Union Beat ATS Buntentor

1. FC Union Berlin’s women’s team beat ATS Buntentor 6-0 in the fourth friendly of their winter break. Lisa Heiseler scored the opener after a quarter of an hour before Sarah Abu Sabbah made it 2-0 a few minutes later, and Katja Orschmann made it 3-0 shortly before the break. There was own goal to follow, and Abu Sabbah’s second, before the day was rounded off with the first goal from winter newcomer Fatma Sakar twenty minutes from the end.

1. FC Union Berlin: Wagner (46. Hornschuch) – K. Orschmann (69. Schulz), Becker (46. Reissner), Niesler (69. Schindler) – Bach, Heiseler (46. Blaschka), Görsdorf (46. Frank), Moraitou, Sakar – Abu Sabbah (69. Scheel), D. Orschmann

ATS Buntentor: Dähne (65. Salomon) – Entelmann, Böttjer (83. Meyer), Abraham, Meyer (57. Greiwe) – Heeren (76. Rößeling), Rößeling (57. Gieseke), Gieseke (21. Pyökäri) – Gersonde, Zago (65. Sinani), Zabel (46. Bouwer (76. Zabel))

Goals: 1-0 Heiseler (16′), 2-0 Abu Sabbah (22′), 3-0 K. Orschmann (38.), 4-0 Böttjer (59 o.g.), 5-0 Abu Sabbah (65.), 6-0 Sakar (68.)

Union dominate first half

Union were dominant right from the start, with plenty of the ball against determined, if lacking opponents. They took a while to start locating each other with the efficiency so familiar from before Christmas, as their first efforts on goal were off target. Dina Orschmann, such a reliable striker shot wide before ten minutes was up when she seemed certain to score.

But Union were confident, and moved the ball among themselves with certain ease, the back three of Katja Orschmann, Marie Becker and Charleen Niesler sitting deep enough to allow them ample opportunities to start moves, whether via the wingbacks, Latoya Bach and the newcomer, Fatma Sakar, or through the midfield of Lisa Görsdorf, Athanasia Moraitou and, at the tip of the trident, the tireless captain, Lisa Heiseler.

Union finally opened the scoring through her after 16 minutes when Heiseler and Dina Orschmann cut the ATS defence to ribbons with a sharp series of passes as they flew up the middle into the box. Heiseler finished past Jenni Dähne in the ATS goal with ease from close range.

Dähen would get her fingertips to Heiser’s next effort only a couple of minutes later, shooting on the turn, but shortly after Sarah Abu Sabbah would make it two, seizing upon a loose pass from Dähne, and belting a finish into the top corner from the edge of the box with a certain brutal glee. She had a grin on her face a mile wide as she trotted back for the re-start.

If Dina orschmann had been Union’s most dangerous player, full of attacking intent and always on the ball looking to get things moving, it was her sister, Katja, who would score the third. She had already treated the decent crowd on the stands at Union’s new training complex to a superb piece of skill when she turned two ATS attackers inside out in two steps, the ball like a magic trick – now you see it, now you don’t – but now she barrelled forwards into the box, beating another defender before rifling her shot home past the luckless Dähne.

New signing Sakar shines with goal and assist

Union carried on from where they left off into the second half, they were unremitting in the pressure, but Dina Orschmann and Abu Sabbah both missed chances they would usually finish in their sleep. But while Abu Sabbah leaned back as she shot over the bar after an hour, and scolded herself for the mistake, Orschmann’s shot wide was a culmination of Union’s best move of the match so far, a quick, sweeping kove that went from Celine Frank in midfield to Abu Sabbah, having dropped a little deeper to become provider.

Union had switched at half time to playing four at the back, with Becker sacrificed, allowing Naika Reissner to come on the left, Bach to drop back, and Sakar to move up ahead of her on the right wing. She was superb, quick with the ball at her toe, willing without it, her marker never knowing if she was going to hit the byline, or cut inside, and it was another of her charges that saw the ball deflect off the unfortunate and unwitting Alina Böttjer, and into the ATS goal.

She was involved in Union’s fifth, too, crossing for Abu Sabbah again whose quick interchange of passes with the increasingly influential Frank, left her alone in front of goal. She wasn’t going to miss this time.

If the scoreline was effusive, what was more telling was to be seen in the actions and reactions of the players and the coach, especially as things had gone so well.

Though she praised her opponents’ defending and their solidity, Union’s head coach, Ailien Poese was far from willing to see her team rest on their laurels. “We found it a bit more difficult today than in the last few games… There are certainly a few things we’ll have to look at again… there’s certainly still room for improvement.”

But Poese knows her players, and she knows the leadership and sense of togetherness within the group, something to be seen as clear as day, when Fakar herself finished things off, cutting inside from the right this time and scoring with her right, her first goal since joining Union a week ago.

She was mobbed by the entire team, every player on the pitch, a symbol of her quick integration into the squad, but also of their astonishing sense of collective will. Union poured on at their guests, with Sakar putting wide, and Luca Scheel seeing her header loop up off the bar.

That Frank would clatter into a 50-50 challenge with the replacement keeper, Lilja Pyökäri, with her side six up, the wind growing chillier by the minute and with ten minutes of a friendly to play against another Regionalliga side summed them all up.

For this side, there is always something to play for.