After three times Song 3 last night, FC St. Pauli won its first Bundesliga game of the 2/2024 season at home in the Millerntor. The table neighbor from Kiel rarely found a solution against the clever and concentrated defense of the home team.
I sat in three layers of clothing at the 3:1 match between FC St. Pauli and Holstein Kiel in the Millerntor. With temperatures close to zero, it can get cold just on the sidelines. The temperatures were fine for me yesterday, but I had to warm up my lens close to my body every now and then so that it would work again.
Before the game, I met many people who were skeptical about the outcome. I too was concerned that, given the importance of a win at home against one of the only two teams ranked behind FCSP in the table, the brown and whites would be too offensive. After all, Kiel is known for quickly getting behind the last line and then being able to score. But the FC St. Pauli team was very focused and only let themselves be lured when the game was already over. Nikola Vasilj also made excellent saves yesterday.
So it was possible to celebrate a win in a Bundesliga home game after 12 weeks, even against 720 men on the pitch. Michael Frontzeck scored his last victory as coach of Borussia Mönchengladbach into unemployment.
As always, you will find Tim's eloquent analysis of the game in Millernton – along with a very nice caption for one of my pictures from yesterday.
Before the game, I spoke to Tim about the kick-off time and the effect it has on our biorhythms. So yesterday evening, the number three comes full circle. Because the kick-off at 20:30 p.m. means that for both of us, we won't be able to get to bed before three o'clock. There's too much going on in our heads. Years ago, I spoke to Fabian Boll about these kick-off times - back then, because of the unspeakable Monday night games. But he also said at the time that after games like that, he couldn't even think about getting a good night's sleep before three o'clock.