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As Green Day once famously remarked, wake me up when September ends. Well September has finished and that means it’s time for the monthly awards once more. There were a lot of great moments in German football this month, from Heidenheim’s games against Dortmund, Werder, and Union, to the showdown between Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen, to St. Pauli storming up the 2. Bundesliga table. It’s therefore time to look back at the best of September … and 1st October since the last weekend of fixtures concluded on the first of this month and it was just easier to include that in the September awards.
Bundesliga
Player of the Month: Serhou Guirassy (Stuttgart)
The only player who won player of the week twice in September, Stuttgart are second in the table primarily because of Guirassy, who scored two against Freiburg in a 5-0 win, all three in 3-1 win over Mainz, and two as Stuttgart would win 3-1 against Darmstadt. It was almost the shock of the week that he didn’t score against Köln, but he contributed in that game too.
Manager of the Month: Xabi Alonso (Bayer Leverkusen)
I could have very easily given this award to Sebastian Hoeneß, as he was the only manager to win all four matches in September. But Alonso edges it for me not just because his side played the best football, and not just because they top the league, but also because he showed they are genuine title contenders. Yes they did drop points, but that was in a 2-2 draw with Bayern that might have been the biggest result of the lot. They also beat Darmstadt 5-1, Heidenheim 4-1, and Mainz 3-0, sheer dominance from Die Werkself.
Goal of the Month: Julian Ryerson (Hoffenheim vs Borussia Dortmund)
Jan-Niklas Beste’s free kick against Union and Alejandro Grimaldo’s free kick against Bayern were good runners-up, but the best goal of the week came when Julian Ryerson took the ball of Bebou near his own box and proceeded to run nearly the entire length of the pitch, fighting off multiple Hoffenheim defenders before slotting past Baumann. He’s been great for Dortmund since joining, this being the best highlight of his time so far.
2. Bundesliga
Player of the Month: Marcel Hartel (St. Pauli)
St. Pauli have climbed to the top of the 2. Bundesliga in September, and a large part of the reason has been the amazing play of Marcel Hartel, who started off the month with a good performance against Eintracht Braunschweig, scored in St. Pauli’s 5-1 win over Kiel, contributed to all three goals in a win against Schalke, and scored the winner against Hertha. Hartel will be going to the Bundesliga next year, hopefully with St. Pauli.
Manager of the Month: Horst Steffen (Elversberg)
Fabian Hürzeler and Stefan Leitl are the runners-up here but Horst Steffan deserves the award. Elversberg were expected to struggle at the beginning of the season and did, with one point through their opening four games. In the four games since, Elversberg have picked up ten points, now sitting in 10th.
Goal of the Month: Conor Metcalfe (St. Pauli vs Holstein Kiel)
St. Pauli have had a very good month and staring alongside Marcel Hartel has been Conor Metcalfe. The second game of the month saw a St. Pauli side who were winless in four host a Kiel side who knew a win would send them top. After 7 minutes, Kiezkicker led 2-0 thanks to two amazing goals, Eric Smith’s free kick was great, but Conor Metcalfe’s far-range first time hit that curled into the top corner is one of the best goals I’ve ever seen. Simply beautiful, which perfectly describes how St. Pauli have done this month in general.
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