FC St. Pauli

After undergoing medicals earlier in the week and a blood lactate test on Wednesday, the players kicked off their preparations in much friendlier conditions than the heat of the last two days. “It was still pretty warm but very pleasant compared with yesterday,” said midfielder Connor Metcalfe, who along with the rest of the squad came through the blood lactate test without any problems in spite of the heat.

As in the previous year, Blessin had his men doing a lot of work with the ball in the opening session, scheduling various passing drills after the 15-minute warm-up with performance coaches Thomas Barth and Karim Rashwan. At the same time, goalkeeper coach Sven Van Der Jeugt put Nikola Vasilj, Ben Voll and Simon Spari through their paces, barking out instructions in his customary manner . “I really missed those instructions, and the training as well, of course,” said Vasilj afterwards. “It felt so good to be back on the pitch with the team catching balls at long last.“ Simon Spari also had plenty to do in his first session. “There were lots of new stimuli and input for me,” he said. “I’m here to learn and take a lot from watching Niko and Ben.“

Arkadiusz Pyrka, Simon Spari, Ricky-Jade Jones, Jannik Robatsch, head coach Alexander Blessin, Joel Chima Fujita and Mathias Pereira Lage (from left to right).

There were also clear instructions from assistant coach Peter Németh who oversaw the 45-minute passing exercise. Blessin and his assistant Thomas Risch were largely content to observe the goings-on and took the opportunity to chat to some of the players during the short breaks between the individual drills. Some high-intensity runs were followed by a game-related exercise led by Blessin to finish off the 90-minute session.

Coaching team and players alike visibly enjoyed the session after the long summer break. “I missed being on the pitch with the lads,” said David Nemeth, no longer the only Austrian in the squad following the recruitment of compatriots Jannik Robatsch and Simon Spari. “It’s good to have some fellow Austrians in the group,” said Spari”. I didn’t know David before. He’s a great guy.”

Ricky-Jade Jones, who arrived from Peterborough United, was given a warm welcome along with all the other new boys. The forward played his last game for the English third-tier outfit on 3 May. “It’s been a long break so I could hardly wait to get started again,” he said. “I aim to get to know the team and the playing philosophy better over the next few days and weeks.”

Being back in training was a special feeling for James Sands, too, it being the first time he had trained with his teammates since sustaining a serious ankle injury at home to SC Freiburg in mid-February. “It was obviously a lot more fun than working in rehab on my own”, the US midfielder said. “I had a lot of fun with the lads. I still need to get back into the swing of things after such a long time out, but I feel really good.”

Absent from training were captain Jackson Irvine, and Karol Mets, who are both in rehab, and Adam Dźwigała, who is ill, while Manolis Saliakas began the new campaign with a personalised routine. In Jannik Westphal, Rawley St. John and Nick Schmidt, three young talents took part in the opening session, too.

Photos: FC St. Pauli/Witters