Gladbach’s 2-0 win against St. Pauli: “And then Stögi hits someone like that”

Kevin Stöger practiced free kicks during training during the week. In football, free kicks are considered an effective means of getting a ball into the goal without too much interaction from the opponent. Stöger’s team Borussia Mönchengladbach had not used this tool at all this season. Gladbach was actually the only team in the Bundesliga that hadn’t scored a single goal from outside the penalty area this season. See you Friday evening.

Stöger’s free kicks in training didn’t really convey much hope. “They were bottomless, a catastrophe,” Stöger reported dryly late on Friday evening, after his Borussia had recently won 2-0 (1-0) against FC St. Pauli because Stöger had hammered a free kick from 25 meters into the top left corner of the St. Pauli goal in the 14th minute. It wasn’t bottomless. That wasn’t a catastrophe. That was a dream goal.

Afterwards, Gladbach’s sports director Rouven Schröder classified the importance of this set-piece goal in the poor overall playing context as follows: “We got into the game well, but we didn’t have great chances, we let up a bit – and then Stögi hits one of them.”

The “Stögi” played his 200th Bundesliga game on Friday evening and scored his 21st Bundesliga goal. It was a particularly important one for Gladbach because the win allowed the club to increase its lead over the relegation places a bit. The Austrian scored a similarly important goal for VfL Bochum on May 27, 2024, when the Revierklub was able to secure relegation in the Bundesliga in the relegation second leg at Fortuna Düsseldorf. When it comes to relegation, Stöger likes to strike.

Borussia Mönchengladbach had not converted a direct free kick for more than five years. The last Gladbacher to achieve this was Lars Stindl. On December 15, 2020, in a 3-3 draw in the away game at Eintracht Frankfurt, the then captain gave Borussia a 1-0 lead.

Lars Stindl last scored a Gladbach free kick goal – a long time ago

The Frenchman Franck Honorat secured victory against St. Pauli on Friday evening with his goal to make it 2-0 in the 62nd minute. Some observers saw the success as a huge relief in the relegation battle. Not so the sports director Schröder. “Liberation strike? I don’t really know,” said the 50-year-old Sauerlander with a frown in the Sportschau interview afterwards and, to justify his doubts, described the great density and tension in the lower half of the Bundesliga table. “You can’t be too sure about it,” concluded Schröder.

Next Saturday the Gladbachers, who are still in danger of relegation, will play against relegation-threatened 1. FC Köln, two weeks later at home against relegation-threatened 1. FC Heidenheim, again two weeks later against relegation-threatened 1. FSV Mainz 05 and then at relegation-threatened VfL Wolfsburg. Each of these chances of breaking free also carries the risk of a setback.

Schröder didn’t even have to deny that the win against St. Pauli was a liberation for coach Eugen Polanski, as he had already emphasized before the game that there was “no coaching issue” at Gladbach.

The 39-year-old Polanski often discusses solidarity with the fans in his remarks. And this time he also said “how nice it is to put a smile on the fans’ faces and to hear in their singing in the 86th minute how much they are looking forward to the derby in Cologne next week.” You now want to take the momentum with you. Even with a view to the derby, the win against St. Pauli was “brutally important”.

By the way, there was a conversation between Schröder and Polanski directly after the game. The coach was asked in the press conference what it was about and replied: “We always agree on what we are going to say, but this time it was relatively clear what we were saying.” And so Polanski finally said about the current situation at Borussia: “In the end it will come down to the last matchday, and my job is to keep everything in balance – knowing full well that we still have a lot of work to do.”