised a signle arm makes me wonder what the fuck they were looking at 😀 However, this is football, we have seen this happening the other way around quite recently, HT 2-2 after an impressive late FCSP onslaught and everything open for the 2nd half.
Lasse for the 1-2 (source: http://www.fcstpauli.com © Witters)
We returned in the pitch for the 2nd half as ambitious we left it at the end of the first. However the last 5′ minutes of the first may proven disastrous for the guests but the half time break helped them regain some level of self control and as result of it they returned to the pitch more organized comparing to the state of dissolvment they left it. It was more of FCSP again but a far more tight game now. First good opportunity for FCSP on 52′ with Buchtmann entering the box from the left and his final shot ending up JUST wide by Pentke’s far post, ACK! Pressure increased by FCSP but no open paths to the 3rd goal, at least until the closing quarter and the two consecutive FCSP chances. A really promising 16m direct shot (again) by Buchtmann on 74′ with Pentke repelling the ball and saving Regensburg and a HUGE wasted opportunity for Bouhaddouz immediately afterwards (again on 74′), aiming wrong all alone in front of Pentke, ball ended centimetres over the crossbar… Increased pressure and a lot of siege scenes in the Regensburg box for the remaining part of the game but nothing more than this. In fact the biggest opportunity of the closing stages belongs to the guests (89′) with Saller missing a close one, caught himself by surprise by Avevor’s screw up just in front of him 🙂 Nothing more except a final 2-2 in another game that we managed to quit from our rights to victory and, considering the way the match went, we should probably be happy with the draw…
End of match, watch carefully…
There could be some game talk after this but not this time. Watch the post game video above. The traditional circle at the center and then the traditional (goes back to the very first day that I set foot in there) round to exchange applause with the crowd. Haupttribune? Are you kidding? Nordkurve? Half empty… Gegengerade? One of the same… Südkurve? Only the low standing block, occupied by USP and allied forces was still waiting… And all of these, not in a day of some hands down disgraceful defeat but simply after a match not succesful but a match where squad, despite our early deadly mistakes, fought hard until the end… And then, thinking again about the picture on top, taken during first half… Millerntor “full house” but people pushing themselves towards the exits with full time, Millerntor with all the sponsor shit perfectly in place but with the crest flag completely missing from its pole and the remains of the Totenkopf flag to remind that there was another one there on the right… On matchday, with a lot of flags along with the UA gear at the Fanshop below… I don’t know what’s the exact problem but surely something is not there anymore, just hoping that this is not for ever…
On Thursday, the annual (voting this time) AGM takes place. Would like to hear about a massive attendance but I think that we will be happy with 1000-1500 people in the best case scenario, out of more than 23.000 members… Alright, it’s not football but it’s the time of decisions for our Club. OK, we poor fuckers from abroad, live and work far away from Hamburg but the vast majority of the locals which consist the member base has so much better things to do once a year on a weekday than attending the AGM?
Enough moaning, it’s actually not fit to a trip report, let’s do what’s in store next week. It’s actually Greuther Fürth, we never liked them (we like their prominent member Henry Kissinger even less), this is the motivational part for the Scum. The motivational part for the squad? It’s an away game and they look in a really bad shape. Let’s go there, get the job done and return home in style. After all, who knows? Maybe some get sentimentally moved and stay a little longer to give a hand of applause next time at home (ooops!), FORZA SANKT PAULI!!!
Line Up:
Zander Sobiech Avevor Buballa (Dudziak 77′)
Sahin Buchtmann Möller Daehli Sobota (Bouhaddouz 35′)
Match goals:
Spectators: 29546 (“sold out” but with clearly visible empty HT seats)
Sankt Pauli cards: Buballa(2), Buchtmann(2)
Match goals
Further reading:
Monday: friends
Tuesday: at the Museum, FCSP during the 3rd Reich
Had this marked from the very beginning of the trip and Tuesday morning, with some hours to spend before airport, ended up being the perfect opportunity. Spent two good hours in there, wandering through stories, documents and pictures. After the entrance room, with the beautiful Millerntor model in the center and some glorious pictures of the late 20th century all around, room by room, starting with a quick view on the very early days and following chronological order, the history of FCSP before and during WWII unfolds. And it’s not only about the history of the Club, it’s also about the history of the neighborhood and the history of the city in general. All along the flow of the exhibition there are spaces dedicated to historic FCSP personalities (like long-served president Wilchelm Koch, whose name was given for some years (28) in Millerntor and was removed after press revelations regarding his Nazi past) who played their own role, good or bad, during the course of history.There’s a good structure in place, in every stop and under documents or pictures of significant events there are always 3 columns, listing things that happened in Germany, in Hamburg and time points of FCSP history.
There’s no effort to beautify things, after all we wouldn’t expect less from the Museum. In the same walls coexist both Nazis and Jews, both people that played all the way along with the regime and people that saved lives from them. You will find mentions about people that had to escape from Germany, never to return again, because of their race or beliefs, you will find also mentions to people who made good money by “liquidating” the “confiscated” wealth of Jews. Aside the obvious references against fascism that are everywhere, this looks like an objective view to things, without attempting to have the sentimental element involved. Simply, the Club, the neighborhood, the city and the local society the way they were.
You will find also some worthy to see things like the oldest FCSP jersey, being dated back to 1939 or the iconic first ever Fanladen desk under a wall, decorated with a big picture of Volker Ippig and Sven Brux inside the historic first days space 🙂
It’s apparent that there’s has been some hard work behind this and found really cool a school class visit that was taking place at some point with a lot of really young guys seeing things about the history of their city that probably have never heard before, asking questions and being really interested to know. I thought that even if in theory there was absolutely no other reason to organize such an exhibition, this thing on its own made it worth all the way.
Only one thing dear Museum 🙂 It’s completely understandable that this exhibition is primary of German interest, however, the way the exhibition was setup, it would be relatively easy to have installed some smallest English labels/texts next to the German ones. There’s a possibility that the majority of things written above can be bollocks and the reason is simply my really elemental knowledge of German that simply did not allow me to follow the entire thing in all its details. I would like to believe that I’ve got the substance of things right but at the same time I Imagine that there were also people like me from abroad there, having no knowledge of German, these people must had a really difficult time to follow 😉
Overall, this is a must see for anybody interested to know a little more, not only regarding the history of our Club but also regarding German society during WWII in general. The exhibition lasts until December 10th, it’s open daily from 11AM to 7PM (Thursdays 9:30PM). There’s a 5€ admission fee at the entrance but the visit is really worth ‘em beyond any discussion and for more than one reasons. To make a long story short, if you’re planning to visit Hamburg until early December or you’re a local and you haven’t already done so, you should really take the time and drop by 😉 Thumbs up for the boys and girls involved, links to Museum/exhibition here, some random shots follow below:
Small but priceless 🙂
Jolly, finally home 😀
The Greek Yellow Bastard (extreme camera lover and Burping Animal) playing music at the Zoo 🙂
Jolly: One drunk amateur (with one drunk and stoned “advisor” behind) vs the Smoking Master, just hopeless 😀
On the way to the airport, have we got ourselves a shooting department???
Yes, overall it was fuckin’ priceless, until next time 😉
FCSP Athens South End Scum 