Three chances, three misses, one exit
Martijn Kaars will replay this evening for a while. Free in front of an empty Essen net on 19 minutes, leaning back, over the bar. Ten metres out on 31 minutes, over the bar again. Two minutes into first-half stoppage time, another look, another miss.
St. Pauli lost 2-0 at Rot-Weiss Essen in the first round of the German Cup, and the margin between a third-division side and a club that started last season in the Bundesliga came down to who put their chances away.
Essen needed two attempts and took the second. Marek Janssen was denied by Ben Voll on 33 minutes, then headed in from close range three minutes later. Branimir Hrgota had the equaliser on his boot before the break and did not find it.
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Telalovic settles it early in the second half
Samir Telalovic removed the doubt eight minutes after the restart. A drilled ball from 13 metres, into the top corner, 2-0. St. Pauli had 37 minutes to respond to a team two divisions below them and never looked like doing it.
Essen sit in the 3. Liga now, but the Hafenstrasse has history in this competition. The club lifted the German Cup in 1953, three years before St. Pauli’s first season in the top flight. Sunday’s crowd got a version of that afternoon at a fraction of the budget.
A bad Sunday for the relegated
St. Pauli are the second club relegated from the Bundesliga to go out today. Heidenheim lost 5-2 in Oldenburg to fourth-tier Jeddeloh earlier, which makes two former top-flight sides eliminated by clubs from the third division or below within nine hours.
The favourites who did their job did it properly. Freiburg won 5-1 at Fortuna Duesseldorf, with Igor Matanovic scoring twice off the bench. Paderborn had more trouble than the scoreline suggests at fourth-tier Phoenix Luebeck, leading 2-1 at the break before finishing 4-2.
St. Pauli’s second-division season starts in a few days with one competition already gone and a striker who missed three of them at Essen.
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