After a weekend devoted to celebrating the things Detroit City FC and FC St. Pauli have in common, tonight’s match – a 6-2 runout in favor of the visitors, played in front of a packed, pulsating crowd of more than 7.300 at Keyworth Stadium – provided a vivid reminder of how much more is possible for our beloved Detroit City.
The game began under light rain, with Northern Guard cranking up the “City makes me wet!” chant during warmups. The Germans’ quality on the ball was immediately apparent, as they sliced through a makeshift Le Rouge defense with startling ease, the timing and purpose of their runs leaving the hosts grasping at nothing.
“We got way better in the second half,” Ben Pirmann said. “We’ve just got to keep building. … Now we’ve got four days to prepare for a double [game] weekend.
“Now every focus is on the league. We focus on one league game at a time, and that starts with good training. That’s what we’re doing this week.”
But it was our City who opened the scoring in the 8th minute, when George Chomakov stepped in front of a pass in midfield and played a perfect through-ball into the left channel for either Brogan Shrimpton or Trevor Amann to run onto. Amann got there first, hacking a diffident shot at the keeper, then following his rebound in to finish on the second attempt.
After a brief, five-minute period of City control following the goal, the remainder of the first half was all St. Pauli. The near misses and close calls piled up, the pressure ratcheting higher and higher, before the dam finally broke in the 21st minute. FCSP winger Sami Allagui found himself in acres of space on the City left. Shifting the ball to his right foot and moving laterally across the zone, he used two back-post runs to clear space before calling his own number, stroking a strong finish to the back post to level the game.
Then, the deluge. St. Pauli’s obvious edge in quality was underlined cruelly by the second goal, a perfectly-struck side-volley by Seungwon Lee directly off a corner kick: 1-2, FCSP, 28th minute. Allagui did his put-the-ball-on-his-right-foot-and-drift-in-from-the-left trick again: 1-3, FCSP, 32nd minute. Marcell Sobota finishing with clinical precision to the back post after a short counter: 1-4 FCSP, 53rd minute. Dimitrious Diamantakos, clipping a finish past a diving Fernando Pina after another midfield turnover: 1-5 FCSP, 66th minute.
“They were very technical, very calm,” Pirmann said. “We exposed them a few times, obviously they exposed us plenty of times. I wasn’t surprised by the gap of ability, but I was a little surprised at our lack of cohesion.”
Rafa Mentzingen kept the second half – which was actually played on a much more even basis than the first, after the inclusion at halftime of much of the Le Rouge starting XI – from appearing more lopsided than it was. The chance came from the same situation that generated most of St. Pauli’s goals, as City jumped on a poor touch in midfield to claim the ball. Mentzingen, tracking back to receive a sharp entry pass, played himself in behind the hard-challenging defender, then steadied himself and finished calmly to make the score 2-5.
Detroit City (0-0-1) returns to NPSL play Friday, when they host new side FC Columbus. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. at Keyworth Stadium. Tickets are available at tickets.https://www.detcityfc.com.
International friendly: DETROIT CITY FC 2, FC ST. PAULI 6
DCFC 1 1 – 2
FCSP 3 3 – 6
Goals: DCFC – Amann 8’, Mentzingen 85’. FCSP – Allagui 21’, 32’, Lee 28’, 88’, Sobota 53’, Diamantakos 66’.
Shots: DCFC 14, FCSP 20.
Shots on goal: DCFC 10, FCSP 14.
Saves: DCFC 8 (Steinwascher 3, Pina 5), FCSP 8 (Heerwagen 2, Himmelmann 6)
Fouls: DCFC 5, FCSP 7.
Corners: DCFC 1, FCSP 6.
Discipline – DCFC: Caution, Edwardson 43’. FCSP:
Detroit City (4-2-3-1): Steinwascher (Pina 45’); Bentley (Williams 45’), Fiscus (Brazil 30’), Stephens (Miller 42’), Busaidy (Sinclair 45’); Chomakov (Moyes 45’), Centala; Amann (Gatt 45’), Saydee (Edwardson 42’), Green (Mentzingen 45’); Shrimpton (Lawson 45’).
