Winners and Losers: Sensational St Pauli, disgraced Man United and Czech league sees red

FC St Pauli

Three games were spent waiting for the first goal, four for the first point and at the fifth attempt the iconic Hamburg team managed to win in the Bundesliga.

Granted, it was on Freiburg's pitch, but the heady taste of a league triumph warmed the cockles after a long 13-year wait. More than 3,500 supporters travelled to the opponents' ground 800 kilometres away to see the team, while tens of thousands more celebrated at home. And the Washington Times overseas didn't miss the coverage of the match, which ended 3-0.

St Pauli went for the win. Freiburg had the upper hand, but due to the visitors' combative performance, they only had two shots on target. But the away side also had technology to thank, twice taking away the home side's goal-scoring joy with VAR.

The hero was Bosnian goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj, who caught Vincenzo Grifo's penalty shortly before half-time. And the match was decided by Elias Saad.

"It's a great feeling to score your first and second goal in the Bundesliga. But it was all about the team's performance. Everyone worked hard even without the ball and then we took our chances effectively. It's an indescribable feeling when you celebrate with the fans afterwards," the Hamburg native with Tunisian roots explained.

Manchester United

Manchester United fans were dealt another blow. The 3-0 loss to Tottenham may have been affected by Bruno Fernandes' sending off, but the performance of the team and especially the defensive unit was so dismal that perhaps everyone is wondering when the misery, and with it coach Erik ten Hag, will end. United have only managed to score one goal at home so far this season and have dropped to 12th in the table.

"From the opening goal we were afraid to play the ball. There were a lot of mistakes, we didn't have good pressing, Tottenham could make counter-attacks after our bad decisions when we left them a lot of space," admitted the Dutch coach.

"I'm not thinking about being sacked at all. In the summer we decided to stay together, we knew the process would take some time."

Thiago Motta and Juventus

When coach Thiago Motta arrived at Juventus before the season, he took over a team that had struggled in vain to keep up with rivals Inter. Even in the new season, though, it hasn't been very convincing going forward, with the Bianconeri failing to score three times in a row. 

But on Saturday came a convincing 3-0 win in Genoa and a move to second place in the table.

The defensive numbers are certainly impressive, Juventus have not conceded a single goal in the domestic league in six rounds so far and are one of the top-two teams across the top leagues in Europe in that respect, along with Celtic.

Meanwhile, the new coach has had to address the goalkeeping issue before the season and has incorporated a new man into the four-man defence. Former AC Milan defender Pierre Kalulu has been a mainstay since the first game and the team looks very compact this season.

Miralem Pjanic

Two years ago, the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team was supposed to play a friendly against Russia, which was suspended from all FIFA and UEFA competitions. At that time, Miralem Pjanic was already playing in the league in the United Arab Emirates for the Al Sharjah team and he led the opposition.

"The whole world is suffering because of the conflict in Ukraine and we are supposed to be the first country to play against Russia? I have no words," the former Roma, Juventus and Barcelona midfielder said at the time. He was joined by other players, including Edin Džeko, and the match was subsequently called off.

Before the weekend, Miralem Pjanic became a CSKA Moscow player. He posed as a saviour on a white horse and became, in effect, the first major football star to take up an engagement in the local Premier League after the start of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. "Let's do it! I'm happy to join my new team," he said. He seemed to have forgotten his attitude and stomped everything into the ground...

CD Tondela

While Central and Eastern Europe has been battling floods in recent weeks, Portugal has traditionally been battling fires. Second division club Tondela has direct experience of that element, with even the players themselves defending their city after arriving from an away game in the autumn of 2017. This is also why the firefighters tend to be guests of honour at their matches.

During the home game against Academico Viseu (4-1), the footballers paid tribute to the heroes, the firefighters and those in uniform watched the game from the best seats and striker Roberto even saluted after his goal. The CD Tondela club has started the season very well, having not lost after six rounds played, and is working to return to the elite, where they last played in 2022.

Czech League sees red

Thanks to Sparta Prague, Slavia Prague and Viktoria Plzen, the top Czech football league has a distinctive sound in Europe and results in the European competitions have moved the long-underrated competition up to ninth on the continent in terms of coefficient.

But it's just not such a cheerful spectacle on the pitches. The problem is mainly with discipline, with the hardness of the game and maybe even in the referees' view. The last league round brought nine red cards in eight games and only one sending off did not equal the historical sad record of the league.

Overall, the Czech league leads the whole of Europe in the number of red cards, with referees having sent off 27 players since the start of the season. The Premier League, for example, has only seven early exits to the dressing rooms so far.