retired_sharonnabailey

My relief at getting out of our losing streak is weighed up against the irritation at losing Calaiò to another suspension. However, the three points means that I can start thinking happy thoughts about potential qualification for the European cups. We need to finish sixth in order to qualify for the Euro Cup, and eighth place to enter the lesser Euro Vase. Sixth place is three points away, eighth is only two, and if we maintain decent form for the rest of the season, it will be our big carrot.

Sadly however, Iulian Filipescu signals his intentions to retire at the end of the season. Already, we’re set to lose second-choice goalie Achim Hollerieth to retirement, but the Romanian leaving will certainly be a very big loss to us indeed.

Stuttgart await. Clayton Zane comes in in place of Emanuele Calaiò. He has done very little to convince me he can come up with the goods at this level, and I really ought to look around for alternatives. The 31 year old Aussie’s contract runs out in the summer and, unless he magically clicks into gear, he will likely have to go.

Vfb Stuttgart (5th) v St. Pauli (10th)
Gottlieb-Daimler-stadion, 14.2.09
Stuttgart are at us like a pack of rottweilers from the off. There are some matches you’re just not supposed to win, and as Kevin Kuranyi puts the home team ahead on 14 minutes, I know that this simply isn’t going to be our day. Just one single shot on goal throughout the ninety minutes tells the story, and had it not been for a steady central defence and once again a brilliant Marc Ziegler, who is fast becoming a candidate for Free transfer of the Year, between the sticks, we might easily have conceded another four or five.

Stuttgart 1 St. Pauli 0
1-0Kuranyi (14)
Att. 42,599. Shots / on target: 12-6 / 6-1
St. Pauli: 22 7-6-9 19-22 27pts / 11th.

Clayton Zane more or less removed any doubts I had about whether he was a lightweight in this division with a lethargic and lacklustre performance: I will definitely go out looking for a striker sooner rather than later. Not least since it seems like only a matter of time before Calaiò would be snapped up by a significantly bigger club than ours.

retired_sharonnabailey

Clayton Zane more or less removed any doubts I had about whether he was a lightweight in this division with a lethargic and lacklustre performance: I will definitely go out looking for a striker sooner rather than later. Not least since it seems like only a matter of time before Calaiò would be snapped up by a significantly bigger club than ours.

Meanwhile, Mounir el Hamdaoui and Tom Geißler have started to give me a headache over their contracts. Both have done exceedingly well over a sustained period of time and, while they already are among the top earners, they want more money. Tom’s contract runs out at the end of next season while ‘El’ has another year beyond that left on his contract, but the financial circumstances I operate under means that their demands, for the time being, are more than twice of what I can offer. With Geißler’s market value exceeding £4,000,000, he may well depart in summer if an agreement cannot be reached.

Such is the life at a small club; good players will invariably be sold to where the money’s at. A sad fact of life, but as a precaution I send my team of scouts looking for potential replacements already.

But enough of that. We have an important cup tie ahead of us. 1860 München are mid-table in the second division and, even if it’s another away tie, it’s one I expect us to win.

German Cup, quarter finals
1860 München v St. Pauli
Stadion an der Grünwalder Straße, 24.2.09
A bright and sunny day in Munich sees us getting off to a flyer. The months in the first Bundesliga have toughened us up, and just six minutes in, Tom Geißler completes a blistering counter-attack to put us ahead. 1860’s enthusiasm though keeps us on our toes and midway through the half, they equalise.

It’s end to end stuff now and 1860 are battling like rabid dogs. We take the lead again from the penalty spot just before the break, Iulian Filipescu slotting home after Phillip Kasperidus, deputising on our left wing, is chopped down inside the box.

Our lead lasts until six minutes after the break when 1860 are awarded a penalty as well as, surprisingly, our goalie is deemed to have pushed an opponent inside the box. They score and we’re back on level terms.

For seven minutes. Just when I need him the most, Calaiò muscles his way to get first to a good cross from young Kasperidus and restore our advantage. A couple of lucky breaks afterwards, the whistle goes and we’re in the semi finals of the cup!

1860 München 2 St. Pauli 3
0-1 Geißler (6)
1-1 Avalos (34)
1-2 Filipescu (pen, 44)
2-2 Adam (pen, 51)
2-3 Calaiò (58)
Att. 18,436. Shots / on target: 7-11 / 3-5

Although the German cup comes nowhere near the status of the FA cup or suchlike, winning it means automatic European qualification, which of course will mean the world to us.

retired_sharonnabailey

Calaiò, annoyingly, picks up a whack on the chin towards the end of the cup match and loses three days of training. March arrives, and we’re off to Rostock for a tricky away match.

Hansa Rostock (11th) v St. Pauli (12th)
Ostseestadion, Rostock. 1.3.09
Rostock and Pauli do not have a good history. St. Pauli’s leftwing reputation and the Rostock fans’ traditional leaning towards right-wing ideology have caused several violent clashes in the past. Famously, back in the nineties a bus of Rostock supporters was up-ended while leaving Millerntor in the Reeperbahn district.

I do not know whether the game has taken this into account, but our Rostock experience certainly seemed to confirm it. This was the filthiest game of football I can remember witnessing on a computer screen!

A grand total of eleven yellow cards, and one red, is dished out in a match that will go down in history as ninety violent minutes. Happily though, we both come out on top and pick up only four of the bookings as Emanuele Calaiò does it again for us. His sixth-minute goal is enough for us to run away with the points. Once again, lady luck is on our side as Rostock’s three strikers and endless long balls give us no end of trouble. Marc Ziegler plays arguably his best ever 45 minutes of football in the second half, keeping out at least five gigantic chances. Rostock also hits the bar twice, they rack up 13 corner kicks and try every trick in the book to force the ball over the line, but to no avail. After ninety minutes, 11 bookings, 1 sending-off, an unbelievably dirty match including nearly 60 free kicks and three players picking up injuries, we have somehow notched up another three points, and with just 20 goals from 22 games we’ve collected not less than 30 of them!

With relegation now 10 points below us, it’s official; we’re aiming for Europe.

Hansa Rostock 0 St. Pauli 1
0-1 Calaiò (6)
Att. 28,337. Shots / on target: 19-7 (8-3)
St. Pauli: 23 8-6-9 20-22 30pts. / 12th place

retired_sharonnabailey

Young Brazilian right winger/forward Celsinho, who is starting to demonstrate that his undoubted talent is developing into something we can use, gets a start against last season’s fellow promotion winners Borussia Mönchengladbach in our next match. I’m hoping for a second consecutive win that might set us off on a good late-winter vein of form.

St. Pauli (12th) v Borussia Mönchengladbach (5th)
Millerntor, Hamburg. 7.3.09
But I’m disappointed again, aren’t I. Our lack of efficiency lose us another two points as we play a, on the face of it, pretty decent match, yet in the end are lucky to come away with the one point. As always, Calaiò gets one, equalising Gladbach’s opening goal. While Celsinho could and should have won us all three points with a huge chance just before the end that he blazed about a mile over the crossbar, Gladbach nonetheless come closest to grabbing a winner. We may have a top-class defence, but our attacking qualities are about as unstable as an airplane full of schizophrenics. Four minutes before the end, our frustrated young South African midfielder Kamal Jasmath sees red after a frustrated tackle on an opponent that might have broken his neck, it was that bad.

St. Pauli 1 Borussia Mönchengladbach 1
0-1 Weller (27)
1-1 Calaiò (30)
Att. 20,185. Shots (on target): 12-7 (5-4)
St. Pauli; 24 8-7-9 21-23 31pts (10th)

There are two big games coming up for us now. First, we’re gearing up for the Hamburg derby against HSV, our arch nemesis. They’re doing well this season, a solid 6th place in the top half of the table largely speaking volumes of a defence that’s even tighter than ours. As for us we only have ten matches left of the season, and need to pick up on our form if we are to finish higher than our current predicament.

retired_sharonnabailey

There are two big games coming up for us now. First, we’re gearing up for the Hamburg derby against HSV, our arch nemesis. They’re doing well this season, a solid 6th place in the top half of the table largely speaking volumes of a defence that’s even tighter than ours. As for us we only have ten matches left of the season, and need to pick up on our form if we are to finish higher than our current predicament.

After HSV we’ll be taking on Werder Bremen, one of the really big clubs in Germany. Currently in fifth place, they will admit to having under-achieved this season. The Bremeners are aiming for medals and a place in the Champions League and will need the points just as badly as ourselves.

Hamburger Sportsverein v St. Pauli
AOL Arena, Hamburg. 15.3.09
A bright, dry day in Hamburg sees Thomas Gravesen getting himself injured after just over a quarter of an hour. That messes up my plans and forces the early introduction of Martin Oslislo. Previously a key player for me, the 30 year old has become more of a marginal figure at Millerntor this season and will need to do a lot more to play back into my good book..

Our defensive qualities continue to amaze me. HSV, like so many other teams this season, are practically eating us alive and pushing us into our own goalmouth, flowing forward and making my life miserable. But our counter attacking proves deadly. Practically with his first touch of the ball, Emanuele Calaiò latches onto a 50 yard pass from Anthony Garder and slots home our first goal after 24 minutes to give us probably the least deserved lead in recent German football history. Come the interval we have been completely outplayed, but my simple instructions of “whenever you get the ball, boot it out of the stadium” to my defenders are working a treat.

Even more so when, to my complete disbelief, Calaiò adds another one not eight minutes after the break. The talismatic Tom Geißler gets free from his marker and hits a low cross, giving my Bomber an easy tap-in at the near post. 2-0 up without barely having touched the ball. What the ****?!

Of course, it couldn’t last. HSV refuse to lie down and go forward relentlessly, finally getting their goal on the hour. From then on and in it’s a case of holding on to our lead by any means necessary, which we almost manage until Conor Casey brilliantly goes past three men and lobs Ziegler just six minutes before the end.

Unbelievably, we have scraped a draw in another match we had no rights to come away from with anything. Emanuele Calaiò is my only offensive threat these days and my reliance on his goals, I see more and more clearly, is the difference between falling down with the dead men at Eintracht Frankfurt, who are lodged to the bottom of the table, and fighting for a mid table position in May.

HSV 2 St. Pauli 2
0-1 Calaiò (24)
0-2 Calaiò (53)
1-2 Kucukovic (61)
2-2 Casey (84)
Att. 55,495. Shots (on target): 21-5 (10-2)
St. Pauli: 25 8-8-9 23-25 32p. 11th

Calaiò’s brace brings his total during his mere 45 matches for us to 40 goals. While others, most notably Mounir el Mamdaoui, Anthony Gardner, Marc Ziegler and Tom Geißler have produced more than what anyone rightfully could expect from them all season the Italian is, at present, the only factor keeping us around the middle of the table and not at the foot of it.

Ahead of next season attacking reinforcements must be brought in to give us some more options upfront, especially as, should Calaiò sustain another injury at this stage, we’d be hard pressed to pick up more than a handful of points until the end of the season.

Having said that, the back four and goalkeeper have without exception performed marvellously. We’ve been outplayed by most of our opponents since after the winter break, and I expect another backs-to-the-wall effort as Werder Bremen, looking for a place in the Champions League, come calling on the 18th March.

retired_sharonnabailey

St. Pauli v Werder Bremen
Millerntor, 18.3.09
For this one we’re barely out of our own five yard box, especially after that man Calaiò greedily takes advantage of a comic relief-style defensive blunder and puts us ahead 17 minutes into the tie. It’s Calaiò’s twelfth goal of the season and once again he proves his immense worth to our cause.

But Bremen are class, and we, sadly, are not. My defence with Thomas Gravesen in front of it battles bravely the most one-sided onslaught on our goal since Spain ****ed all over Norway in the playoffs to the Euros in 2006. A chronic lack of ability to aim properly, however, means that the inevitable equaliser has to wait until seconds before half time to materialise. A rare glitch in markings allows Ivan Klasnic in for a header five metres from our goal, and the excellent Marc Ziegler has no chance.

For the entirety of the second half Bremen set up camp in our goalmouth. A flurry of crosses, corners, shots and headers terrorise our back lines, but yet again, amazingly, we come out of it in one piece. Watching the last ten minutes of the match in real time, we cross the half-way line TWICE! Anthony Gardner stands up as a man amongst men while Stefan Gislason’s sheer dogged determination prevents us from collapsing under the pressure.

But nonetheless, a point gained. Utterly undeserved, certainly, but at this stage I’ll take any points I can get.

We are not playing well recently and, even with the healthy distance between ourselves and the relegation zone, I fear a nerve-wracking spring if our luck starts to run out. Not at least since Calaiò picks up his seventh booking of the season and will be suspended for the next match. From now on he’ll be suspended for one match for each successive booking which, given the fact that he has notched up 7 yellow and 2 red cards in his mere 16 appearances, sets the alarm bells off ringing.

St. Pauli 1 Werder Bremen 1
1-0 Calaiò (17)
1-1 Klasnic (45)
Att. 20,803. Shots (on target) 7-22 (2-6)
St. Pauli: 26 8-9-9 24-26 33pts (11th)

retired_sharonnabailey

Köln of Cologne was next. This club and St. Pauli have a friendly relationship with many fans supporting either team, normally (of course, in real life, Pauli are two divisions below Köln so as to avoid any conflict of interest). Now however Köln were one of our main rivals for the vital positions that will qualify us for European football next season.

St. Pauli v FC Köln
Millerntor, 28.3.09
Mounir el Mamdaoui has been persistently playing well for us all season, but crowned his year with an astonishing performance in this one. With the talismatic Calaiò suspended we knew we had to rely on goals to come from elsewhere, and the Dutch-Moroccan stepped up to be the man of the day.

Two magical goals - one after running single-handedly past four opponents, starting in our own half, before placing the ball coolly beyond the goalie's reach, the second goal coming as he belted home a volley five minutes from the end - is enough to sink Köln.

There was drama in this one, however. Taking the lead through the Moroccan on the hour and doubling it five minutes before the end, Köln almost immediately pulls one back and for the next few minutes throw five players into the attack, almost even grabbing an equaliser.

Clayton Zane however finishes them off with a well-taken header and a rare goal three minutes into injury time to seal an important three points.

I haven't made a point out of us being pushed into defence in this match because this wasn't the case this time. We played some fine football, got most of our efforts on target, and won deservedly. Could this be the turning point?

St. Pauli - FC Köln 3-1 (0-0)
1-0 el Hamdaoui, 62
2-0 el Hamdaoui, 85
2-1 Semler, 87
3-1 Zane, 90 +3
Att. 22,595 (record); Shots (on target) 12-14 (7-3)
St. Pauli 27 9-9-9 27-27 36pts. (9th)

With that, the top end of the table looks like this with seven games remaining of the season:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">1 Bayern Munich 26 19-5-2 44-9 62p (Champions Cup)2 SC Freiburg 27 16-4-7 42-27 52p (Champions Cup)3 Dortmund 26 15-5-6 42-22 50p (Champions Cup)4 Werder Bremen 26 13-8-5 43-24 47p (Euro Trophy)5 BM Gladbach 27 12-7-8 36-30 43p (Euro Trophy)6 Hamburger SV 27 11-9-7 26-17 42p (Euro Trophy)7 Bochum 27 11-7-9 35-35 40p (Euro Vase)8 Schalke 04 27 9-9-9 35-35 36p (Euro Vase)9 FC ST. PAULI 27 9-9-9 27-27 36p </pre>

retired_embartl

For a bosman from Pescara that Calaio's proving not to be all too bad value Good luck in the final push - outside chance of Europe still there....

retired_sharonnabailey

(thank you, Sir Brian. I'm glad to see I'm not just talking to myself here!)

Midweek brings some controversy. el Hamdaoui, who played out of his skin against Köln, is in the papers twice - one, as he is voted Player of the week (a first for us in the 1BL) and two, as he rather cynically takes advantage of his momentum and goes public with a demand for higher wages.

He's a key player for me and I'm very keen to keep him content and at the club. After a sit-down to discuss the outlines of a new contract however, I decide it's no point even beginning negotiations. His demands are more than twice as high as my wage cap.

Geißler and "El" both are in this situation. Geißler's contract runs out after next season. He might have to be sold in the summer if this keeps up. El still has another year beyond that left on his contract, so I'll have to see whether he breaks into a fit over the issue before deciding to sell him off. I won't have discontent players disrupting the harmony at the club.

We'll see what happens at the end of the season when a few highly-paid players will be released by the club or retire.

All this disrupts us somehow ahead of our next match, away to Borussia Dortmund.

Borussia Dortmund v St. Pauli
Westfalenstadion, 4.4.09
Having started in a bright and optimistic fashion, going ahead through yet another goal from el Hamdaoui - who really is on fire right now - we actually dominate the first 20 minutes. el Hamdaoui hits a post as well as scoring the goal, and the home side seems taken aback by our frisky attacking.

Then, we completely lose it. Dortmund regain composure and puts us under intense pressure. Right on half time, they equalise, and as the second half ticks along we are being one hundred per cent played off the park. Somehow they don't score until seven minutes before the end though, as unlucky Stefan Gislason puts the ball in his own net.

The 2-1 score doesn't reflect properly on the game - they could have had seven or eight.
Ziegler, Geißler and Anthony Gardner are once again splendid, but Dortmund have a team of world-class players. In such company, we don't have a prayer.
Dortmund - St. Pauli 2-1 (1-1)
0-1 el Hamdauoi (21)
1-1 Kehl (45)
2-1 o.g. (83)
Att. 71,190. Shots (on target) 28-11 (19-5)
St. Pauli 28 9-9-10 28-29 36pts (11th)

retired_sharonnabailey

So no chance against Dortmund, but I didn’t really expect us to. At this point I’m realising that direct qualification for Europe through our league performances is a long shot at best, our lack of consistency meaning that we never quite manage to close the distance to the teams above us. The cup will be a top priority, as winning it will – as mentioned previously – give us a place in Europe next season.

The semi final against the second division SV Wehen, which is a much smaller club than ourselves, if you can believe that, is coming up shortly. Before that, however, we enjoy the feeling of being huge favourites to win a match for a change, as dead-and-buried Eintracht Frankfurt visit Millerntor.

St. Pauli v Eintracht Frankfurt
Millerntor, 11.4.09
Frankfurt are shi’ite, and I don’t mean as in members of Saddam Hussein’s former party in Iraq, but as a deliberate misspelling of faeces. 13 goals from 28 games and a seemingly complete lack of structure have rooted them to the foot of the table since day one of the season. They’re long since gone, and as expected, we thrash them.

There’s really very little to say about this one. We are two goals up inside ten minutes thanks to the usual one and Ian Paul McShane, while young Celsinho adds a third right after the break. We might have scored more but for some wasteful finishing, let them in on a few occasions after the break without really being threatened, and leapfrog up to 9th in the table.
St.Pauli – Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 (2-0)
1-0 Calaiò (2)
2-0 McShane (10)
3-0 Celsinho (46)
Att. 20,994. Shots (on target) 12-4 (5-4)
St. Pauli 29 10-9-10 31-29 39pts (9th)

Now for that semi final. Once again, we are playing away from home, as has been the case in every single round of the cup this season.

Sportsverein Wehen 1926 hail from Wehen, a town so little it’s barely more than a couple of junctions, just outside Frankfurt and close to Mainz, another division 2 team. They have done marvellously well to get themselves a stint at second division football and are even doing quite well at it. At the moment they are 9th, just like us, only one division below. Their stadium, Stadion am Helberg takes a measly 4,200 spectators. For this match, sections of the ground is cordoned off for safety reasons. TV is here to film the match, and we are two wins away from the club’s first ever trophy and European football both.

SEMI FINAL GERMAN CUP
Sportsverein Wehen 1926 v FC St. Pauli
Stadion am Helberg, 14.4.09
Wehen are geared up like hell for this semi final and set out at a death-defying pace. Having sustained an initial fifteen minutes of sometimes heavy pressure, we start gaining more and more possession. I’ve made a slight tactical change for this change in giving my fullbacks more attacking responsibilities than usual as I predict us to be able to outplay them through attacking in numbers and using the inherent pace in the team.

We do take the lead midway through the first half. It’s that man again, and not surprisingly it’s a barging header from five or six yards out following some good work down the right flank from Kenny Vanhoevelen, my right back, and Tom Geißler, who makes the delivery.

Wehen refuse to be disheartened by this however and are on top of us for the rest of the first half. We seem somewhat subdued by their sheer enthusiasm, and my tardiness in making necessary changes culminates in Adrian Iordache - their youthful striker whom I have been keeping my eye on with a view for a transfer in the summer for some time now – getting a toe on the ball in a mad goalmouth scramble midway through the second half.

The stadium erupts – well, all is relative, there are only about 1,000 home supporters there – but after the goal, we finally wake up a little. Celsinho is sent on in place of the less technical Kasperidus, and Kamal Jasmath comes on to take charge in midfield. We are back in the game with the introduction of these two, and for the last quarter of an hour we manage to create enough to nip the winning goal. A smashing Geißler – Jasmath – Celsinho combination culminates in the latter putting the ball in the back of the net five minutes from time, sending us to the cup final and our fans into seventh heaven.

SV Wehen – St. Pauli 1-2 (0-1)
0-1 Calaiò (22)
1-1 Iordache (66)
1-2 Celsinho (84)
Att. 2,059. Shots (on target) 16-10 (7-4)