Union Beat Weinberg 2-0

1. FC Union Berlin got their first three points of the 2. Bundesliga season after their 2-0 win over SV 67 Weinberg. Lisa Heiseler capped a superb move to open the scoring on the stroke of half time, before Sarah Abu Sabbah made it two in the 67^th minute.

1. FC Union Berlin: Bösl – Sakar, Becker, Steinert, Metzker (72. Weiß) – Janez (62. Frank), Moraitou (81. Blaschka), Heiseler – Halverkamps (72. Trojahn), Abu Sabbah, D. Orschmann (81.Reissner)

SV 67 Weinberg: Glaser – Haberäcker, A. Grimm, M. Grimm, Kömm – Schlitter, Wiesinger, Hofmann (74. Arnold) – Klärle (84. Horwath), Wich (84. Scheider), Ganßer (51. Istrefaj)

The starting XI

Ailien Poese went for a change in formation for Union’s second home game of the season, one that would also see the return of Cara Bösl in goal after two weeks out injured. She was behind a back four, as opposed to the usual three (in the absence of the injured Katja Orschmann and suspended Eleni Markou) of Pia Metzker on the left, Judith Steinert, Marie Becker and Fatma Sakar on the right.

In midfield were Athanasia Moraitou, Korina Janež and Lisa Heiseler, while she played an attacking three of Dina Orschmann, Antonia Halverkamps, with Sarah Abu Sabbah returning to the starting eleven to lead the line.

Attendance: 4.201

Goals: 1:0 Heisler (45 +1), 2:0 Abu Sabbah (67.)

Heiseler caps a superb move at the end of a tough half

As the final whistle drew ever closer, with Union’s first win in the 2. Liga this season looming, Marie Becker clutched her heavily strapped wrist to her chest and winced. She’d played through agony throughout the second half, and though this was a superb win, capped by one team goal of the highest class, and a devastating individual finish, Becker had set the tone from the first minutes when she made a crunching early tackle on Weinerg’s top scorer, Lisa Wich, in the first minute in her own box.

Her lead was taken quickly by Antonia Halverkamps, dropping back to rob Eva Weisinger in midfield, and Athanasia Moraitou when she nipped in ahead of Marlene Ganßer just short of the halfway line.

As they showed last week in the superb cup upset against Leipzig, Union were going to fight for every single ball here against the second in the league, but they were also going to play on the front foot against dogged opponents.

Korina Janež hit a lovely diagonal ball to the returning Sarah Abu Sabbah with five minutes played, probing the Weinberg defence, testing them, pushing them back into their own half, as Ailien Poese knew they would.

“Last week, we talked at length about how we wanted to use patient possession to our advantage. The team did an excellent job of implementing that,” she said later on, back out of the cruel wind, in the catacombs of the stadium.

It took a while for their final ball to come good though, but when it did Union caused problems immediately. Fatma Sakar found space on the right, hit the byline and squared to a lunging Dina Orschmann who saw her shot dribble wide of the back post.

At the other end, meanwhile, Wiesinger drew the first stop from Cara Bösl with a curling shot from the edge of the box that Union’s keeper held easily. But then there was chaos in the Weinberg box following Moraitou’s typically well-crafted free kick. There were three Weinberg players on the line as Abu Sabbah and then Heiseler tried to barge the ball through their ranks, albeit to no avail.

Union were coming closer, but their final ball was still too often going astray. As Becker lay on the ground, having sustained her injury in a clash with Moraitou, Heiseler, Dina Orschmann, Judith Steinert and and Pia Metzker came together on the half way line, gesticulating, discussing, honing their plans.

With half an hour played Halverkamps finally had the ball in the net, but the goal wasn’t given because of a foul spotted in the build-up as Abu Sabbah had her back to goal. There would be plenty more of them to come.

Abu Sabbah then had the agony of seeing her own shot roll an inch wide of the back post, having nudged it past the prone keeper, Franziska Glaser. Last year’s top scorer was still waiting for her first of the season.

With five minutes to go Steinert hit another fine ball over the top, this one just out of Halverkamps’ reach as she bore down on Glaser, who came out smartly to clear up the danger in the nick of time. Metzker then almost found Orschmann as she raced behind the now swiftly retreating Weinberg back line.

But with half time approaching, Union conjured a goal of rare beauty. It started with Janež, inside right, who tricked her way 360 degrees past her marker, laying the ball off for Orschmann, who did similarly, and moved the ball on to Heiseler on the edge of the six-yard-box. The captain rounded things off, too, on the turn, moving the ball onto her left foot as she went, and side-footing it past a helpless Glaser.

It was a brilliant way to end the half, Union were ahead, and deservedly so.

Abu Sabbah breaks her duck

Weinberg started the second half much as they had finished the first, with two banks of players way behind the lonely and increasingly isolated Wich up front, and they proved just as hard to break down, as Orschmann, Metzker and then Halverkamps were called offside within the first five minutes of the restart by increasingly marginal distances.

The over four thousand Unioners’ hackles were already up with each call against their side, but they were incandescent when Halverkamps went down on the edge of the box with no whistle forthcoming, and Wiesinger went down under Janež’s challenge, getting the Union midfielder a yellow card.

But still Union went at Weinberg. Moraitou lofted another free kick into the box, expertly knocked down by Orschmann for Halverkamps, whose shot went out for a corner. It fell ultimately to Abu Sabbah, who dragged her own shot wide with a defender at her back and the ball under her feet.

Abu Sabbah was sure she was through on goal following Janež’s lovely ball, again splitting the Weinberg defence in two, but again she was called offside. She put her hands together, disbelievingly.

But her chance would come.

With 25 minutes to play she chased Anna Grimm all the way back for what seemed like a lost cause. But Glaser was coming out to meet them, and there was confusion between centre-back and goalkeeper. The only one who didn’t stop was Abu Sabbah, running onto the ball, suddenly free, and rolling it into the now empty net from an increasingly tightening angle with the coolest of finishes.

‘As a striker, finally scoring my first goal in the second division is something very special,” she said, smiling, after the final whistle. It certainly was, you could see the pressure fall off her shoulders.

The goal seemed to wake Weinberg up, and it took a fine diving stop from Bösl at the feet of Solveig Schlitter to stop them clawing one back. Schlitter had another chance a few minutes later, but she’d dragged the tireless Sakar to ground on her way towards goal.

Poese had already brought Celine Frank on for Janež, and she was joined on the pitch by Sophie Trojahn and Anna Weiß, on for Metzker and Halverkamps with 20 minutes to go, as Annika Kömm joined Wich up top for the guests, but it seemed every time they looked to come close, Becker would be there. She was immense, winning every header, secure and confident on the ball, strong and precise in the tackle.

Abu Sabbah again saw the ball in the net – this time a gorgeous chip over the head of Glaser – but again was called offside after Trojahn’s pass up the middle to the striker, now brimming with confidence since her goal. Sometimes it only takes the one, and she almost turned provider with time running out when she slipped the substitute Naika Reissner in, before planting her own header too close to Glaser a minute later.

Union threw everything at their guests in a furious last five minutes. Trojahn shot wide after Heiseler’s excellent work down the left wing; Blaschka crashed one off the bar; Trojahn drew another stop from Glaser, as did Steinert, also saved to the keeper’s left; before Steinert finished, only for it to be again called offside.

But for all their attacking verve, and the joy in the packed Gegengerade, the final cheer would go to Becker, who won two more headers in the box, clutching her wrist to her chest. She described herself as being “mega-proud” of her team-mates, as they were of her.

And deservedly so. Union had their first win of the season under their belts.