Often sung in the stadium, rarely successful - but on the last Saturday in October, FC St. Pauli once again became German champions in blind football. Congratulations to the whole team on this fantastic 2021 season! After four years in a row at first place in the table, they have now won their second championship after 2017. Unfortunately, the last three years there have always been defeats in the final, but this year there were no such defeats - or at least there were. In the last game of the season, the two finalists from last year met again. FC St. Pauli had a slight advantage because they had just as many points in the table before the game as MTV Stuttgart, but had scored significantly more goals so far. Ultimately, that didn't matter because FC St. Pauli ended the 2021 season as the only team in the Bundesliga without a defeat. You can't become a champion more deservingly!
The first and last matchdays of the Blind Football Bundesliga always take place as city matchdays in a city center. This time the final of the championship took place in the middle of the Münsterplatz in Bonn. This was very well received by the audience. The two stands were well filled and there were a lot of people around the field who followed the events on the field with great interest. Even if not everyone immediately understood what was actually happening on the artificial green. At some point a couple was standing next to me and I noticed in their conversation that they initially assumed it was virtual reality football. After all, the players wear these typical VR glasses. Only when one of the two took a closer look because she didn't recognize the brand of the glasses did I enlighten her. However, my impression was that they understood even less afterwards.
It is not easy for people who are new to this great sport to understand how blind football can actually work. Anyone with a stubbed toe in the dark knows what I mean. The many good actions on the pitch made the admiration of the audience audible. Often enough, the stadium announcer had to ask those present to be quiet.
The game for the championship itself is quickly over thanks to a unified team performance by the brown and white team who competed in gray DFB Cup. After the obligatory nervous opening minutes with several good chances on the side of the opponent MTV Stuttgart, the game shifted more and more into the opponent's half of the game. A tactical masterpiece, because Stuttgart would have had to score goals to become champions, but of course that only works if you get close to the St. Pauli goal guarded by Matze Gutzmann. There were chances, but overall not enough to take control of the game. Everything is completely different than that last year.
Five minutes before the end of the game, FC St. Pauli was rightly awarded a penalty kick. Jonathan Tönsing confidently converted the required shot into the 1-0 winning goal. Jonathan increased his goal tally to 31 this season. An astonishing rate in just 7 games. He took top scorer and was named best player of the season.
Before I show you a few more pictures, here are a few comments about the surroundings. Completely surprisingly, it gets dark earlier in Germany in winter. If a game doesn't kick off until shortly before 17 p.m., no one should be surprised if blind football becomes difficult for the sighted to follow. For example, the game action above was taken in the middle of the second half and I am glad that there are now cameras on the market where ISO 12500 is still presentable. The penalty shot image in the gallery from shortly before the end of the game was taken at ISO 50000. (Not a typo!) It's good that the Leica SL2-S is one of the best cameras on the market for these high ISO values. The highlight of the organizational talent was turning on additional light for the award ceremony, but using it as backlighting. Good thing I packed a flash...
The 2022 season will definitely be just as exciting again...
Winning the championship under the eyes of Beethoven and celebrating it under the flag of the Blaubären (FC St.Pauli fan club Käptn Blaubär Bonn) is something special. The Münsterplatz was a good place for our blind footballers. And it was to be expected that the photos would be of the finest quality. Nice report, expressive photos and the result… everything fits together.
Photographing great sports isn't difficult!
Hello little comment on the top photo in which Vedat [MTV Stuttgart] Joni [FCSP] slides away and hits the ball.
Sliding is prohibited in blind football in the same way, or should be even more strictly prohibited than it is already stipulated in the rules of the parent sport, futsal.
If the player [V or
The player who can hear the ball can hit the ball, but not the opponent's foot because it has no rattle. There can never be a fair tackle in blind football, there is no moment of a fair tackle.
I'm with you 100%. The caption is written more for the non-experts 😉