Suzuki initiates victory
©IMAGO
FC St. Pauli is sliding deeper and deeper into the sporting crisis. The deserved 1:2 (0:1) at SC Freiburg was the seventh defeat in a row in everyday league life – there has never been a longer series of defeats for Hamburg in the Bundesliga.
A good week after the shocking 4-0 defeat against Borussia Mönchengladbach, Hamburg had to accept goals from Yuito Suzuki (40th minute) and Maximilian Eggestein (50th). And so they suffered the next setback. Louis Oppie’s goal (69th) wasn’t enough for the guests.
FC St. Pauli goes into the international break with serious worries and in the relegation region of the table, Freiburg is in tenth place. On the day of honor for captain and ex-national player Christian Günter, the sports club won again for the first time since September 20th and the 3-0 win in Bremen after five league games without a win.
The Breisgauers were able to go into the game inspired by their next European Cup success in Nice. Additional motivation may have been that Günter, with 441 competitive appearances, became the only SC record player ahead of Andreas Zeyer and was honored for this before kick-off. Günter was replaced after just under an hour, celebrated by chants. He had previously announced plenty of free drinks to the fans. At that point, his team had already laid the foundation to sweeten his emotional afternoon.
The action quickly shifted mainly to half the guests. Against the compact Hamburgers, the South Baden team was only able to convert their many possessions into something countable a few minutes before the end of the first half.
After a corner from Niklas Beste, Suzuki volleyed the ball into the net. Guest goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj became the unwanted assist provider, whose punch landed on the SC offensive player. The Baden team were successful with their seventh corner of the game, having previously made too little use of the set pieces. Beste (14th) and Suzuki (28th) missed their chances of taking the lead from the game.
The guests from the north concentrated on defense after the unexpected downturn of the past few weeks. Own goal threat? None. Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu was largely unemployed. “We don’t have to talk about beautiful football now, it’s about the simple things,” Pauli coach Blessin said before the game and called for a certain “asshole mentality”.
But shortly after the break, the defense was not up to 0-2. Again, keeper Vasilj blocked the Freiburg forward, but Eggestein also finished free from five meters. As with the first goal, the cross came from Beste.
A good 20 minutes before the end, things got exciting again out of nowhere and with Pauli’s first chance. Oppie finished after Freiburg’s sloppy defensive behavior and at least ended the goal drought after four league games without scoring his own goal. In the final spurt, the guests narrowly missed the equalizer.
