German Cup: Holders Dortmund ousted by St Pauli
January 18, 2022
St Pauli 2-1 Borussia Dortmund, Millerntor-Stadion
(Amenyido 4', Witsel o.g. 40' – Haaland pen 58')
For Borussia Dortmund, this is yet another extreme event in a season of lofty peaks and deep troughs. Four days on from their 5-1 crushing of Freiburg in the Bundesliga, one could be forgiven for expecting a better version of Dortmund than this.
On the night, Marco Rose's side were comfortably outsmarted by a team a full division their junior, their title defense unceremoniously ended in Hamburg and, with Bayern already out, Dortmund's best chance of silverware slips away.
"Today was a bad day, we just woke up too late," a shell-shocked Marco Reus told German broadcaster ARD after the game. "St. Pauli did well, but it's very bitter for us that we're out. We have to now have to let it sink in. In any case, we missed a huge opportunity to win the cup again," the captain added.
St Pauli played with panache for the entire 90 minutes. While they came into this game without a win in their previous three, they still lead the second flight by a point as they enjoy a fine season that has them close enough to the Bundesliga to be able to peer over the wall and look in.
An inner steeliness runs through this St Pauli team, even if energy levels waned in the final 25 minutes. Without the ball, St Pauli shrunk into a compact and resilient unit, and with the ball they were vivid and expressive. It was pure graft that got St Pauli over the line though.
St Pauli keep Haaland at bay
Their intention to dig deep and then flood forward in numbers, overwhelming Dortmund on the counter-attack, worked a treat. The lead was theirs in the fourth minute when Etienne Amenyido rode his luck but crucially kept his composure in front of goal.
St Pauli managed to keep Erling Haaland largely at bay in open play, and by the time they had doubled their advantage via an Axel Witsel own goal shortly before half time, St Pauli were on course for a famous victory. Notwithstanding a second half Haaland penalty, which created the platform for a Dortmund comeback that failed to materialize.
Perhaps most impressively, St Pauli did this without their inspirational attacking midfielder, Daniel-Kofi Kyereh. The Ghanaian is at the AFCON, but St Pauli didn't play like a team missing its best player – testament to the robustness of St Pauli's strategy implemented by coach Timo Schulz.
HSV send Cologne packing
On a night to remember for the two biggest clubs in Germany's second-largest city, Hamburg tasted victory against Bundesliga opposition in the German Cup too. Although they were made to work for it, prevailing after extra time in a shootout.
After a goalless 90 minutes, Hamburg took the lead early in extra time through Robert Glatzel, only for Cologne's Anthony Modeste to level with a penalty in the final minute of extra time.
In a shootout that saw the pendulum swing one way then the other, Hamburg won the shootout 4-3, with Salih Özcan and Florian Kainz missing for Cologne.
In the night's other German Cup games, Bochum roared back to knock out Mainz 3-1 and Karlsruhe edged out 1860 Munich 0-1.