St. Pauli’s pros enthusiastically celebrated their well-deserved city championship in front of the visitors’ block. It was the result of a dominant and, at times, impressive performance. It’s downright frightening that even things that were planned quite differently can lead to success.
Adam Dzwigala beamed in the mixed zone of the Volksparkstadion, competing with the halogen lights. The Pole joined St. Pauli in 2020 after being unemployed and has since become an all-purpose weapon – never a regular starter, but always important and reliable when called upon. In the derby, he owed his place in the back three to David Nemeth’s injury. And he owed his moment of glory to an unscheduled corner kick.
“Can opener” that wasn’t planned
“It’s my biggest win since I’ve been here,” says the 29-year-old, revealing: “Actually, the corner kick wasn’t meant for me.” His coach confirmed that the variation, in which Danel Sinani first played the ball five meters forward, fooling HSV, before Mathias Pereira Lage crossed from a full run, was actually planned differently. “The first passes,” explains Alexander Blessin, “were okay in terms of the sequence, then Eric Smith was supposed to get the ball, but he slipped a little. In that situation, we didn’t run one or two positions as we had actually planned beforehand.“
The result of the ‘unfortunate’ variation was a scene that Blessin calls ”the can opener.” And he makes it clear that he wants to see more of this in the future: “We only scored one goal from set pieces last season, but now we’ve already done it on the second matchday. We want to capitalize on situations like this even more often.”
Only two short phases bother Blessin
Blessin was naturally satisfied, even though the corner kick variation did not go according to plan. “We are very, very proud and very happy.” Only in two phases, immediately after the start of the game and after the half-time break, was he not completely satisfied with his team’s performance, “we had a few problems with our positioning.” Apart from that, the derby turned into a veritable demonstration: St. Pauli was clearer, stronger in the center, and repeatedly put pressure on HSV with its tempo in offense.
Andreas Hountondji showed that he is a threat to any defensive line, scoring on Friday evening as he did against BVB (3:3), while Pereira Lage was also almost unstoppable for HSV. “We now have exactly the pace in attack that we didn’t have last season,” said Blessin. And that means St. Pauli also has significantly more quality than in a season in which it remained in the league with relative ease. The derby evening more than hinted that the Kiez club is ready for the next step.
