First, a few corrections. The 5.30pm kick-off time is a wonderful idea, and hopefully in future all games will kick off at 5.30pm or earlier, particularly in midweek. Rouwen Hennings is the best new signing we have made this season, and looks certain to have a long and successful future at St. Pauli. Any criticisms of him in the past must now be considered null and void. And Thomas Frank is probably the best referee in the Bundesliga - if not the world - and a giant amongst men. I would willingly sell my house and all its contents to help Thomas Frank. (No, actually he's still a twat, but it looked like he disliked Duisburg more than us yesterday, for whatever reason.)
So... a massive 15000 made it to the game, including a lot of St. Pauli fans who arrived late due to traffic jams, but it was still the St. Pauli supporters who could be heard for most of the game, and at long last, they got their reward.
Kalla was on at left back due to Weigelt having sustained a thigh strain, and had a reasonably good game in what wasn't his optimal position - he's more of a central defender. Otherwise the team was unchanged from the cakewalk against Wehen.
The first half was pretty dull, and according to the Basisticker, nothing much happened in the first 16 minutes, which was good because that's when I got to the pub, although apparently Hain wasn't too secure in one or two situations. It was a fairly even game, with both defences solid and a lot of stray passes on both sides, but maybe with a slight advantage for Duisburg, as they seemed to be able to switch from defence to attack a lot quicker.
St. Pauli had a half chance in the 20th minute, with Boll shooting from the right and the ball bouncing awkwardly for Herzog, but the best chance came 5 minutes before half time, when Ludwig played a nice pass to Rothenbach on the right, but his pass in from the by-line was too poorly placed to let Trojan get to it. Hoilett picked up a yellow just before the break, for accidentally standing on a Duisburger's foot during a challenge.
Neither Hoilett nor Trojan had a particularly good game; Hoilett kept trying to run through the Duisburg defence, which they just weren't having, and Trojan still seems not to have completely shrugged off the infection that kept him out for a couple of weeks recently.
Still, 0-0 after 45 minutes, and it was looking good for the first away point of the season. Then the game restarted.
With 6 minutes of the 2nd half gone, Trojan lost possession and the ball was passed right to Grlic, with our defence caught off guard. Grlic crossed to Kouemaha at the penalty spot, who had all the time in the world to chest the ball down and send in a shot high just to Hain's left.
There was that "here we go again" feeling. Less than a minute later, Duisburg had the chance to sew the game up, after a slack pass from Eger put Wagner through with only Hain to beat. Fortunately, he shot over.
The next few minutes were a powerplay from Duisburg, at that point unbeaten at home this season, and it looked like they were going to flatten us, if only they could score again, but of course, they didn't.
Trojan and Brunnenmann both picked up yellow cards, Brunnemann for an attempted overhead kick which connected with a Duisburger somewhere around his liver, so the guy fell over clutching his face, as you do.
With 64 minutes gone, Duisburg had slackened off a bit and Stani took off Brunnemann (who may have been knackered) and Hoilett, who just wasn't making an impression. Bruns and Hennings came on.
Best. Double. Substitution. Ever.
In the same minute, Branco got a yellow for going in with both feet on Trojan to the left of the Duisburg area, and 3 minutes later, he managed to get his second, carelessly bringing down Kalla, who was tanking down the left line 30 yards out. Tactics? Nah, not this time. Duisburg aren't that clever.
Hennings took the resulting free kick long to the far post, Rothenbach headed back across the goal, and Bruns was there to head in the equaliser from 5 yards.
Five minutes later, Duisburg had the chance to go ahead again, when the ball was passed in to Wagner, whose shot was saved well by Hain, diving to his left. While Wagner was busy claiming that the player who passed the ball to him had been fouled by Eger - which he probably was, the key word here is "advantage" - Hain booted the ball upfield, where it was headed on by a Duisburg defender, and Hennings got there first, ran to the edge of the area on the left and sent a shot across the goal past Herzog to make it 2-1 for us.
Yes! ABPFEIFFEN!!!
Duisburg tried to come back into the game, but St. Pauli had the real chances to put the victory beyond doubt. Ebbers headed just past in the 83rd minute when it might have been easier to score. Schultz came on for Trojan in the 87th, and with 90 minutes gone, Herzog came forward to help out, and we got possession with an empty goal in front of us, but still couldn't manage to put the seal on the win. Duisburg got a corner in the last minute of time added on, but Hain got to it, and that was it. Three away points in the bag - endlich!
So now we've shown that we can win away, maybe we can lose at home on Sunday against Nürnberg... NOOOO!!!
St. Pauli - better than Duisburg, not as good as Augsburg
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
). Almost seemed like he didn't want us to even get a point.
