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Hamburg’s FC St. Pauli had to wait twelve matchdays until they scored their first goal at home last season. The then newly promoted Bundesliga outfit didn’t get a chance to celebrate a goal in front of their famous fans at the Millerntor until late November. After the 2024/25 Bundesliga campaign concluded, St. Pauli actually tied the infamous Tasmania Berlin for the worst home goal-scoring-record in a single season.
Some difference a new year can make. After storming back to draw Borussia Dortmund 3-3 in a thrilling encounter at the Millerntor on Saturday night, Hamburg’s Kiezkicker have now matched their November hoe goal-scoring-total in August. The much improved performance of the “Boys in Brown” owes much to a totally new ensemble of professionals acquired this summer who managed to gel in training camp.
Five of the 10 outfielders in head coach Alexander Blessin’s starting XI were brought in over the course of the summer. In a sense – due to the fact that he missed most of last spring with injury – American midfielder James Sands technically counts as a new addition as well. Joel Chima Fujita, Louis Oppie, Andréas Hountondji, Mathias Pereira Lage, and Arkadiusz Pyrka are all fresh arrivals who were featuring in their first Bundesliga game.
Central defender Hauke Wahl – who is entering his third season with the Hanseatic city state club – made clear that he felt very optimistic about the new season when speaking in the mixed zone on Saturday night. The 31-year-old Hamburg-native had to wait ten years after the start of his career and cycle through four other German clubs before he finally got a chance to work with one of his hometown clubs.
Wahl commented on the new arrivals.
“Our new players now know how the Millerntor rocks,” Wahl said. “It’s really important that they experience that firsthand. Now, after this game, we have the feeling that we can all celebrate success together.”
“We didn’t score three goals many times last season,” Wahl also gleefully noted. “And we didn’t come back from behind during the whole of the first half of last season.“
GGFN | Peter Weis
