The state of emergency is a common sight on St. Pauli. The symbols of the football club in Hamburg’s district can be seen all year round, stickers with the iconographic skull logos are stuck on every corner, skull flags hang from the windows, pennants hang in every pub, and the pub owner usually has at least at least one a tattoo of his heart club on his mostly voluminous body.
On the days before a Hamburg city championship, the whole thing expands into an electrifying collective spirit. The flags then even hang in front of pharmacies, almost everyone wears the club colors brown and white – and when this important second division duel against HSV is won, as happened on Friday evening in the Millerntor Stadium, there is a rain of confetti of bliss about the quarter. Then there is a bang, in the truest sense of the word: Fireworks light up the sky so brightly that the night sometimes looks like a high-pitched oil painting.
The HSV seemed nervous and error-prone at times
“This is how you imagine a derby,” said St. Pauli coach Timo Schultz immediately after the 3-2 triumph over arch rivals, who traditionally see themselves as the irrefutable hegemonic power in the city. “If it would work, I would embrace it,” added Schultz with a grin. He meant by that: a hug with the game, which according to leading fan representatives from both camps is more important than a hypothetical promotion celebration. That was how it was communicated again and again, the HSV players even had a visit from the core of their supporters during training a few weeks ago. The message: a success against St. Pauli would make up for any grief that could still be caused in the course of the season.
All of this may sound like folklore and a romanticized attitude towards a sport that has long since lost its romanticism in many ways. But if anyone was wondering what was missing in the year and a half without fans: this game should have been the answer. As always, the performance began at Millerntor ACDC and the chimes of “Hells Bells,” and the 10,000 approved fans continued the roar incessantly. “It could be,” replied HSV trainer Tim Walter when asked whether the setting was a factor that contributed to his team’s noticeable nervousness and susceptibility to errors. The anti-HSV mood in St. Pauli should not be “an excuse”, emphasized Walter: “If everyone is against you, everyone whistles against you, then that spurs me on to top performances – and I hope that from my boys too . ” At that time, the coaches were unaware of any clashes between the two fan camps, in which two police officers were injured.
St. Pauli trainer Timo Schultz relies on an “unusual” storm duo with two breakers
For St. Pauli coach Schultz, the atmosphere in the stadium was “absolute goose bumps” and “the decisive factor behind the scenes”. However, nothing would be further from the humble trainer than to declare himself to be the success factor of a game. In general, however, this assessment has long since found its way into the industry, because it is astonishing what Schultz has created in just over a year as the highest happiness officer in the neighborhood. Representative excerpts from it could also be seen on Friday against HSV, for example the fluid switching game in a 4-4-2 system with a midfield diamond and two articulated lorries in the front.
This storm duo, consisting of massive types like Guido Burgstaller, 1.87 meters, and the Dane Simon Makienok, who measures a proud 2.01 meters, is “already unusual” today, said Schultz – but the individual components fit into it a coherent overall structure that is unpredictable and plays unleashed football. In the middle of the first half, St. Pauli’s most dominant phase began, in which a few chances were missed before Burgstaller played a one-two with playmaker Daniel-Kofi Kyereh, probably the most talented kicker in the team. At the end of the combination, midfielder Finn Ole Becker, a Paulian home grown man, met in the opposing penalty area to take a 1-0 lead. From then on, the concrete Millerntor building never stopped shaking.
Painted: scorer Simon Makienok.
(Photo: Martin Rose / Getty Images)
The visiting eleven were visibly impressed and were subsequently “not present enough”, as HSV coach Walter admitted, although from his point of view there was also a missed penalty whistle after a clear foul on attacker Backery Jatta. The overall picture was not changed by the wonderful equalizer by midfielder Sonny Kittel shortly before half-time, because St. Pauli came out of the cabin with the necessary sharpness and intensity – and with a double strike from striker Makienok obtained a cushion within two minutes, that despite the 3-2 goal from HSV striker Robert Glatzel never really threatened to melt away.
“Our expectations do not rise to just any heaven,” said St. Pauli President Göttlich
The fully tattooed Makienok is a “positively crazy guy,” said St. Pauli coach Schultz, which in addition to his status as a recognized derby hero is probably the greatest of all awards in the district. Makienok is just one of many footballers who have made such a huge leap forward under Schultz that hardly anyone speaks of the former loaners Omar Marmoush and Rodrigo Zalazar. Thanks in part to the two offensive players who had migrated, St. Pauli was probably the most spectacular team in the second division in the back series of last season – but FCSP sporting director Andreas Bornemann seems to have provided a neighborhood mix with his calm and clever work that shook it up for a long time could be due to the balance of power in the Hanseatic city.
With the final whistle, the St. Pauli President Oke Göttlich put on a jacket and was happy about the “new bourgeoisie” at the rebellious Kiezklub, which he explicitly wanted to see as proof of quality. But because of a Derby victory, expectations would “not rise to any heaven”. In doing so, Göttlich possibly ignored the fact that he had the power of the factual on his side: after four match days, the Kiezklub has collected three points more than HSV, of a total of seven second division derbies so far only one has been lost. On the other hand, there wasn’t much space in the sky that evening – at least not over the bright Hamburg district of St. Pauli.