On Friday, the derby is back in Hamburg. It’s part of the deal that in the city almost everyone has an opinion, whether they usually care very much about football or not. There’s speculation, hope, and worry—and perhaps only about whether the whole event will at least take place peacefully.
And of course the familiar tale is invoked again—the distant one, with the names of legends, known mainly to football historians apart from Uwe Seeler. And the nearer one. The latter speaks for FC St. Pauli: since 2019 they have left the pitch victorious six times, HSV only three times.
And last August, in the first top-flight clash since HSV’s relegation in 2018, the men from the district club virtually humiliated their big neighbor in the Volksparkstadion. The fact that the scoreboard finally read 0-2 at the end was only due to St. Pauli’s poor finishing. Against the seemingly demoralized promoted HSV, the FC St. Pauli, promoted a year earlier, looked like an established Bundesliga team. Not a few people at the time thought the balance of power in the city had finally tipped; HSV was regarded as a hot candidate for direct relegation again.
What many had overlooked: St. Pauli had started as a well-drilled team, having undergone only point-by-point changes and had trained together for weeks. The HSV, by contrast, was still in the middle of a total overhaul, tactically and personnel-wise. The possession-oriented attacking football from the second-division days was supposed to give way to a more defensive approach against stronger first-division teams. The personnel needed for that was partly not yet signed. Sambi Lokonga or Fábio Vieira, for instance, arrived only after the derby from Arsenal. The loaned Luka Vušković from Tottenham, now one of the league’s best centre-backs, had just arrived and was not yet ready to play. All three have since become key players.
Roles Reversed Compared to the First Leg
Five months later, a completely different picture emerges compared to the early phase of the season: St. Pauli’s run of success was snapped just two games later; it was followed by a Bundesliga record of ten defeats in a row; last matchday they even dropped to the bottom of the table.
Nor are the prospects particularly rosy: The temporary stabilization with three games without defeat coincided not only with the return of a player who had seemed written off: captain Jackson Irvine had been out for months with a stress reaction in his foot and instead made headlines with solidarity messages for Palestine. The club issued harsh accusations.
HSV fans have taken a political stance in the Kuntz case, as one would expect from the Ultras of FC St. Pauli.
In central midfield, there suddenly seemed to be no place for the Australian either, even transfer rumors circulated. But exactly as manager Alexander Blessin restructured the system for his captain, things started to improve again — also due to the energy he brings to the pitch and thus rallies his teammates. Now the old injury has flared up again and Irvine is out for a long time once more. Since then, St. Pauli has not earned a single point. Against a potential relegation rival like HSV, that would be practically mandatory.
St. Pauli is currently seeking a replacement for Irvine, but after the similarly lengthy injury of striker Andréas Hountondji they also need to strengthen the attack. Both together could financially overburden the club.
Kuntz Affair Shakes HSV
HSV, by contrast, has stabilized economically and sports-wise and is a force especially at their home ground Volkspark. The young coach Merlin Polzin has formed an amazingly compact team that sits 14th in the table. Reason enough to approach Millerntor with confidence—on paper, at least. It would shake the club if not for the affair surrounding the recently departed sporting director Stefan Kuntz, who had long been regarded as one of the fathers of the club’s success.
The HSV and Kuntz had parted ways shortly before the turn of the year, allegedly amicably and for “personal-family” reasons. In the meantime, Bild has uncovered what lies behind it: serious accusations against Kuntz. He is said to have behaved sexually toward female colleagues inappropriately. Kuntz denies this, which prompted HSV to issue an unusually explicit statement. The club has since consulted specialist lawyers and believes the accounts of the affected employees are credible.
The fans appear to share this view as well. At the last home game against Borussia Mönchengladbach, they displayed full-width banners with the text “Whether in the block or in the boardroom: No room for assaults in our club – solidarity with all affected HSV employees!”. A clear position with a political turn beyond the individual case, as one would know from FC St. Pauli’s ultras, though not standard for HSV. In this respect too, HSV seems to have caught up with the city rival.
