FCSP Athens South End Scum

…and they lived happily ever after 🙂

Important note: the following had been already completed in terms of text before today’s news break out, has been intentionally left in its original form, too complex to rewrite the end, let it be a witness of our yesterday’s agonies about “tomorrow” 😀

End of the road in real style for both squad and fanbase 🙂 Big performance inside, big party with more than 4.500 brown white wackos participating on the terraces, insanity at its best 😀 Absolutely deserved ending for one of the most soul exhausting seasons that we have lived the past years, comparable only with the 2014-15 drama and a weekend to remember smiling in the years to come. For anybody interested in numbers, we won 1-3 🙂

 

Saturday: Clash of the Titans at Feldarena 😀

This time, weekend wasn’t only about the pros, there were some unfinished business to be settled at Feldarena 😀 The rematch of last year’s massacre between FC Lampedusa St. Pauli (still Lampedusa Hamburg then 🙂 ) and Yorkshire St. Pauli (10-1 for FCL, pure bloodfeast, the gory details can be found here 😀 ) had already been arranged some months ago. Aim for the YSP crew this time? Simply leave with a less humilating score than last year and the odds were actually looking good, something that could be figured out already from the warm up, especially for someone who watched the same routine last year 😀 Instead of 3 guys in the pitch 15′ before the warmup (one of them drunk, guss who 😉 ) and the rest changing in the train on the way (all together unable to form a starting XI), there was a) a good crowd of people in the pitch, this time we could even afford the luxury of a full bench 😀 and b) a proper goalkeeper in the form of Siri, a fine Ragazzi young lady sitting under the goal posts 🙂 A really fancy and funny looking mix of boys and girls (3 of them in total) from Yorkshire, Glasgow, Manchester, Hamburg and Athens against the one year older and much more experienced Lampedusa crew, anything could happen. Of course “anything” refers exclusively to the number of goals that we were about to concede, a harvest of 5 was sounding good enough 😀

Things actually turned out better than we ever imagined. Lost ONLY 3-0 (!!!), a score that actually refers to a normal football game 🙂 Three the main factors that contributed to the huge success:

a) Of course, our seriously reinforced, comparing to last years dramatic situation, personnel!

b) The extreme respect that we were treated with by FC Lampedusa 😀 I suppose that the pre-game motivational speech in the dressing rooms went like “alright boys, chill out a little, YSP are friends, they are coming every year, take it easy, treat them politely and DO NOT destroy them like last year”. The Lampedusa boys did everything they could (it’s actually hard to walk when you are used to fly 😉 ) and, if wasn’t for factor c, score would end really close to my prediction 🙂

c) The Ref!!! A real good guy and a true humanitarian, converted a small disgrace to an honorable defeat!!! A guy running the game based on the spirit and not the letter of the law! Best moment, the red card handball on our line that was awarded… out of bounds, with me looking at the bench with a “did you see that????” idiot face, while the extremely subdued protests of our opponents could easily raise suspicions for match fixing 😀 Felt my obligation to personally thank the man on full-time… for everything 😀

Squad entrance 😀

Apparently, no further analysis needed for the match. After some post game chillin’ out, the entire bunch moved towards the Museum Bar (where else?) for a couple of extra hours of quality time. Sönke and Thomas in charge of the bar (always there for such kind of “duties”, thanks both guys!) for the 2nd (and less painful for us 🙂 ) part of the evening – finally the chance to chat/exchange news with old friends and meet new ones – and there were actually a lot, especially from Glasgow and Manchester. A cheerful multinational and multicultural bunch discussing football, expectations, hopes, etc, etc – fuck me, can’t think of anything better for Saturday afternoon 🙂

Conclusions? Two actually.

a) I’m getting old 😀 This can be verified both via hard facts (team sheet was including ages, this was a devastating blow) and comments regarding my performance both in (“You would make a good footballer in slow motion”) and out (“Shit Greg, you don’t drink, that’s dissapointing, have heard impressive stories about you” – cheers Jo 😀 😀 😀 ) of the pitch. However, like an old fuck in love with some 50 years younger girl, I have the feeling that I’m just getting hot here, so there’s no way to miss next year’s appointment and broaden my “oldest crawling fuck” record 😉

b) FC Lampedusa is growing up 🙂 Will not use space, repeating words from last year or even getting into what FC Lampedusa is about, if unaware, go do your homework ^^, will just stick to one thing. Despite the ongoing “difficulties” (a quite kind term to describe problems that really fuck up your life and you didn’t deserve – not all boys from last season were there…), they are still here to play, stronger than ever 🙂 Squad has somehow “secured” status (adopted by FCSP, jersey sponsor (!!! Café Exil, thumbs up!)) and, considering the fact that at the end of the afternoon we were already discussing next year’s match, they plan to be around for sometime 🙂 A deep bow once more to the entire coaching crew (you all ladies rule!) and everybody playing a supporting role for FCL. Will be a real privilege to be able to participate again and having the honor of meeting all of them – seems like matchday 34 will turn to a fixed annual appointment 🙂

To anybody about to travel to HH who hasn’t yet a detail knowledge of what FC Lampedusa is about: get involved, visit their merchandise desk outside Millerntor every home match, get to know what they are about. Not just worthy, it’s something “mandatory” for everyone who knows why (s)he travels over there. Do that – some of you may even reexamine certain views on football 😉

Below you can find a few pictures from the day, thanks to Kleiner Tod and Scott for sharing 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday: on the way!

Having already learned my valuable lessons from Sonderzug 2014, played chicken on Saturday night in order to be “militant” on Sunday morning, so no problems getting on time for the 9:01 train. No Sonderzug for the old Scum after having been among the losers of the draw for the limited tickets that we managed to get, still this had a few advantages. First of all, later departure time (Sonderzug was supposed to leave 7:40, left however with 20′ delay) and second, the more “relaxed” conditions comparing to the morning Sonderzug madness that was already talking place 🙂 After all, even the regular train wasn’t a completely normal train, couldn’t be with so many people wearing brown white inside 😉

Smooth and funny ride, among good people, finally at Bochum around 12:30. Some 30′-40′ (I suppose so, I actually have no idea, wasn’t giving a fuck, tbh) wait for our Sonderzug comrades and all together (under a strong police escort, perhaps related with some “isolated incidents” in town the previous night 😉 ) march through tiny (and actually pretty) Bochum towards Vonovia Ruhrstadion. A both militant and happy at the same time parade, strong cheerful chanting along the way (would become even better inside) and some really beautiful moments with families (some of them refugee ones) getting out to windows and balconies and exchanging greetings with the happy passing mob below, under an unusual for Germany majestic Sun. Hell yeah, this is like how end of season should be – cheerful, carefree, just having clean & good fun, good thing that we managed to get out of shit’s creek in time 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick, succesful check with the crew, watching the game at Soridon, that everything is OK with the screening technical details and finally inside. A big corner of the stadium, occupying multiple times the space of the standing guest block, full of FCSP fans, lots of familiar faces, no pregame boredom 🙂 Stadium also full, absolutely sporting atmosphere, warm up, a young Bochum lad in the pitch, having his 6th birthday ( 🙂 ) and predicting a 6-0 Bochum win ( 😀 ), some festivities to honor the 1996-97 Bochum squad that made it to UEFA Cup and off we go for the last time this season!

Slowly getting in order ^^

Warming up

The game

Game on and the early slap in the ear ^^ 1-0 for Bochum on 7′, Gündüz the scorer, with a free 15m shot, having actually no FCSP player in range less than 4m while inside the box, cute… Instant blackout from the (recent) past for FCSP and almost the 2nd for Bochum on 9′ but Heerwagen saved the day (wouldn’t look good trailing 2 goals before 10′) by repelling a close (5-6m) but acute-angled Bastians shot… The worst passed, squad snapped out, the brown white corner never stopped supporting anyway and soon enough balance returned in the pitch. Soon enough the first Hornschuh warning shot (21′, Riemann blocked) and almost immediately afterwards (23′) the equalizer for FCSP 🙂 Bouhaddouz the cross and… Lennart Thy the finish, his first goal, on his last loan period FCSP game, couldn’t get better than that!!! Premature end of season for Ziereis, out on 31′ (Kalla in) after being injured on 26′ due to an excessive Mlapa shoulder push. Not aware of the extent of his injury yet, latest official news as we speak here, get well soon Philipp, fuck off Mlapa… Nevertheless, game was smelling Sankt Pauli and on 36′ we almost did it but Riemann dived to Hell (to his low right corner actually) to save Nehrig’s killer header, result of well-weighed Flum ball towards the heart of the box, ARGH!!! Cool pace until the end of the half, even better the situation in the partying guest section and HT 1-1 with FCSP having returned from behind and leaving promises of even better things in view of the 2nd ^^

Game on in the 2nd half with a 10′ waiting period before the start of the party whose beginning was declared by Sobiech on 55′. Miyaichi corner from the left, Lasse header above anyone from the heart of the box, there you got it. The away sector, having already started warming up from half time, went fuckin’ wild!!! Chanting and shouting never stopped from this point, not even after full time and we’re not talking about the always loyal USP here, we’re talking almost 5.000 people – SIMPLY LOVELY 😀 Balanced game in the pitch but without big moments for the next 20′, with most notable moment a Bouhaddouz shot on 63′, safely into the grasp or Riemann. Bochum never quitted the match and after a couple of visits came incredibly close on 80′ when an unsuccessful exit attempt from Heerwagen resulted to a crazy pinball with human bodies as obstacles which ended right on our line with Kalla sending the ball as far from the posts as possible – AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Short period of alert ended officially on 86′ thanks again to Lennart Thy ( 🙂 ) who got the ball from Bouhaddouz, screwed things up temporarily ( 😀 ), only to adjust and finish the job from the edge of the box immediately afterwards 🙂

2 farewell goals from Lennart on his last game. Of course, everybody knows that they were also the only ones, You know something? It doesn’t matter 🙂 Maybe it would matter if we were in Liga 3 by now but we’re not. So, goodbye once more Lennart and we want to see you doing it like Kruse next season, get back with a vengeance and do it right. Thank you 🙂

Last moment of the game was a Heerwagen save to corner on 87′, responding to a Hoogland 20m shot. Although there was some injury time to be played, ref didn’t really bother. Like an elementary school teacher, ringing the last bell of the season slightly prematurely, he whistled for the last time exactly on 90′, sending both squads (after the post game circle of course 🙂 ), towards the fan blocks to celebrate with everybody the happy season ending. Naturally our celebrations were much louder and lasted much longer – in fact they lasted a few hours more, approximately until 23:00 when Sonderzug arrived to Hamburg 😉

Not ashamed to tell, after 1-3 and until the end of the game while everybody around was going crazy, up to their feet, I went quite sentimental inside. Yeah, alright, happens to everybody all the time, I know but I was considering myself enough of a tough bastard, at least tougher than I felt when the entire season and all the feelings experienced along the way passed again in front of me, like a fuckin’ movie (cliché but true), during these last 3 minutes… Good thing that I still have no trouble looking like a bad bastard outside and also good that I’m not the only one going soft, as I had the chance to find out later in the evening – it’s not us, IT’S FCSP 😉

No further match commentary this time, general stuff at the end of the piece 😉

Line Up:

Heerwagen

Hornschuh  Ziereis (Kalla 31′)  Sobiech  Gonther

    Nehrig     Flum

   Miyaichi (Neudecker 69′)                           Buballa

       Thy  Bouhaddouz

Match goals:

Sankt Pauli cards: Kalla(1), Gonther(1 but we don’t care ^^), Neudecker(3)

Game over, look at this 🙂

Further reading:

• Kicker (German)
• Official website
• Official website photo gallery (the German report version actually but photos only here)
• Nice Guys Sankt Pauli (German)
• St. Pauli Athens Club (Greek)
• USP Photo Gallery
• Der Übersteiger (German)
• Magischer FC (German)
• Outside Left

 

On the way back (BONUS: Sonderzug)

At the station, having said goodbyes/renewed appointments with the Sonderzug pals who were about to leave in 2′, supposed to leave after some 45′, with the morning crew, using regular train. While a guy of ours has left the station, with his phone out of battery, in search of train beer, I suddenly see Nick with a panicking face, holding a bunch of Sonderzug cards in his right hand, “Tickets for everyone, RUN to Dock 2 NOW!”. PANIC, everybody at the dock, train engine having already started, Niklas (on Fanladen duty), pushing me in saying “it’s leaving Greg” while Thomas (same Thomas from Saturday 😉 ) shouts that Charlie (the beer man) is still not here. Of course, we’re not about to leave without him and for some 10″, you have 3-4 people hanging from wagon doors waiting to rush in or jump out as soon as the train starts moving. Finally my favorite Glasgow bawbag (the beer men, get it roon ye Charlie😀 ) arrives, juuuust in time for departure – JACKPOT!

The way back? All the finest, half of them in shitty jerseys ( 😀 ), together in the same train. Among them, some that haven’t been seen for a long time, some others that just couldn’t be traced before, I think that I spotted even Oke (the President dummy 😀 ) at some point, moving rapidly with a bottle in hand, in a (shitty I suppose) goalkeeper jersey as well 😀 Lots of exotic drinks to try, lots of people wasted sleeping around in every posture possible and a real Inferno in the party wagon that, unlike 2014, I failed miserably to survive in for more than 10′, retreating immediately towards the front and adding another bullet in the “you’re getting old” list of arguments 😀 Overall, 1910% quality time, Sonderzug as usual, only a little shorter this time as return route was proven much faster. First round of farewells at Hauptbahnhof and then off to Altona to unload, do the 2nd round of goodbyes and to escort valuable stuff to the stadium, Epilogue, somewhere at the back of the Jolly, sharing the last rounds of drinks with old friend Thimo, both practically unable to move and speak, fair enough 🙂

PS: Viertel gentrification update. Not sure when exactly happened but when passing one afternoon outside the historic Schlemmereck, found out that it’s not there anymore… A Mexican restaurant stands on its place…

A few last words on the season

Too tired to go all over it again, even in brief. For anybody interested in a full season review, we already made a premature one (and actually quite extensive ^^) for the latest edition of Weiße Rose, will stick for a moment on what has happened since then. Cenk Sahin already got for good on board (4 MORE YEARS! 4 MORE YEARS!), Sami Allagui arrived at Millerntor from Hertha and, as these lines are written, Möller Daehli extended his loan deal for one more year (details here, YEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!). In a few words, things when coming to squad reinforcement look really good. Still, this is not enough (at least sentimentally 😉 ). I may be paranoid but, during the post game celebrations, noticed Ewald Lienen pointing continuously towards his assistant, Olaf Janßen who arrived last November from Stuttgart. Have already read rumors that he’s supposed to be Ewald’s successor on FCSP bench. Tbh, I have no opinion on this, in fact, if Ewald believes that he’s the right one, he’s more than welcome to be. Still, this is not the point here. The point is that Ewald is only 64 (not too old for a coach) and he still has a lot of pages to write in the FCSP book. From this point of view, I’d like to believe that Sunday’s body language was a deserved sign of appreciation towards Olaf Janßen but nothing more for the moment. One way or another, season is just over, let’s just wait and see and what Summer brings along. Full stop for now to an amazing season, with FCSP ending up 7th (!!!!!!) in the League. Time for everybody to relax, we won’t close the store but we’ll also take it somewhat slow from here, after all it was an exhausting reason for us as well 😉

SOUTH END SCUM OFFICIALLY DECLARES THE END OF THE SEASON, HAPPY HOLIDAYS BOYS AND GIRLS 😉

PS: Almost forgot! H$V also saved, even on the very last moment of the regular season – to be continued… 😉