SOBOTA BAFFLED BY LATE COLLAPSE
Saturday, 02. November 2019, 17:30 Uhr
The Boys were very critical of their own performance after failing to claim their reward for an otherwise convincing performance, conceding two late goals to draw with Karlsruhe.
Waldemar Sobota: "For 80 minutes it felt like they didn't have a chance against us. And all of sudden we were worried about conceding a third. I can't explain it. It can't be that we lead 2-0 until the 80th minute and our opponents have no idea how to break us open, only to concede one and then fall to pieces. That shouldn't happen. We set out to do better from set pieces, which we did all game until the one corner in time added on."
Daniel Buballa: "We fought our way into the game in superb fashion. We tried to be patient and get stuck into the tackles. We gave as good we got and were the better team. It carried on like that in the second half. We got our reward with the two penalties and the fouls we were drawing. We went 2-0 up, but what happened after that was not worthy of the second division in my view. We neglected our defensive play. That's not on. They have five or six giants on the field. You can concede from set pieces against a team like that, but it's way the set pieces came about. Karlsruhe were dead in the water and all we had to do was see the game out. Instead, we invited them back into the game. We could have had no complaints if we'd gone on to lose."
Johannes Flum: "I'm lost for words. It feels more like a defeat with no chances. KSC did nothing for 80 minutes and we were outstanding. It's a terrible feeling. We weren't hard enough in the challenge from set pieces. They were done for. It's madness that we let them back into it."
Dimitrios Diamantakos: "I don't know what to say. We should have scored more. After going two up we had chances to make it three or four-nil. We didn't do that and Karlsruhe scored two from three chances in the last five minutes. We needed to concentrate better in the last ten minutes. We've conceded again from a corner. We aren't a big side, but we have to be more aggressive man on man. Our play was superb today and Karlsruhe did nothing apart from the last few minutes when they had two or three chances and scored twice."
Philipp Ziereis: "We went out with big intentions and played well until the 80th minute. We gave Karlsruhe very few opportunities and did well in possession. We now have to analyse what happened and why. I need to watch the game back now, so I don't want to offer any major assessments for the time being. I've worked hard for a long time to get fit again and was ready for anything. I'm so happy to be back out there with the lads. It could have been a great afternoon for me, of course, but we have to settle for the point now."
Director of sport Andreas Bornemann: "I can't understand why we didn't know whether to sit on the 2-0 or go for a third. Maybe our dwindling energy levels after a three-match week were an argument for seeing the game out, but we've been experiencing a lot of problems from set pieces recently. In the end we can be happy not to have conceded a third. We didn't defend our lead vehemently enough. KSC didn't come back because they were good, it was because we were poor. The players have to take the blame for that today."
Kyoung-Rok Choi (KSC): "We conceded two stupid goals, but we never gave up and ended up taking a point. I'm delighted. It was great to be applauded by the St. Pauli-Fans when I was taken off."
Photos: Witters