FC St. Pauli

Who's been fiddling with the clock? Is it really Friday already? It's incredible how quickly the time has passed here in the mountain landscape of South Tyrol. With some high-intensity workouts on the training ground and in the gym, a high-tempo team-building session involving mountain carts and some tactical fine-tuning behind them, the Boys in Brown are now set the for final pre-season warm-up game on Saturday before the league kicks off in a week's time. The match against Croatian top-division club NK Istra will take place at Moos, less than ten kilometres away. "I'm really looking forward to the game," says new striker David Otto. Hardly suprising, as it could see the 23-year-old make his first appearance in the brown-and-white jersey since his move from Hoffenheim.

Opponents NK Istra finished ninth in the Croatian top flight last season and also begin their league campaign next weekend (Sunday, 17 July), so it promises to be a decent dress rehearsal against decent opposition. With this in mind, the players have really got stuck in this week, which even brought them praise from assistant coach Fabian Hürzeler. "Yes, I've praised some players a lot, which came as a particular surprise for Timo because I usually give the lads very critical feedback. They've all pulled their weight really well, though, and taken another step forward."

New goalkeeper coach Marco Knoop meanwhile is enjoying his first training camp with the club. The 43-year-old has deployed various items of equipment in his daily work with Nikola Vasilj, Dennis Smarsch, Sören Ahlers and Jhonny Peitzmeier, ranging from in-goal cameras and tennis balls to inflatable dummies.

On "matchday minus one", as he likes to put it, Knoop focused on build-up play and set piece simulations: "The aim is to boost the lads' confidence under controlled opposition pressure and assist the team further away from goal, but in such a way as the game demands, of course,” he explains. "When we collect the ball, we don't take it home under our jumpers, we try to get it forward straightaway to launch a quick attack."

There'll be no balls up anyone's jumper on Saturday, then, but hopefully some will their way into the opposition net to bring a successful training camp in the Passeier Valley to a successful conclusion. Unfortunately, we cannot stream the game for you, but we will post updates live on Twitter.

Photos: FC St. Pauli/Witters