Matchday 34: SpVgg Greuther Fürth vs FC Sankt Pauli 2-1

Whateva 😎

source: http://www.fcstpauli.com, ©️ Witters

The season that after March everybody was in such a hurry to get rid of is finally over. The Boys in Brown closed the season with another defeat (no surprise), verifying in the most emphatic way the downhill that Kauczinski‘s departure and Luhukay‘s arrival were unable to stop. Football was not so bad overall (at least until 61’) but the way the match was lost as well as the fact itself do not leave a lot of space for satisfaction. No problem of course for the Brown White Sonderzug mob on the terraces, singing “Que sera sera” along with other smashing hits and enjoying the trip in general, instead of bothering about the destination. Makes sense, after all, we are FCSP 😎

 

With both squads relieved from any kind of pressure in terms of points, nobody expected a really tight tactical game here, still this wasn’t a loose friendly. Balanced game in the beginning, with FCSP taking control after the opening 10′ and creating 3 first class chances to take the lead between 13′ and 22′. Excellent Becker vertical ball to Allagui who stormed in all alone but his final lob over Funk was slightly off target (13′). Another smart Allagui vertical pass, finding Miyaichi in the box, who managed to free himself and fire a rocket that ended up just over Funk‘s crossbar on 16’. Mess inside the SGF box, a Miyaichi assist to Lankford, close to the penalty spot, whose shot was repelled to safety by Funk on 22′, damn! FCSP failed to capitalize on our pitch superiority until the 1st half of the 1st half (🙄), momentum was lost and the next chance in the game came 17′ later for SGF, in the form of a close Green bomb that shook Himmelmann‘s crossbar (there’s a possibility that Robin changed slightly the course of the ball on its way) on 39′. SGF was slightly superior in general towards the end of the half but, aside the 39′ thing, nothing much, HT 0-0.

Seems that UA gear is as shite as the brand itself, Lankford changing shorts after the previous one got torn apart due to some SGF dirty play (image source: http://www.fcstpauli.com, ©️ Witters)

Second half underway and 1-0 for SGF on 51′. Deep distant diagonal Green free kick from the left, header assist from Magyar to unattended Reese (Koglin arrived too late) who finished the job. This time there wasn’t time for the usual post-goal profanity, FCSP equalized in zero time. Another brilliant vertical Becker pass to Diamantakos who managed to beat both his opponent Wittek and goalkeeper Funk for the equalizer (53′), μπράβο ρε Λιοντάρι 😎 Back to normal, until 61′ and the moment that changed the balance of the game, with Koglin getting expelled with a 2nd yellow->red for elbow play, something that doesn’t seem to have happened according to the replay. From this point onwards it was about SGF controlling the game and outnumbered FCSP trying to protect the draw. They had a couple of chances, an Atanga 18m shot on the crossbar (75′) and a big one with Redondo firing a rocket to Hell from dangerous position in our box (88′) but we managed to hold on, at least until injury time… Corner from the left for SGF (92′), something like clearance but not really by Lankford, nobody there…except Magyar who had no problem to collect and execute Himmelmann for the 2-1. For the record, they had a 3rd shot on the crossbar (the 2nd by Atanga) on 94’…

Diamantakos has just equalized (source: http://www.fcstpauli.com, ©️ Witters)

Of course, no talk about the match makes sense here. Just a couple of things, looking towards the future. First of all, the return of Marc Hornschuh (successor of Ryo Miyaichi in the Jinx throne) after ages (read 641 days somewhere I think). Welcome back Marc, take it easy at the US 😉 The other thing is about this new wild youth in the house, called Finn Ole Becker 😎 People that know are saying really flattering things about this guy and he has already shown in such a short time what he is capable of. The problem is that this guy is extremely prone to cards. Technical crew need to work with him on that otherwise there’s a serious possibility to end up as a “liability” instead of a “weapon”. And this will be a real pity because he can evolve to a really lethal weapon for FCSP…

No next match to talk about, a couple of scattered thoughts about the season instead, a season that probably most of us want to forget about as soon as possible. This could be summarized as the season of extreme misery. Not talking here “misery” in terms of continuous absence of success. Talking misery in terms of our misery as fan base overall. The aftermath of the Derby has probably already made a first class lesson (for different reasons) for H$V, maybe we should take our lessons as well. Started the season going for the magic 40 pts. Along the way things started looking like we could do more, we did more, some of them because we deserved them, some of them because we were lucky bastards. Suddenly, the complete fiasco and humiliation in the Derby, what happened next? Everything collapsed! The majority, among them people that would be happy with 40pts back in July, blamed it on Kauczinski and Club threw him out of the window, along with Stöver for supporting him. Meanwhile, everybody against everybody in the fan base. “JEDER GEGEN JEDEN” as I was reading years ago in the front page of a sports paper, talking about H$V, framed in the USP room, in front of the Candy bar (😊), in order to remind us, how laughable our city rivals are. Towards the end of the “Derby”, some in the GG were shouting towards the idiots in the Süd that were insisting firing pyros, even when the danger of a match abandonment had become apparent, “Ihr seid scheisse wie der H$V” (you are shit, just like H$V). Maybe they were right. The problem is that, looking at the big picture, we all became “scheisse wie der H$V”, this “JEDER GEGEN JEDEN” thing above, depicts almost perfectly the early Derby aftermath, with GG “attacking” the Süd, almost everybody (among them people that have not earned the right to do so) “attacking” the USP (who carry of course certain responsibility, for “losing control” of the Süd in the past years), etc, etc…

Anyway, Kauczinski left, Luhukay came (without things changing for the better), the animosity dust settled down at some level (even the known “Aux Armes” exchange took place vs Bochum), we managed to finish the season without any further chaos. Now what? We have Luhukay, liking him or not. What sounds good, according to some info from people “who know,” is that Luhukay is not a desperate choice for the Club. “Heard” that the board thinks quite high of him and has been actually offered the role in the past but without being able to respond back then. We’re not the ones to judge if he’s the man for the job or not but we have enough common sense to ask this: we have to stop changing coaches like underwear, let’s give Luhukay the support that was offered to Lienen, even when things were looking darker than a black hole but wasn’t offered to Janssen or Kauczinski…

Coming to the fans, some of us need to review their priorities. We are FC Sankt Pauli, we’re not FCB, we’re not BVB, we’re not RB (FFS!). Neither titles are an integral part of our DNA nor we’re here for commercial/financial success (to be more precise, we need that at a level, in order to maintain the stability of the Club but only up to this point). Been stunned by watching people asking Kauczinski‘s head because…we lost promotion, without even having a squad in place that could support the argument. To any of you are obsessed with Bundesliga, will not say “fuck off”, will say instead “if you can’t help it, switch to Werder and spend your weekends in Bremen (close enough) next season. Stay also here if you wish but stop poisoning the atmosphere by creating expectations without having the foundations in place”. What are the foundations? Simply a team that CAN do it, this season there wasn’t one around.

As a Club that its very existence is based of values like inclusion and mutual tolerance, we could also stop claiming truth as our exclusive privilege and start listening more to each other instead of just waiting the others to finish (or not even allowing them to speak). Maybe in this way, we could bridge some of the gaps that seem to have started “dividing” us in the last years… Aye, and no “turning a blind eye” to behaviors incompatible with the spirit of our Club, regardless where they are coming from…

Let’s hope that all of us will start learning from our mistakes and next season will be one step ahead towards this direction. Next step? Moving to bigger things and correcting mistakes of the past (to Hell with UA!!!). For now? Wishes for a good trip to the US to the squad (FUCK UA! FUCK UA! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!!!) and wishes for an excellent summer break to all the rest of us. Enough blah blah from my sorry ass, over and out, FORZA SANKT PAULI!!! ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️

Line Up:

Himmelmann

  Kalla (Coordes 36′ (Meier 79′))     Koglin    Hoogma    Buballa

        Miyaichi     Becker     Möller Daehli    Lankford

    Allagui (Carstens 66′)    Diamantakos

  

Match goals:

1:0 Reese (51′, Right Foot Shot, Magyar)

1:1 Diamantakos (53′, Left Foot Shot, Becker)

2:1 Magyar (90+2′, Right Foot Shot)

Spectators:  13890

Sankt Pauli cards: Koglin(Yellow->Red, misses next), Becker(2)

Match highlights here

 

Further reading:

• Kicker (German)
• Official website
• Magischer FC (German/translator)
• Millernton (German/translator)
• Kleiner Tod (German, embedded match report from Ladies’ triumphant 7-2 RL Nord survival victory!)