Berlin – The 1. FC Union Berlin team has a tricky and enormously important training week ahead of them. That is the short-term prospect after the 0:3 against Borussia Dortmund on Sunday afternoon, in which coach Urs Fischer’s team lacked their typical qualities and thus caused the 10,000 fans in the An der Alten Försterei stadium a rare disappointment. The second defeat in a row sees the Irons slip to seventh place in the table. Set-up work is now required, an in-depth error analysis is pending. But if anyone has proven that they can do it, it’s Fischer.
When choosing the starting eleven, the Swiss football coach had to deal with the problem that Omikron had deprived him of a few options. Niko Gießelmann, Andreas Voglsammer, Dominique Heintz and substitute keeper Jakob Busk tested positive during the week. In addition, Rani Khedira was only present as a guest in the stands or as an interview partner at the old forester’s office due to a yellow card suspension.
So what to do? Whining, of course not, Fischer doesn’t even know how to do that. Rather, trust others. Compared to the away defeat in Augsburg, Bastian Oczipka, Paul Jaeckel, Levin Öztunali and Sven Michel were allowed to play from the start this time, and of course Grischa Prömel, who was available again after being infected with the corona virus and the isolation that had become necessary as a result entrusted to his boss with a rather complicated task: he should play and dominate the center in Khedira’s absence.
Bone just isn’t consistent enough
After a very lively initial phase by the Unioners with a chance for Sheraldo Becker, who did not coordinate properly at the end of the half-right position and therefore missed, it soon became apparent that Prömel did not really find his way in the unfamiliar role. Öztunali, who was supposed to work for him, also looked in vain for orientation. As a result, Borussia overplayed the iron lines more and more often, and the defensive line around Robin Knoche was increasingly confronted with opponents approaching. Whereby Knoche could have prevented Marco Reus’ 0:1 with a more uncompromising shot.
Reus had actually already lost the ball to Knoche in the 18th minute after a tiny stick error in the penalty area, but because the Union defense chief only poked and didn’t clear it properly, Mahmoud Dahoud was able to pass to Reus again. After a few quick steps, the national player took the opportunity with a full left-footed shot from about twelve meters, Andreas Luthe was powerless.
Michel works, but doesn’t find his way into the game
Knoche was also the key figure for the black and yellow luck at the 0:2 in the 25th minute. This time, after a long hit by Dan-Axel Zagadou, he got into a running duel with Donyell Malen and stumbled. Finally, Malen also cleverly, maybe a little borderline, prevailed against Oczipka, passed to Reus, who entered the penalty area, rounded Luthe and had no trouble pushing the ball over the line.
And in the game forward? Well, the Unioners didn’t really want to do anything useful. Awoniyi lacked sharpness, Michel struggled but rarely got the ball to influence the game. In short: The Irons seemed surprisingly harmless and allowed the guests to march into the dressing room with a very good feeling.
This performance by his team in the first half was definitely a new experience for Urs Fischer. She reacted more than she acted, seemed jittery, imprecise in her actions. And since she didn’t want to achieve an aha effect in the first third of the second half of the game either, the head coach on the sidelines gave the impression of incredulity with his reserved coaching.
Möhwald’s hit is negated
He made one or two changes, bringing in Kevin Behrens for Awoniyi and Kevin Möhwald for the invisible Öztunali. But when Raphael Guerreiro scored the 0:3 in the 70th minute after a pass from Jude Bellingham and a somewhat awkward attempt at defense by Luthe, it was actually clear to everyone: This is the Iron Man’s first home defeat in the Bundesliga against Borussia Dortmund.
The iron community only cheered once that afternoon, namely when Möhwald supposedly made it 1: 3 (73rd). In the scene, however, Anthony Ujah had used too much force against Manuel Akanji, which caused referee Matthias Jöllenbeck to annul the goal after studying the slow motion.