Matchday 12: Arminia Bielefeld vs FC Sankt Pauli 1-2

This is how it’s done!

source: Matthias Dröge on Twitter

I feeeeeeeeeeel good!!!!! That’s what James Brown said and actually this is how this last matchday felt. Having settled in the first three ranks in die Zweite Liga and flirting with the first place kind of makes it happily awkward as by this time the previous seasons it was quite the opposite. An undoubted victory against Arminia which of course couldn’t be left stainless as freakin’ cops held back 250 of our fans for 6 hours (we’ll get to that later). Anyway, our beloved Sankt Pauli is first in the league (the Köln-H$V game hasn’t yet take place) and it all looks sooo nice.

 

As usual…Early action on our behalf. 2’ and on a quick pass from Allagui, Miyaichi finds him self in a position to shoot just a breath away from Klewin. Lucoqui though places his body well around the ball forcing Miyaichi to proceed to a foul play on him before his shoot was sent far from the nets. Game on and with a little mid field passes we come to 7’ . Bad moment of the game. Lucoqui receives the ball sort of illegally as it appears he used his shoulder-arm-whatever (nothing was clear and no one actually claimed anything)  heading towards our box. Dribbles around Miyaichi and tries to send a pass before Himmelmann. Avevor is there trying to send the ball away but unluckily not far away, sending it directly to Staude, who shoots and opens the score for Arminia. Bad luck, bad call but the game carried on. On 23’ a high class act from Allagui. Dribbles in Arminia’s box taking all defense on him before he sends the ball to Flum. Flum shoots untroubled but quite predictable, making it an easy job for Klewin to secure. The early goal we suffered didn’t work in favor of Arminia. We dominated the mid line and all game started and ended in brown white feet. This didn’t mean of course that we had many moments before Arminia nets as all their players barricaded in their box. On 42’ after a long siege the ball ends to a corner.  Knoll decides, instead of sending the ball to the box, to play along, sending the ball to Neudecker. Richard shoots but Klewin had all luck in his side for this one as he finally manages to repel the ball even though he jumped to the wrong side. Whistle of the ref sends the players to the lockers after one minute of xtra time.

source: http://www.fcstpauli.com

Second half underway and this time the early start goes with Arminia. 48’ and confusion in our defense with Himmelmann saving the day when Staude’s distant shot almost ended the game. Response was quick though. On 49’ Möller Daehli passes to Dudziak and he gets knocked down illegally inside Arminia’s box. A penalty kick executed by Marvin Knoll  that almost tore the nets apart. Nothing Klewin could do although he picked the right side to fall. Momentum reached its peak on 56’.  Veerman sends a clever pass to Möller Daehli who shoots from a weird angle to the opposite side of Klewin, doubling the score for Sankt Pauli. Arminia tried to find the answer on  62’. Dangerous pass from the side where Lucoqui shoots but Himmelmann is there repelling the ball, making it look damn easy for the 1-2. On 66’ we almost seal the win with Himmelmann sending a distant shot to  Veerman. He sends a header back to Neudecker. Ricky tries to shoot a nice lobe to Klewin but the ball finds the upper post. The rebound header from Allagui goes a bit higher than it should. Daaaamn!! Game proceeds without jump scares. A tiny siege in the end of the game though could have given a point to Arminia if it wasn’t for Himmelmann. On 90’+1 he saves the day once again stopping Weihrauch’s dangerous shot, heading right into our nets. On 90’+3 Neudecker could have done it as he receives the ball behind the mid-line against an empty box. If only his shot was a bit stronger. Second time we attempted that a little later the ball went to the side. Final whistle in the game sends the players to the locker rooms and Sankt Pauli to the first place in the ranks.

source: http://www.de.onefootball.com

What can I say? Yes, there are still things we need to improve but yesterday it was only about us kicking Arminia’s ass. Looks like we are growing a winner’s attitude here. This is the most important in a team and since we got this we can achieve anything. Game play was awesome giving space to Arminia when we wanted and dominating it, most of the game…Yes there where occasional moments of utter stupidity on our side but really this is for the coach and the players alone to solve. Point is…we finally got a team that knows the ways, and a solid base that works. We’ll see how it works against Heidenheim this Saturday. Forza Sankt Pauli!

Sad as it sounds, our ultras had problems with the cops at Bielefeld. Long story short and of course everything written here is assumptions we make out of short tips we managed to get from here and there. OK, as it appears, there was this guy lighting up a cigarette (C’mooon man, you can be smarter than that!) in the train. Cops decided to hold back almost 300 from our fans just for this guy. Apparently there was a scene inside the train as well, but since there’s no official sayin’ on what happened all we can assume is that just for one person, the cops decided to hold back all those people ignoring the fact that they traveled so far to see the game. Claimed they wanted to set an example for the future. Freakin’ cops don’t change do they? Our players stance in the end of the game speaks out for itself…

Line Up:

Himmelmann

Dudziak    Carstens    Avevor    Buballa

  Flum (Zehir 74′)   Knoll  

           Miyaichi (Veerman 46′)  Möller Daehli   Neudecker

 Allagui (Nehrig 89′)

  

Match goals:

1:0 Staude (7′, Right Foot shot)

1:1 Knoll (49′, Penalty Kick, Left Foot shot, Dudziak)

1:2 Möller Daehli (56′, Right Foot shot, Veerman)

Spectators: 22446

Sankt Pauli cards: Nehrig(1), Möller Daehli(2)

Match highlights here

 

Further reading:

• Kicker (German)
• Official website
• Club Official statement regarding the incidents (German)
• St. Pauli Athens Club (Greek)
• KonBon Blog (German)
• Kleiner Tod (German)
• Braunweisse Hilfe incident report (German)