And then the lights went out at Hamburger Sport-Verein.
If there are fans of the traditional club who didn’t notice anything about the city derby against FC St. Pauli, not even the result, the all-clear is sound. Yes, the lights went out at HSV, but not in the usual bad way. Someone had switched off the floodlights. It got dark in the Volksparkstadion, only blue LED spotlights shone down from the roof. Then the Hamburg supporters got out their lighters and mobile phones, the team hugged each other, they sang, shouted, swayed and danced.
Regular visitors to the Oktoberfest should have been reminded of the procedure and atmosphere of how things are in Bavarian heaven as soon as Robbie Williams’ tearjerker “Feel” heralds the end of the Oktoberfest season. Only without “feel”, but with a lot of sentimental feelings of happiness. And since real Hanseatic citizens would clearly distance themselves from this strange Oktoberfest anyway, the procedure could only mean one thing: HSV, the former pride of the Hanseatic city, had just won against FC St. Pauli, who had always been their city rivals in the second division was a huge annoyance.
The scenes after the 4:3 victory will definitely make it into the official Hamburg season review – the only question is how the off-screen voice interprets it and what music is playing in the background. Was that the key and awakening experience for HSV on Friday evening on the way to returning to the first class? Or was that another moment of imposture, because he suggested the HSV fans a new reason for optimism, which is mercilessly smashed by their own team in the end?
Coach Tim Walter speaks of his “most beautiful victory” as HSV coach
The answer is: Robbie Williams’ “Feel” could provide the right sound for both scenarios. For the time being, HSV has consolidated the relegation place three and kept St. Pauli at a distance. And the Hamburg city derby did deliver goals, drama and spectacle, small tussles and verbal skirmishes, but one thing it didn’t deliver: real insights into how the HSV team is fit for promotion.
Such a city derby is usually to be seen as an isolated event, even if the satisfied HSV sports director Jonas Boldt said this success “should give impetus because we can also classify it”. Coach Tim Walter even spoke of his “most beautiful victory” since he has been in Hamburg. His team actually had flawless game phases this late afternoon, they had instigated nice combinations and brought them to the finish line, they didn’t have to endure any mentality debates afterwards.
Eternal ups and downs of emotions: The next goal sends head coach Tim Walter (right) into ecstasy – until HSV concede the next goal.
(Photo: Martin Rose/Getty Images)
But the fluctuations were once again enormous in the game of HSV – and for this realization one would not even have to agree with the St. Pauli coach Fabian Hürzeler, who would have found an inverted number arrangement on the scoreboard to be performance-based. “We were the dominant team,” said Hürzeler. That couldn’t be completely dismissed: St. Pauli had more clear chances to score and were equal in all other statistics that are relevant for a football game. (Exception of course: the numbers on the scoreboard)
Hürzeler was disappointed that the Paulian points piracy hadn’t worked out, but he also knew why that was the case: If you score four goals, you first have to score five. It’s that simple, criticized Hürzeler, who in a way pointed to a kind of internal competition that the opponent HSV is currently carrying out. Every matchday the question comes up anew as to who has the upper hand – does HSV, trimmed by coach Walter for courageous high-risk football, keep it because he scores more often in the front than he invites to score goals in the back? Or does the opponent win because they can rely on the porosity and error-proneness of the HSV defense? A week ago, in Kaiserslautern, the opponent won. HSV won on Friday evening.
Jonas David’s long-range shot from 25 meters, which gave HSV the important 1-1 lead shortly before the break, should also have been noticed by the goal of the month jury.
(Photo: Stuart Franklin/Getty)
First to the goals of the home team: Central defender Jonas David, recently scolded for his defensive negligence, scored 1: 1 with a 25-meter long-range shot, which the goal of the month jury should have taken notice of (44 . minute). The 2:1 was achieved by Bakery Jatta by direct acceptance after a cross (48th), the 3:1 by Moritz Heyer with a dust collector (52nd), the interim 4:2 was an own goal by the St. Pauli defender Jakov Medic (78th). .
“We suffered, but always believed in it,” says HSV captain Sebastian Schonlau
What all of these HSV goals had in common was that they were played well and most of them came at a time that would have been ideal to put the light out of the game. Until the final whistle, however, it remained bright and bright in the Volkspark. The Walter-Elf brought their city rivals back into the game so often that even the robust and resilient HSV striker Robert Glatzel showed himself to be “complete and ready”.
A city derby is special, very special things usually happen there, but you’ve seen it all in one way or another in the past few weeks. Before the first goal was conceded, for example: Miro Muheim attacked the center of midfield, which left a huge gap in his usual position, the left defensive side – and just a few seconds later, St. Pauli’s Manolis Saliakas hit, because the offensive man Jean-Luc Dompé obviously didn’t make it either wanted to hire out as a hole plugger.
It would not have surprised anyone if St. Pauli had still equalized at 4:4
In such situations, it is sometimes not entirely clear whether forward-thinking Walter wants to move out that way or whether Muheim, who is sometimes sloppy, just does it that way. In any case, both would be conceivable. “Players are observed differently than I observe them,” said the HSV coach, who, however, had to observe for himself how St. Pauli’s Elias Saad was able to use a counterattack to make it 3-2, without even having an alibi-like escort with him. The only reason why the 3: 3 did not fall was because Eric Smith missed a shot from seven meters (even though he had no opponent within a radius of seven meters). A possible 4:4 was finally prevented by the HSV captain Sebastian Schonlau with a won duel that he should not have lost as the last man. On the other hand, those would also have been typical moments that would have made the pre-Walter-HSV ponder so much that it would have really been a draw shortly afterwards.
“We suffered, but we always believed in it,” said Schonlau, drafting a script for the last five games including a final punchline: “We’re well advised to keep working. We really want to achieve our goal.” The light in the Volkspark was already on again. The pros should see how they get to the Bundesliga.