Blind football: FC Sankt Pauli Bundesligameister 2021!!!

source: http://www.fcstpauli.com, ©️Stefan Groenveld

“Que sera, sera,

whatever will be will be,

the champions of Germany,

FC St. Pauli!”

They did it and sung about it afterwards in a much more elegant way than the boring “We’re the Champions”, played by now even in sport related weddings 😁 After 3 years of consecutive lost finals, the Blind Football Gang won fair and square MTV Stuttgart in the last and decisive game of the season and finally brought the Bundesliga title back to Hamburg!!! 

 

Things before the game were quite tight. It was either us or Stuttgart and the very last game of the season was to decide the champion, with us in a more favorable position, due to the much better goal difference that we managed to build throughout the season. We were going for two results while the opponent was going for one but, being in Hamburg for the previous matchday two weeks earlier, I knew that squad won’t rely on this and won’t go to play safe. We would rather go to Bonn, play exactly the football we are able to play and teach our (arrogant, according to what “street” says) opponents a good lesson 😎

Warming up 😎

First half was about a tight game. Quite balanced at the beginning but with FCSP being a little more aggressive as game was progressing, against what someone that doesn’t know us would probably expect and Stuttgart always looking for the breakthrough that would bring them a goal and eventually the title (not really easy to score against them). Jonathan Tönsing threatened them 3-4 times but our keeper, Matthias Gutzmann, had also to interfere a couple of times in order to keep our net safe. Very dangerous squad this Stuttgart (last year’s champions after all), I still can recall this “we’re on top on things here but disaster could strike out of the blue at any given point” feeling throughout the half. Eventually nothing happened, 1st half ended 0-0, with all suspense carried over to the 2nd and decisive half.

Jonathan Tönsing, a constant threat for Stuttgart all along the game

The feeling described above started vanishing while 2nd half was progressing but not because clock was ticking in our favor but rather because we were dominating the game more and more with time. Stuttgart was supposed to get in the pitch to play for all but they were nowhere to be found and it’s not that they didn’t want to, it’s just that we didn’t allow them to do so. We totally overplayed them and their keeper saved them in numerous occasions. Instead of agony, certainty was growing stronger and stronger with every minute of the clock passing. Issue was finally resolved on 35′ (for anyone not aware, game is 2×20 NET time) with a penalty won and successfully executed by (who else) Tönsing – no chance for the Stuttgart keeper this time and celebrations all around the pitch, guess who was the majority in there 😇☠️

1-0, it’s all over now

No worries in the remaining 5′, in fact we had the chance to broaden the gap even more with a second penalty, result of 5 Stuttgart team fouls in the half this time. Captain Hippo Versen took responsibility this time, missed the penalty but nobody gave a fuck, as seconds later ref blew the final whistle, triggering the party at the bench, around the pitch and everywhere there was an FCSP wacko watching this, FCSP BLINDENFUSSBALL DEUTSCHER MEISTER 2021!

IT’S OVER!

It’s over, it’s ours and we deserved it 1910%! Even before the last decisive game we demonstrated an emphatic superiority, sweeping every opponent on our way, with the exception of Marburg on 16/10 (1-1). 7 games unbeaten, 41-2 goals (one of them own goal, on the 10-1 over BSV 1958 Wien opening win), 31 of them by the Reaper Jonathan Tönsing (POSSESSED this season), whose absence due to injury towards the end of the season last year perhaps costed us last year’s title. However, don’t  make the mistake of considering that this is a Tönsing squad. No this squad, is just a result of consistent hard work and constant evolution, with everyone at the right place at the right time, a process that started back in 2005 and is constantly developing for the past 16 years. Jonathan‘s incredible progress in the last 2 years is the exact result of this work, having the luxury of players like Serdal Celebi (Fußballgott!), Rasmus Narjes and Paulinho Ruge (all of them nationals with Germany) “playing” for Tönsing, reveals a lot about the quality of this squad, something that hasn’t been built overnight (no glamorous transfers here). Special mention here to Sven Gronau (squad keeper for most of the games), Mikel Preul and Thoya Küster (her 2nd half vs Hertha WON’T be forgotten ☠️) who didn’t have playing time in the final but were an integral part of the squad. And there’s more beyond, our guides (no game without them, Jonas Dawid was in the final), rest of the squad, the Man with a Plan (Wolf Schmidt) and a few more involved, drop down by Borgweg next time we play and you’ll get an idea 😊

Que sera, sera,
whatever will be will be
the champions of germany
FC St. Pauli!
Deutscher Meister 2021!!!#fcsp #blindenfußball #Bundesliga #wearethechampions #sanktpauliistdieeinzigemöglichkeit https://t.co/Jdi6BDcl4t

— FCSP Blindenfussball (@FCSP_BliFu) October 30, 2021

Alright, everybody knows that we’re not in this for the titles but this is a 2nd national title and Blind Football is the 2nd most successful department in our history, second only to Rugby. These trophies need to be exposed and I’d like to hope that soon enough we’ll be able to proudly observe them in public view, in some area of Millerntor, a space is needed to be found, as mentioned in an older post, hopefully something will happen with the Museum or any space accessible to public via tours, etc 😎

End of the road for 2021 in a ideal way. Thank you Bli Fu crew for an exciting season, see you again 2022 which will hopefully end with a 3rd trophy. We’ll leave it here for now, let’s enjoy this one first, for anyone interested in more details, the entire final is available to see below, FORZA SANKT PAULI ☠️☠️☠️

 

Further reading:

• Official website (German)
• Stefan Groenveld (German)
• Millernton (German, translator)
• Results and final table at blinden-fusball.de (German)
• FCSP Blind Football Home Page (German)