FC St. Pauli in late autumn – it was a sad event. For the first time in Bundesliga history, the Hamburg neighborhood club lost eight games in a row. And the next opponent is also the sovereign league leader and champion Germany. “I will say: The next match is against Bayern. We will not win by that much,” said President Oke Göttlich after the heavy 0-1 defeat against 1. FC Union Berlin on DAZN.
After all: They haven’t lost their sense of humor at FC St. Pauli. And there is no unity either. The reason is that Göttlich has expressed his trust in his coach Alexander Blessin after the seventh defeat. And did so clearly after the eighth: “He is our coach!”
After his poor performance against the honest Berliners, Blessin himself basically did nothing more than his president: preach unity and self-confidence. “It makes me upset. It’s much more fun to win and get points,” said the 52-year-old. “But – and this isn’t a slogan for perseverance or anything, this week of practice was really good. And I really felt that everyone still believed in it. Even in the second half, we didn’t look like we were falling apart.”
The match at FC Bayern Munich (Saturday, 15:30 on the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga, on DAZN and Sky) must be excluded. But after that, with Borussia Mönchengladbach in the DFB Cup as well as newly promoted 1. FC Köln, bottom team 1. FC Heidenheim and penultimate team Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga, there will be “four opponents to beat,” Blessin said.
The hope is: “Then take a dirty game at 0-0 or 1-0 and take courage from there and start a small draw. Everyone is still close together in the bottom area. We have to try together to get the car out of the mud!”
