July 16, 2022
This weekend saw the start of the German Bundesliga 2, three weeks ahead of the top Division, with a Friday evening match between newly promoted Kaiserslautern against Hannover 96 kicking off the season, but the pick of the fixtures was arguably the match-up between the sides that finished in 5th and 8th last season, with Nurnberg ending 6 points behind St Pauli.
The last time the two sides met it ended in 1-1 in Hamburg in April, thanks to a last minute equaliser by Duman for Nurnberg, whilst the reverse fixture in November 2021 saw St Pauli emerged victorious 3-2.
St Pauli have been in Bundesliga 2 since 2011/12, having been relegated after just one season in Bundesliga. They were a yo-yo club in the 1990’s but have been Bundesliga 2 mainstays in 21st century.
St Pauli have many claims to fame, although most of them are from off the pitch. The club and its supporters have a well deserved reputation for its anti-racist/fascist/sexist/homophobic stance, and for its support for other politically correct/left wing causes. The club adopted the Skull and Crossbones as its emblem in the 1980s, and they are also one of the very few sides that play in brown !
St Pauli’s home ground is the Millerntor Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,546 and is located on the edge of Hamburg’s infamous Reeperbahn red light district. Their average attendance last season was 18,052, although some matches early in the season were played under Covid restricted attendances. In 2019/20 their average was 22,514, just below Nurnberg’s 22,649.
The Millerntor has seen significant development since my visit on a Monday night in October 1993, when 18,300 packed into the ground to see Bundesliga 2 clash with top of the table VFL Bochum, which was also being shown live on German TV. Uwe Wegmann, who was name checked in another VFL Bochum review in these diaries, gave his side the lead in the 35th minute, but substitute striker Markus Sailor gave St Pauli a deserved draw with a second half equaliser. Bochum went on to win the league, whilst fourth placed St Paul missed out on promotion by two points.
My three main memories of the game are the vocal support from the home fans, the dilapidated nature of the terrace I was standing on, but the ease of how quick it was to get a beer without missing much of the action !
Entrance was 13DM, with the programme costing 1DM, and additionally a fanzine had just been launched for at least 1DM.
St Pauli currently look to be weaker than last season, with its top three scorers having left the club. Austrian striker Guido Burgstaller was the top scorer with 18 goals but has joined Austria Wien for €450K. Daniel-Kofi Kyereh has joined Bundesliga side Freiburg for €4M after finding the net 12 times, and Danish midfielder Simon Makienok has been released after scoring 6 times. Welsh international defensive midfielder/centre-back James Lawrence ( 11 caps ) has also been released after an injury hit season.
New signings for St Pauli include striker Johannes Eggestein for a €540K, who made 18 appearances last season for Royal Antwerp, all of them as a substitute and without scoring a goal. He seems to be a long shot to successfully replace the departures…………
More credible signing are defender David Nemeth for €1.17M from Mainz after playing last season on loan at Sturm Graz, Greek full-back Manolis Saliakas ( 2 caps ) has signed from PAS Giannina and Australian midfielder Connor Metcalfe ( 2 caps ) has signed from Melbourne City, both on free transfers.
Remaining from last season’s squad are ex Hull, Celtic, Hibernian, Ross County and Burton Albion Australian midfielder Jackson Irvine ( 47 caps ), ex-Norkopping Swedish midfielder Eric Smith, and forward Etienne Amenyido, who has 1 cap for Togo.
Their squad also includes Croatian centre-back Jakob Medic, Polish centre-back Adam Dzwigala, left back Leart Paqarada has 24 caps for Kosovo, ex-Nurnberg keeper Nikola Vasilj has 5 caps for Bosnia but was injured during the pre-season, and midfielder Afeez Aramu has won 1 cap for Nigeria
Pre-season for St Pauli has not gone too well, with 0-2 pre-season losses to both fellow Bundesliga 2 side Holstein Kiel and Danish Superliga side Silkeborg IF, although their last outing was a 4-1 win over Croatian side NK Istra 1961 during a training camp in Austria.
FC Nurnberg were featured in these diaries last December when they succumbed to a 1-4 defeat at FC Schalke 04. Of the side that started that match, 10 are still part of the Nurnberg squad, with only Tom Krauss leaving at the end of his loan from RB Leipzig. Substitutes Dennis Borowski and top scorer Nikola Dovedan have also left the club, with Borowski returning to his parent club RB Leipzig whilst Dovedan’s contract was not renewed despite after 7 goals.
19 year old Erik Shuranov was the next top scorer with 6 goals, ex-Cardiff, St Pauli and Genk midfielder Mats Daehli has 29 caps for Norway, centre-back Christopher Schindler played for Huddersfield during their seasons in the Premiership, midfielder Lino Tempelmann is on loan from Freiburg and midfielder Johannes Geis has played for Schalke and Sevilla. Midfielder Fabian Nurnberger doesn’t actually come from Nurnberg, whilst Tim Handwerker is no doubt the source of many punchlines !
Nurnberg have signed two players from Hamburger SV during the close season, defender Manuel Wintzheimer, who made 27 appearances last season, whilst wing-back/winger Jan Gyamerah appeared 16 times. In the play-off game against Hertha Berlin covered in these diaries, Gyamerah came on as substitute, although Wintzheimer didn’t appear at all
Nurnberg’s pre-season hasn’t been particularly impressive either, suffering defeats to Bulgarian champions Ludogorets ( 0-2 ), Austrian Bundesliga side Tirol Innsbruck ( 0-3 ), and in front of nearly 22,000 spectators, at home to Arsenal ( 3-5 ) after leading 2-0 at half-time. They did manage to beat Bayern Regionalliga side FC Schweinfurt 2-1 in their last warm-up though.
Bet365.com make St Pauli 7/5 favourites to win the game, with Nurnberg 7/4 and with the draw 13/5. The weather at the 13.00 local time was cloudy and the temperature around 18 degrees.
BT Sport hold the Bundesliga rights in the UK but have shown little interest in broadcasting Bundesliga 2 matches, and despite a paucity of alternatives they have declined to show any match this weekend. Fortunately, those with a Bet365.com account were able to view all this weekend matches.
Before the kick-off the St Pauli players went to applaud their fans, something most teams do after the game ! For some reason, the match started three minutes late and St Pauli, urged on by their passionate support, immediately threatened, first with a dangerous cross from from the left by Pagarada that was unconvincingly cleared, and then the ball was worked into space on the right hand edge of the penalty area but Saliakas’ shot was poor and went harmlessly for a goal-kick.
Nurnberg’s first foray into the St Pauli half ended in Duman attempting to chip from 25 yards, but it was well over the bar. The start was frenetic, 100 miles per hour football, and the visitors had a huge chance in the 6th minute. A communication breakdown between St Pauli keeper Smarsch and centre-back Medic resulted in them getting in each other’s way in attempting to deal with a long ball forward, and the ball fell to Daferner, who with half an empty to goal to aim at, could only shoot without conviction, and Smarsch was able to recover and dive on the weak effort.
After this the game settled down, but Nurnberg had a good spell with Daehli to the fore of most of their promptings. Daferner blast over on the left side of the goalmouth after a nice chip from the right by Duah, then Handwerker saw a shot deflected for a corner. From the set-piece, Sorensen was left unmarked close to the penalty spot but the Dane’s left footed volley was steered just wide.
Against the run of play the home side took the lead in the 23rd minute, as Paqarada’s free-kick was met at the near post by Irvine ahead of Gyamerah, and the Australian’s glancing header flew across goal to nestle inside the far post.
St Pauli’s defensive frailties were again exposed three minutes later, this time Smarsch and Dzwigala failed to be on the same wave-length, but Duah was unable to capitalize on the confusion. The defensive chaos was repeated yet again in the 31st minute, this time Medic’s attempted header back to his keeper looped high over Smarsch, but the James Bond sounding villain was able to recover and leap to gather the bouncing ball before Daferner could pounce.
St Pauli responded with a pin-point through ball by Daschner to Matanovic, but the angle was tight and the Croat’s shot was pushed by keeper Mathenia for a corner, from which Paqarada stung the keepers hands with a long range effort.
The game took a dramatic turn in the 35th minute when St Pauli were awarded a very soft penalty. Daschner attempted to burst between two defenders and then hit the deck. Contact, if any, was minimal but the referee pointed to the spot, and Kosovan international Paqarada sent Mathenia the wrong way with an excellent penalty just inside the post.
As Nurnberg reeled from this injustice, they conceded again. The impressive Daschner again worked his way into the Nurnberg penalty area, but his left footed shot was weak. However, Mathenia appeared to be slow in reacting, and the ball hit the base of the post and then trickled over the line.
It was nearly four just before half-time when a shot from long range looked to be falling for Matanovic but before he could control Schindler was able to make a desperate clearance. As the sides headed to the dressing room, Nurnberg would have been wondering how they came to three goals in areas after having 57% possession and with St Pauli’s defence looking vulnerable every time they attacked.
In an effort to change things around, Nurnberg made one change at the interval and it had an immediate impact. Almost straight from the restart Nurnberger’s pass found Duah who shot across goal into the opposite corner.
However, rather than being the spur for Nurnberg to dominate in an effort to salvage something from the game the play became more equal, but although they huffed and puffed, St Pauli’s defence looked much more solid.
Paqarada almost restored St Pauli’s three goal lead, but Mathenia was equal to his powerful shot, and then the previously anonymous Eggestein had a shot deflected over for a corner. Nurnberg’s only chance of note was Wekesser’s left footed shot which flew inches wide.
A raft of substitutions didn’t help the flow of the match, although Wekesser’s optimistic long-range free-kick nearly caught out Smarsch, the keeper was able to dive and save at the expense of a corner.
Nurnberg increasingly seemed to be running out of ideas and as the 90 minutes were up, St Pauli substitute Boukhalfa fired wide. With 4 minutes of added time being played, there was still time for St Pauli’s defensive problems to reappear, as Medic failed to treat an aimless long ball and his dreadful attempted header back to Smarsch fell to Nurnberg substitute Valentini who gleefully smashed the ball into the roof of the net from 18 yards for a consolation goal.
To the delight of the home fans, the match ended almost immediately after the restart to give St Pauli a winning start to the season, although unless they improve defensively they might struggle. After covering two defeats, Nurnberg will probably be wishing these diaries don’t feature them again in a hurry !
FC St Pauli : Smarsch – Saliakas ( Zander ), Dźwigała ( Fazliji ), Medić, Paqarada - Smith ( Afeez ), Irvine, Hartel – Matanović ( Boukhalfa ), Daschner, Eggestein ( Otto )
FC Nurnberg : Mathenia – Gyamerah ( Valentini ), Schindler, Sorensen ( Hubner ), Handwerker – Tempelmann, Duman ( Wekesser ), Nurnberger - Daferner, Daehli ( Wintzheimer ), Duah ( Shuranov )
Goal Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-zzL9QYiBs
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