The Kimchi Chronicles: St Pauli vs Karlsruhe FC

Ground Number 178 (10th German): Millerntor-Stadion

FC St. Pauli 1-2 Karlsruhe SC

Friday 18th December 2015

2.Bundesliga

Attendance: 29,546

Admission: €28

Unlike in Britain, or indeed the majority of Western Europe countries, two-club cities in Germany are somewhat of an abnormality. In the few cities that feature two genuinely big clubs, such as Hamburg and Berlin, it is seldom that you'll ever find the eventuality of both teams competing at home on the same weekend. Thus the rarity of St Pauli and Hamburger SV both featuring over this pre-Christmas weekend, plus a host of other famous names in the German north - made this such a desirable destination for my first Germany visit in the festive period.

Sankt Pauli, as many of you will already be familiar with, are known for their cultist and punk-like persona embedded through its working-class image and built upon anti-fascist and left-wing politics, embodied by their adoption of the skull & crossbones as their unofficial emblem. Add in the centrist location of the city - right amidst the famous Reeperbahn and Red-light district, makes it such an appealing and hip club for many.

Despite the many admirable liberal stances that the club officially embodies - an openness of gay pride and tolerance, a welcomeness to refugees - I of course am a miserable, cynical bastard and would hold negative preconceptions of the club before visiting. I had heard stories from many who had previously visited the club whom say they are unwelcoming to visitors, are happy to fleece outsiders and that much of their persona is just typical ardent left-wing posturing and not belying of their true image. Having surveyed the costs of the ticket prices that fans were attempting to flog their unwanted ones for on online outlets - starting from four times the face-value - would suggest a contrarian reality to their communal left-wing image.

Fortunately myself and my brother were speedy enough to ensure we snapped up two of the few thousand remaining tickets that hadn't been initially snapped up by the clubs members, enabling us to get hold of tickets before travelling and not having to negotiate with touts on the evening - the game inevitably being a sell out with the club performing extremely well this season and featuring well within the promotion hunt.

We collected our tickets from the stadium early in the day to have a browse around the infamous Millternator-Stadion, a stadium undergone much renovation work in preceding years as its fanbase continues to accumulate in numbers. Navigating through a sea of caravans as you exit the S-Bahn stadium, it's an impressive ground with various cool fan-art graffiti upon the stand sides, contrasted to the facade of the uber-modernized South Stand complete with impressive glassed architecture.

Venturing inside the club shop you truly get a sense of just how ridiculously over commercialized and gimmicky the club is. The range of tat in there is absolutely insane. Don't get me wrong, I love football merchandise and felt right at home browsing in there - but again it completely contradicted their anti-conformity image.

We returned for the match several hours later, having immersed ourselves in the absolutely incredible Minitur Wunderland museum. I cannot stress just how fantastic that place is. If you're ever in Hamburg it really is an essentially visit.

Incredible miniature models of various European and World cities. The level of intricate detail is insane.

Like several other German football grounds, one of their areas where they lack efficiency is the queuing for turnstile entrance for the stadium. With several thousand people queuing for less than a dozen entrance points - where each spectator is given a full on body search, it becomes very crowded and claustropbic, and quite time consuming. Fortunately the vast amounts of geezers selling beer cans from trolleys taken straight out of the supermarkets make it less of a thirsty wait!

I have to say for all of my cynicism of Sankt Pauli, Millerntor truly is quite an awesome venue and very much idiosyncratic in its design since all its refitting. Three of the stands - including the North Stand, where we were sat - feature bottom tiered terracing with seating above. Despite the absence of corners it feels very much enclosed in and a very compact, cosy stadium.

However, its layout also contributes to a very disjointed (and rather disappointing - by German standards - at least) atmosphere. The main bulk of St Pauli ultras congregate in the smaller terrace tier of the opposite South Stand. They are constant and relentless in their efforts to maintain the noise of the stadium, but it very rarely replicated widely to all over areas of the stadium. And the larger seated tier above them appear to be the corporate, prawn-sandwich eating brigade of the ground, which contrasts sharply to the bouncing and eagerness of those below them.

Of course I am nitpicking - compared to the vast majority of UK grounds the atmosphere was fantastic - but I think as I'm starting to become more of a veteran to the Deutsch game it's fair to conclude the fanbase is somewhat overrated by the standards of the country. Maybe I'm just being an arsehole because I was distinctly unimpressed by their adaption of some chants that they have developed through their friendship with Celtic - the usage of "come on you boys in....." and "we love you" were very much not to my tasting.

Karlsruhe fans, however, were pretty excellent through the evening. I was told to expect not much greater than a few hundred but they appeared to sell out the terrace and most parts of the seating. To the far right of our stand however, it was hard to tell. And I think on the basis of most of the evening they probably just about deserved this crucial away win. Having struggled to make their mark this season since their agonizingly cruel play-off defeat to the vaster club of the Hamburg city, they've picked up in recent weeks and capitilized on the home side's slump in form.

St Pauli made the greater impression in the opening half hour, going close a couple of times before gaining the advantage near the half-hour mark. Having slumped off to the bogs to go for a piss and beer refuel (my bladder is normally respectable during a session but during this game I was that annoying cunt that needed to get off his seat twice in each half) I just about to manage to emerge from the staircase to watch the St Pauli footballer pick up a pass from 25 yards, shimmy, and then plant a ferocious curling shot from beyond the keeper's reach. My brother, buying my beer, managed to miss it!

Karlsruhe responded though and regained parity prior to the half-time whistle. Taking advantage of an excellent refereeing advantage, a smart passing move resulted in a precise cut-back, which was duly pelted into the roof of the net from close-range. Another decent goal. One all.

The manner of their winning goal midway through the second period totally contrasted to the neat visuals of the previous two net-bulgers. A lofted set-piece into the St Pauli box wasn't dealt with by any of their defenders who were completely AWOL to the situation, and the Karlsruhe attacker who was in front of the header across the goal contrived to hit the post from less than a yard out. He redeemed himself by poking the ball back across to a neighbouring player though, and despite being offside, he managed to just about a squeeze a back-heel over the line in one of the scruffiest goals I've seen in a long time.

St Pauli huffed and puffed in the later stages for an equalizer but failed to offer any clear-cut opportunities, however, it was Karlsruhe who had two golden chances to kill the game as they were intent to counter. A lack of composure and sound goalkeeping prevented them from having a less nervier ending to the game but in the end the one goal cushion was sufficient enough.

Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable start to the evening's drinking activities and indeed the three game weekend. It was awesome to be back among the German match day atmosphere even if I was less enamoured by St Pauli than I have been by other clubs. It's always sensory overload when you immerse yourself in all the quirks and peculiarities of their matchday out there. I fucking love it.