Skt Pauli
Another football homage, this time to the Millerntor stadium which is squeezed into the inner city precinct of Skt Pauli in Hamburg. This is a football club with a distinct difference; one built on the values of the community perched on the edge of Hamburg’s docklands. Think heavy metal, punks and motifs such as the skull and crossbones, and the ship’s anchor and you start to get a feel for the culture. For Australian readers the nearest sporting equivalents are South Sydney Rabbitohs, or St Kilda in Melbourne. The Millerntor stadium accommodates just under 30,000 people and despite the fact that Skt Pauli are perennially a Bundesliga 2 club, their home games are sold out each and every week.
I was very lucky to get a ticket to the first home game of the season, against Dynamo Dresden. There is some serious history between these two clubs. Dresden supporters are seen as fascists and not without some justification when their chants have included references to constructing a tunnel from Skt Pauli to Belsen. Skt Pauli ultras have not held back either, exhorting their eastern German opponents to not be so soft, given their grandparents’ experience in withstanding the dreadful bombings of Dresden in 1944.
On the park we saw what is easily the best Bundesliga 2 match I have seen so far. The game was played at a lively pace throughout, with a reasonably high level of skill and creativity. Dynamo played a possession game with good running off the ball creating quite a few openings in the first 20 minutes. The Skt Pauli back four defused each attack quite well but their failing was to not link well with their midfield meaning that possession was turned over too often, and they found themselves having to withstand raid after raid. For all that, Skt Pauli’s forays in to the Dresden half often looked more dangerous and this was borne out in the 22nd minute when a momentary lapse of concentration in defence gave the Skt Pauli no. 10, Christopher Buchtmann enough time to curl a great shot into the top RH corner of the goal. 1-0.
Dresden kept attacking and they got a goal in reply about 7 minutes later when the Skt Pauli defence lost concentration, leaving Hartmann unmarked in the box providing him with sufficient time to pass in the equaliser.
Half time - thanks to Andy from Manchester for this photo
The second half continued in the same vein, although with Skt Pauli running towards their home end, the fan support ramped up and the team lifted. At around the 65 minute mark the game really opened up with attacks and counterattacks making the game flow from end to end. We could see a goal was coming and in the 69th minute, Buchtmann got his second with another longish range effort after some neat link up play to create the space for his shot. 2-1 and a victory looked likely.
But Dresden got what they probably deserved when only 4 minutes a fierce shot from Heise could only be parried by Skt Pauli keeper, Himmelmann and Röser equlaised with a typical poacher’s finish. 2-2 and that is how it ended.
On this showing you would have to say that Dresden will push strongly push for promotion to the Bundesliga this season. Skt Pauli are not quite at that level but will not lose too many games at the Millerntor and should finish the season comfortably mid table.
During the match I sat with long term Skt Pauli members, Josef and Fred. Fred has been coming to see Skt Pauli for 60 years, about the same length of time I have been consumimng oxygen. Their greatest memories are their all too brief forays into the Bundesliga: seasons which invariably end with relegation back to 2. Bundesliga. But nothing tops the day they beat Bayern, a victory which ensured that Bayern did not win the Meisterschale that year.
After the game, Josef invited me to join him at his local, an intimate little beer bar called Domschänke just outside the stadium where we enjoyed a couple of beers (and Josef a double vodka!) and some great conversation about politics, films and of course football. There was a juke box which a young woman kept going and a great atmosphere all round.
Domschänke - great little beer bar
