Just one week after losing the final of the VBL Club Championship, FC St. Pauli did better in the DFB-ePokal powered by ERGO and secured the title.
The Hanseatic League had to make amends twice before the final day: On the one hand, St. Pauli had narrowly missed out on the German FIFA club championship title for the second time in a row the weekend before, and on the other hand, the Kiez had fallen just short of the finish line in the Xbox semi-finals and PlayStation final respectively in the previous DFB ePokal season.
The Hanseatic team had to make amends on two fronts.
Hamburg had missed out on the big national titles by a hair’s breadth, and St. Pauli’s hunger for the title was palpable. The runners-up of the Virtual Bundesliga (VBL) Club Championship by bevestor had already beaten Toad United, SG Gensingen/Grolsheim 07 and SV Werder Bremen in succession on Saturday.
‘FCSP_Kamal’ shocks ‘MoAuba’ late on
The Hamburg side took their only loss of points on Saturday in a 6-3 defeat of Werder – they were not to add any more on Sunday. In the semi-finals, St. Pauli faced FOKUS CLAN, the last remaining eSports organisation in the competition. The North Germans did not even need top star and e-national player Mustafa ‘xMusti19’ Cankal.
Erol ‘Erol96x’ Bernhardt and Kamal ‘FCSP_Kamal’ Kamboj settled the matter in just two games: ‘Erol96x’ did not let himself be rattled by the intervening goal shortly before the end in his 4:2 win over Lukas ‘Sakul’ Vonderheide and struck again in the last minute.
Speaking of the last minute, ‘FCSP_Kamal’ made a comeback against FIFA World Cup winner Mohammed ‘MoAuba’ Harkous after the latter had taken a 1-0 lead. Kamboj first equalised and then decided the semi-final in St. Pauli’s favour, also in the 90th minute, with a powerful and precise shot into the left corner of the goal to make it 2-1.
Rerun of the club final of 2021
The 17-year-old missed a penalty in the 85th minute, but ‘FCSP_Kamal’ held his nerve afterwards. In parallel to the duel between St. Pauli and FOKUS CLAN, 1. FC Heidenheim beat 1. FC Köln, whose side was only successful with Tim ‘TheStrxngeR’ Katnawatos, thanks to wins by Deniel ‘Deni10’ Mutic and Burak ‘Burak_May’ May.
This led to the final between FC St. Pauli and 1. FC Heidenheim in the early afternoon – and thus to a rematch of the VBL Club Championship final of 2021 and the Xbox semi-final in last year’s DFB-ePokal. The Hamburg side had walked off the virtual pitch as losers in each of those encounters.
‘Erol96x’ paves the way with 5:2
This time, however, the Kiez were not to be caught short of success: ‘Erol96x’ drove into the final with a surprisingly clear 5:2 victory over ‘Deni10’. The goal to make it 4:1 for the St. Paulian was particularly curious, as the Heidenheim defender tripped over his own goalkeeper, thus clearing the way for ‘Erol96x’.
As a result, Simon ‘harterschuss22’ Zügel was already under enormous pressure against the in-form ‘FCSP_Kamal’. He was only able to cope with this to a limited extent, and the 2:0 for Kamboj after about an hour was tantamount to a preliminary decision. After that, ‘harterschuss22’ had a few more big chances, but lacked the right precision.
Seconds before the final whistle, the first cheers of the colleagues on ‘FCSP_Kamal’ could be observed in the stream, St. Pauli celebrated the triumph collectively and exuberantly. After all the late and bitter setbacks of the past two years, the Hamburgers finally get to hoist a big trophy aloft.
The “unfinished” are crowned
‘Erol96x’ and ‘FCSP_Kamal’ crowned the hitherto, according to commentator Flo Hauser, “unfinished” 2022 DFB-ePokal winners.Throughout the weekend, St. Pauli’s ace in the hole – ‘xMusti19’ – only had to face Bremen once, once again underlining the excellent performances of Bernhardt and Kamboj.
“It’s just so awesome that this awesome team has finally won a title. Now we’re going to celebrate,” said ‘Erol96x’ after the last match of the day. It was certainly a special success for Bernhardt, who had hardly played in the second round of the VBL Club Championship, the play-offs and the final.
On the other hand, according to ‘Deni10’, the Heidenheim team was “delighted to have come second”. The team from the Brenz had finished ahead of many top teams, which “nobody had expected”. The FCH, however, could not replace the recently lost VBL Club Championship title with the DFB-ePokal.
