The permanent winners from FC St. Pauli come quickly and powerfully - and are gradually becoming a threat to Hamburger SV. While HSV is in third place in the promotion race of the 2nd Bundesliga, the team from the Kiez raced through the table to fourth place in the second half of the season. With the 1-0 win against Jahn Regensburg, she also gave her new coach Fabian Hürzeler a second division start record with nine wins in nine games.
"If you win, like we're doing at the moment, then you just sneak up there," said St. Pauli's co-captain Leart Paqarada the pay broadcaster Sky on Saturday. "And if at the end it's like, 'Okay, there's a chance we're going up,' then none of us are going to stand up here and say, 'Nah, we feel pretty good on the four or five.'"
Fourth or fifth place is not an option for HSV anyway. There is only one goal: advancement. The implementation of the project is still realistic. But the club is stagnating. After the 2-2 draw against Fortuna Düsseldorf on Friday evening, coach Walter's team has been waiting for a win for three games. The fear of the obligatory HSV spring low goes around.
After all, the injury time spectacle on the Betzenberg gave Hamburger SV a conciliatory second division weekend. Far after the end of the regular season, 1. FC Kaiserslautern made a 2-2 draw against HSV promotion rivals 1. FC Heidenheim on Saturday evening. In addition, Heidenheim's Tim Kleindienst missed a penalty shortly before. Hamburg's deficit (50 points) to Heidenheim's second direct promotion place was one point. Only Darmstadt 98 (55) pulled away after the 1-0 win at 1. FC Nuremberg.
FC St. Pauli are now coming from behind: There are still six points between the Hamburg city rivals. After the first half of the season it was 17 points. The showdown in Volkspark is on April 21st.
And the trend speaks for St. Pauli. Above all, the defensive has stabilized at the Kiezclub under the only 30-year-old Hürzeler. The team conceded just three goals in the second half of the season. In addition, the offensive with 17 goals is much more effective than in the first half of the season.
Commitment, will - and like against Regensburg - luck are the ingredients of the current St. Pauli recipe for success. "Nine wins in a row are just unbelievable. Sometimes you only have such a streak once in your career. Something like that is usually reserved for the top European teams," said Australian midfield driver Jackson Irvine and announced with a view to the game next Saturday /( 8.30 p.m./Sky and Sport 1) to: “We definitely want to be in double digits.”
HSV would be happy about at least one win at the moment. In Düsseldorf, it was revealed where the problem area for the promotion favorite is currently: behind - and that before the crunch time of the season. Only goalkeeper Daniel Heuer Fernandes met the highest standards.
In the game at Fortuna, the suspended captain and defense chief Sebastian Schonlau was missing and thus the irreplaceable stability factor. HSV does not have an equivalent replacement in the squad. Not even for Mario Vuskovic, who has been banned for EPO doping since November. "I can't pull Schonlau out of a hat, I can't pull Vuskovic out of a hat," said Walter, who recently described the two as "the two best central defenders in the league". "I have to play with the ones I have."
And they're not good enough. Javi Montero, brought in as a Vuskovic alternative in winter, proved to be a failure again in Düsseldorf. He was wrong when the hosts equalized 1-1 and also saw yellow and red in the 89th minute - for the second time in the third game. "It's unbelievable, two yellow and red cards - you can't just brush that under the table," said goalkeeper Heuer Fernandes.
Walter praised his team in Düsseldorf for what he saw as a "very, very good game". "We have to reward ourselves more. And we will do that in the coming weeks," said the 47-year-old. "Our path is always forward."
Coaching team HSV squad HSV schedule HSV table 2. Bundesliga table squad FC St. Pauli schedule FC St. Pauli
