Triple runner-up blind football champion FC St. Pauli

Well, what can I say: the day after another defeat in the final of the Blind Football Bundesliga season, words quickly seem like a search for excuses. But that is not necessary at all. More on that in a moment. First of all, the most important thing: congratulations on the seventh German blind football championship in Stuttgart! Whoever wins 3-0 in the final deserves the title.

As a club and department member, I am allowed to look through brown and white glasses. The blind football team FC St. Pauli has achieved outstanding results. This final match day has been going on for four years now - every time coach Wolf Schmidt's team has made it to the final. Three of them came first - and St. Pauli couldn't get any better than losing exactly these three games. Last year the league was clearly dominated, only to lose to Marburg in the final on penalty kicks. This (shortened) season the first goals conceded were only in the final against Stuttgart. FC St. Pauli went to the final undefeated in both seasons. So the achievement is really worthy of all honor. Nevertheless, let us briefly imagine that FC Bayern Munich would not become champions in the Bundesliga without losing points. (Yes, most football fans would laugh, but we're talking about amateur sports when it comes to blind football.)

Final match day

Ending the season with a final game day in a city center is basically a good idea. In this way, blind football in the middle of society can show what great performance the players bring to the pitch. Now I was in Saarbrücken last year and in Magdeburg this year and I can only say that the concept failed spectacularly. Grandstands are being set up for several dozen people, but if the FC St. Pauli supporters hadn't arrived, they would have remained empty.

In Magdeburg I only saw a poster about the event at the venue. There were only a few more in Saarbrücken. There are also no structures on site. And after the final game day, no new teams will be formed. What made things even more difficult in Magdeburg was that wheelchair users couldn't see the field. The Bundesliga teams obviously no longer have any desire to end the season this way, because all placement games have been canceled. At least Blista Marburg was there to accept the medals for her team. So the association urgently needs to rethink this.

Blind football FC St. Pauli

Let's go back to blind football FC St. Pauli, because I would definitely like to highlight two players. Firstly, Philipp Versen, who has developed tremendously in recent years. At the Final four years ago He was still the terrier in defense who constantly kept Marburg's great strikers busy. This time he not only organized the defense well and gave the regular defense chief Rasmus Narjes the necessary attack role in the final, but he also launched many an attack himself. Respect for this achievement!

And for me, Rasmus Narjes is the second outstanding personality in the brown and white dress. Not only because, despite an early injury, he gritted his teeth in the game and tried everything to give the game a different twist. Unfortunately, more than two shots at the post and a missed eight-meter shot could not be recorded. But after the game, I watched him in all his glory as captain of the team. Actually really sad about the lost final, he encouraged his teammates for the next season and tried to rebuild them. I've never seen a person's facial expressions change so quickly between sadness and confidence. A great person! Get well soon, Rasmus!

The informed reader will be surprised that the name Jonathan Tönsing hasn't been mentioned yet. After the game, the regular striker from blind football FC St. Pauli was named the best player in the Bundesliga in the 2020 season. He was unable to take part in the final due to illness.

But you see that blind football is constantly happening at FC St. Pauli further developed and I am sure that the brown and white colors will play a good role again in the next Bundesliga season. And with Thoya Küster, the next young player with great potential is already in the starting blocks...

With this in mind, we sing a cheerful “Vice-Champion, Vice-Champion, hey, hey!”