Ne victories in a row? Not many made it, said Jackson Irvine, and listed who he believed capable of such a series: “Celtic, Bayern, City, PSG.” An illustrious company, which is now joined by FC St. Pauli. The hunger is far from satisfied, said Irvine, an Australian with Scottish roots: “Anyone who has won nine times also wants to win ten times.”
Next Saturday evening (8.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the 2nd Bundesliga, on Sky and Sport1) at 1. FC Heidenheim, leader Irvine and his “Paulians” can expand the record of the second division. The chances are good because the momentum is clearly on St. Pauli’s side, said Irvine. SSV Jahn Regensburg was the better team on Saturday afternoon, but still lost 0:1. Also because Irvines are the type of guys from Hamburg who still go a long way even in injury time – and have not lost their sense of realism: “We have such a run that even mistakes have no consequences.”
The eighth home win through Prince Owusu’s own goal from the 23rd minute was flattering, but you could see why St. Pauli has scored 17:3 in the last nine victorious games and has the best defense: The remaining defense is dominated by the team from Coach Fabian Hürzeler is almost perfect – and the counter-pressing unfolds as if by magic: Almost everyone is “behind the ball” in no time after losing the ball. That’s called tactical discipline.
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With amazing callousness, FC St. Pauli gave their 30-year-old coach a number of records; never before has a new coach won nine times in a row, no club has ever started the second half of the season with this number of victories, and St. Pauli’s series is a record in the lower house. The neighborhood club often wins by a single goal. Now, not everything was bad under Hürzeler’s predecessor Timo Schultz. Despite many chances and decent performances, only three wins were achieved.
So the club’s management, headed by Andreas Bornemann, Sports Director, decided to dismiss the club’s icon shortly before Christmas – which triggered a storm of indignation. Bornemann refrains from triumphal gestures, but in an interview with “Kicker” revealed how much the sometimes personal attacks would have hurt him. However, he has to be blamed for the fact that he only brought in the players in winter who were missing in summer.
Timo Schultz was coach at FC St. Pauli until December 2022.
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Image: dpa
Hürzeler now benefits from this broader squad. He relies on a starting XI led by goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj, defender Eric Smith, cleaner Jackson Irvine and drivers Leart Paqarada and Marcel Hartel. Paqarada understood that her sometimes erratic game had displeased the man on the side this time, but could also explain it: “You can’t expect us all to play against the wall week after week.”
The district association would now like to keep too high expectations away. But with the derby in the Volkspark on April 21, there is a great opportunity to spit in the soup once again at Hamburger SV – and to flirt with promotion to the Bundesliga. Jackson Irvine said, “You only get that once in a lifetime. So we should just keep on winning.”
