Noah Weißhaupt stood in the interview zone at Hamburg’s Millerntor Stadium and seemed pretty irritated at first. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” came from behind, then the FC St. Pauli attacker was patted on the shoulder. Weißhaupt turned over his right shoulder, but the knocker, assistant coach Peter Nemeth, had already trudged a few meters further and could only have been seen by looking at his left shoulder. You have to know that Nemeth is a real neighborhood star, known for his loud voice and notorious for not messing with him. Weisshaupt, on the other hand, is more of the shy guy next door. The 23-year-old chuckled embarrassedly and at that moment apparently came to a profoundly true realization: St. Pauli is definitely not a standard football club. And yet everyone is welcome here, from bad boys to model students.
Weißhaupt is currently only a temporary man at the Kiezklub; he came on loan from SC Freiburg in January, where they expect him back in the summer as an almost seasoned Bundesliga professional. Until then, the former German junior national player should enrich his undeniable offensive talent with assertiveness and strength of character. Daily encounters with the infamous assistant coach Nemeth can only help. And they are already starting to have an impact: “That was a great performance,” said Weißhaupt about the 3-0 win against Union Berlin. “From me, but also from the whole team.” Yes, you read that right, the actually reserved Weißhaupt had actually simply dribbled around the diplomatic protocol for football professionals – and when asked how he generally classifies this home game, not just his teammates and them The team’s strategy is praised, but first and foremost yourself.
However, there was no hint of grandstanding, but rather the truth and nothing but the truth. Weißhaupt sprayed ideas, asserted himself, hit the post and put his teammates in the spotlight. In short, he played with the same confidence as the rest of the Paulian team: the more weeks that go by, the more suitable the Kiezkickers seem to be in the first league – from start to finish and recently even with the ball and no longer just against him. For example, there are Weißhaupt’s fellow attackers Johannes Eggestein and Morgan Guilavogui, who are becoming increasingly successful at exploiting their strengths and ignoring their weak points.
The center forward Eggestein is no longer a feared goalscorer in this footballing life, but against Union he once again appeared with good decisions, opening passes and clever running routes. The dynamic summer signing Guilavogui has sharpened his erratic finishing at the start of the season and heaved a shot under the crossbar (31st minute) and another flat into the Berlin goal (51st). Substitute Danel Sinani made the final score 3-0 in stoppage time.
St. Pauli has the second-best defense in the league behind Bayern – an impressive record for a newly promoted team
A few more bullet points could be added to the list: Captain Jackson Irvine has apparently finally adapted the tempo in the upper house; Philipp Treu declares the left flank his territory with astonishing regularity; and James Sands, who was also loaned out in January, managed almost effortlessly to stabilize the team from the center of midfield for one half and as a central defender for another half.
St. Pauli’s coach Alexander Blessin was able to give valid arguments as to why he didn’t want to “highlight anyone” from his team after the final whistle. He preferred to use his befitting defensive coaching vocabulary, talking about “relief,” “needle pricks,” and “avoiding mistakes.” The unusual experiment of how far you can go with your own lack of goals while at the same time the defensive security systems are at their limit has probably been softened a little in the second half of the season.
St. Pauli has kept a clean sheet for the seventh time and continues to have the second-best defense in the league behind FC Bayern, a sensational record for a newly promoted team. The game against Union also provided evidence that the kickers have had a good “learning curve” (Blessin) in other areas, such as clean processes in the build-up game, short passes directly in front of or behind the last chain – and the now sparkling understanding between Eggestein, Weißhaupt and Guilavogui, who dutifully reel off their patterns during attacks and bravely return to their own order afterwards.
“It’s good to bring in more and more teams,” said Eggestein, meaning: By winning against Unioner, who were at times desolate, St. Pauli was able to drag another competitor into the relegation battle, the neighborhood club moved up to 13th place, the Berlin team slipped to 14th place. And so last weekend brought up a not entirely irrelevant footnote for the Nordlichter: Because HSV also had the upper hand in the 3-2 win in the second division top game against Hertha BSC the football city of Hamburg was able to defeat the football city of Berlin twice.
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