Union Beat Türkiyemspor 5-0

1. FC Union Berlin’s women’s team won the penultimate game of their Regionalliga season 5-0 away against Türkiyemspor. Sarah Abu Sabbah score one, while Lisa Heiseler – who bagged a hat-tick here last time – scored four.

1. FC Union Berlin: Wagner – K. Orschmann (66. Schulz), Niesler, Frank (66. Rurack) – Sakar (46. Bach), Moraitou (46. Trojahn), Görsdorf, Heiseler, Metzker (46. Reissner) – Abu Sabbah, Blaschka

Türkiyemspor : Scheunemann – Schick (86. Kullick), Neuwald (72. Zafisambondaoky), Laue, Janitzki, Cosme – Eren (72. Mohamad), Hartwig, Beyaztepe (86. Schwedler), Almasalme – Lübcke

Goals: 0-1 Heiseler (20.), 0-2 Heiseler (32.), 0-3 Abu Sabbah (50.), 0-4 Heiseler (52.), 0-5 Heiseler (83.)

Attendance: 90

The starting XI

In the absense of Marie Becker, Ailien Poese had put Celine Frank back into the the position on the left of the back three that she has so shone in, alongside Charleen Niesler and Katja Orschmann, ahead, of course, of Melanie Wagner in Union’s goal. Pia Metzker returned to left wing-back, while Fatma Sakar was on the right.

In midfield were Lisa Görsdorf and Athanasia Moraitou behind Lisa Heiseler, while Poese played the twin attack of Anouk Blaschka and Sarah Abu Sabbah up front.

Heiseler tries to repeat history; comes damn close

Lisa Heiseler roared into the skies above Kreuzberg, her fist clenched, as she saw her brilliant drive from outside the box hit the net of the rusting Türkiyemspor goal. The last time she had played in the Katzbachstadion she had scored all three. This was her fourth of five. This former East berlin born midfielder, loves this ground, one of the cornerstones of West-Berlin football, like few others.

But it was Metzker, making her first start this year who got things going on the yellowing, concrete hard, patchy crab-grass. If the daisies on the pitch in last week’s cup final were numerous and flourishing, these ones were living out their last minutes, baking and browning. Metzker went on the run up the left, and crossed from the byline, the ball bouncing up off the top of the bar and dropping to Sakar, whose shot, driven from an angle, flew just over.

Union needed to be careful. The last time they played Türkiyemspor, on a bitterly cold night on a plastic pitch in the cup they proved obdurate, determined, and hard to break down; a very different side from the one they’d beaten 11-2 the week before at the Fritz-Lesch. This side also possess no little skill in their ranks, and it took a patient piece of defending from Katja Orschmann to stop the bustling run of Lena-Marie Walter-Cosme, out on the left for Türkiyem’.

But that was far from Orschmann’s best moment. She is a defender who loves to attack, and five minutes later she went on a run from halfway inside her own half, straight up the middle, jinking past two, then three players before unleashing a wonderful drive that crashed off the bar. Laetitia Scheunemann, in the host’s goal, looked to have got her fingertips to it, but it’s unlikely she could have influenced the ball much had she reached it anyway, such was the power behind it.

Union pushed and pushed, Frank lifting the ball over the head of Arzum Eren on the halfway line, Abu Sabbah making a run from deep that went unspotted by opponents and team-mates alike, and Sakar making burst after unrelenting burst up the right hand side. Heiseler overhit a pass when through on goal with 20 minutes played, unselfishly choosing to square it when she would normally take the shot on herself but getting too much on it and having to watch the ball roll out harmlessly for a goal kick.

Anna Laue then got in front of Abu Sabbah just as Union’s top scorer threatened to shoot.

But it was with a certain inevitability that it would be Heiseler – just as she did last season here when she scored all three in a 3-0 win – who opened the scoring following a goalmouth scramble, the ball eventually being smashed into the roof of the net by the Union skipper.

History threatened to be repeating itself ten minutes later after a lovely Metzker through ball, when Heiseler again found herself in front of goal. This time she didn’t err and finished emphatically past Scheunemann. She almost had her third after her volley was tipped wide by the excellent home keeper after 35 minutes and some more superb play by Sakar on the right.

Union were now rampant, winning a series of corners on both sides, the final one tipped only just over by a scrambling, backpedalling Scheunemann. She then clawed one away from inside the near post after a mistake at the back before Abu Sabbah put wide from Frank’s excellent deep ball in. She was free to volley home, but side-footed wide at the last. She missed an easier chance with only minutes to play of the half, scuffing the ball straight at Scheunemann.

She’d make up for the misses, with typical cold precision, but that would come.

Union were equally strong at the back, not allowing their hosts a sniff. Niesler barged Angelina Lübcke off the ball with the minimum of fuss, while Frank was always back from another foray forwards to look after the threat of the willowy, if dangerous and fleet footed Eren.

Abu Sabbah scores early, then gives the skipper her hat-trick

Poese didn’t want to subject her regular starters to too much of the bone-dry pitch, and she replaced her full-backs, Metzker and Sakar, at half time with Naika Reissner and Latoya Bach, while Sophie Trojahn replaced the always excellent Moraitou in the middle.

Anouk Blaschka, herself someone who has quietly made her starting spot as close to guaranteed as these things can get, bent a corner, almost directly after the re-start, just wide of the back post as it dropped, swinging in dangerously. She pinged one off the bar about 40 minutes later.

It would carry on, Union wouldn’t show the slightest respite, despite the changes.

It would only take a few more minutes for Abu Sabbah to make it for with a typical finish, before she skipped past Gesine Schick with grim determination, taking the ball on and squaring for Heiseler’s hat-trick a couple of minutes later.

It was to Abu Sabbah’s absolute disbelief that Cosme’s tackle from behind on her wasn’t given as a penalty a minute later, nor that her vicious volley that crashed off the back post was called for a hand on the goal line. Luisa Neuwald then somehow got in the way of her point-blank shot, as Katja Orschmann’s follow was flicked over by a trailing leg in the box.

Poese made further changes with only five minutes to play – Zita Rurack and Ginger Schulz replacing Frank and Orschmann – but by this point it was all played out, despite Reissner’s relentless attacking up the left-hand side. Her ball to Abu Sabbah, clipped in across goal, was both delicate and precise, but the striker somehow put her header wide of the back post.

Abu Sabbah wasn’t to be stopped, she was like a force of nature, her battle with Laue, particularly, out on the left was compelling drama, her laughter as the referee refused to give her the throw-in she was certain she won was a thing of beauty. She turned away when her last-minute shot was cleared off the line. Sometimes even the top scorer in the land needs to leave the stage for someone else, after all.

For there was still time for a final flourish, and it came from none other than Heiseler, a playerwho loves this ground more than anyone else, driving an unstoppable shot home from outside the box.

She took her applause and her love at the final whistle with typical humility. But one thing is certain. If Union do win the play-off games for promotion to the 2. Liga – despite the pitch – she’ll miss this place.