The FC St. Pauli coach was deceived by his gut feeling. Alexander Blessin seemed dejected at an advanced hour, shortly before Friday evening turned into Saturday. Time was of the essence: he urgently needed to eat something before the team bus left the Dortmund football temple. He didn’t want to set off on an empty stomach when he and his team had to start the journey home empty-handed.
“We are very, very sad that we are going home without a point,” confessed the coach after the unfortunate 2-1 defeat at Borussia Dortmund, the home team in the league with now four wins from four games and 12-5 goals. Missed a surprise, reward too, topping up the modest points account anyway.
Blessin: “We actually had a point in our hands”
The Kiezkickers were on the verge of stealing the first home points from the favored BVB in the Signal Iduna Park and getting a point themselves that would have felt like a victory, and that after Eric Smith’s dream goal made it 1-1 in the 78th minute seemed within reach. Even closer for Blessin.
“After the 1-1 draw, I thought, wow, we’ll take the point,” admitted the 51-year-old, because his team “actually had a point in hand shortly before the end,” or at least it felt like it.
You might also be interested in: St. Pauli grades in Dortmund: Some strong neighborhood players – others fell away
Error. The feeling is deceptive. Five minutes later BVB had hit back, with the brutal individual quality of Serhou Guirassy, whom Blessin described as “an incredible striker with a leaping power”. He headed it in to make it 2-1 and thus snatched the point from St. Pauli’s hands. Bitter.
Conceding a goal by Guirassy annoys St. Pauli’s coach
Blessin was annoyed by the goal conceded, especially the way it was created. “At 2-1 we can manage the situation better by doubling up on the outside,” said the coach. Not only Adam Dzwigala, who had just substituted for Manolis Saliakas, would have had to defend against the flanking BVB turbo Jamie Gittens, which was not successful enough, but winger Scott Banks, who was also substituted, could have “gone a little deeper” and supported, explained the coach . And his team could have solved the subsequent situation in the center with the high ball and immediately before Guirassy’s header better. Subjunctive.
The result caused frustration, but “we are very, very satisfied with the performance and the team’s performance,” said Blessin. Alone: There are no points for this. And St. Pauli needs that.
