Union were knocked out of the DFB Pokal on Thursday evening on a disappointing night where the difference was made by a devastating Randal Kolo Muani, scoring two in the space of two first half minutes.
Eintracht Frankfurt: Trapp – Jakic, Hasebe, Ndicka – Buta (78. Dina Ebimbe), Rode (78. Alario), Sow, Max – Borré (67. Kamada), Götze – Kolo Muani (88. Aaronson)
1. FC Union Berlin: Grill – Trimmel, Doekhi, Knoche, Leite (46. Jaeckel), Juranović – Seguin (46. Thorsby), Haberer (46. Michel), Khedira – Becker (75. Leweling), Behrens (60. Siebatcheu)
Attendance: 49.500
Goals: 1:0 Kolo Muani (11.), 2:0 Kolo Muani (13.)
Urs Fischer has good memories of the Cups. Asked in his press conference on Thursday if the DFB Pokal was, indeed, even important to him the Swiss rolled his eyes a little, he looked away, he let out a little breath of exhaustion.
“Of course it’s important,” he said, before going on to a quiet revery of the times he’d won the Swiss Cup, as the coach of FC Basel, and as the captain of FC Zurich. It was that one which he presumably holds most dear. He’d spent most of his playing career at FCZ, and this was the first trophy they’d won in a generation. He took the first penalty of the shoot-out, of course, precisely because he knew how important this was.
As his pain at the last minute loss in the semi-final last year in Leipzig stung so bitterly. This was more than important. This was vital. And even though it was the quarter final, and even though Union hadn’t played as well as they did in that tie, this hurt just as much.
His opponents came out fighting, reacting decisively to a recent slump in form that has seen them fall ten points behind Union in the league. The Europa League winners are hanging on to a European spot for next year. This gave them a reason to smile again.
Fischer took few chances before kick off, remembering all too well how disappointed he’d been the last time these sides met, only before the international break when he described Union’s 2-0 win as being “lucky.” So Paul Seguin took up the midfield, just as he had a couple of weeks ago in the Alte Försterei, alongside Rani Khedira and Janik Haberer, adding an extra shield for the eternal back three of Danilho Doekhi, Diogo Leite and Robin Knoche. Josip Juranovic replaced Niko Giesselmann on the left and Christopher Trimmel would hang to the right.
And up front were the heroes, the goal-scorers from the weekend’s win over Stuttgart, in Kevin Behrens and Sheraldo Becker. Their nights, however, would prove to be fruitless.
Frankfurt seize control, Kolo Muani devastating
Union started off with a corner, Becker beating Makoto Hasebe and skipping around him as the ball took a knock off the excellent Japanese defender to go out. Juranovic came across to take it, caught in a pocket of sunshine. The Unioner, meanwhile, were in their own corner, away on the diagonal opposite side, also lit up brilliantly behind a banner celebrating Union’s only cup win in their modern history, the FDGB Pokal in 1968, a win utterly bound up in the founding mythology of the club. It remains their only Cup win.
But that was to prove a misleading introduction to the game, for Eintracht soon took control, and wouldn’t loosen their grip.
Mario Götze found a bit of space, he turned, but Khedira blocked his cross away. Now Eintracht had a corner of their own. It was whipped in well by the sharp Sebastian Rode. Leite headed clear. He did the same to the follow up shot too.
But Kolo Mouani had already started to shimmer with menace. He skipped inside Khedira, taking a step, then another before unleashing a wicked shot that Grill did well to palm wide, diving to his left. Memories drifted back to the last game here, where he ran riot. The ball came back to him on the left and this time Khedira made sure to shepherd it away from danger.
Eintracht had all the ball, and Union’s midfield were chasing shadows. Rafael Borre, up front, was making a permanent nuisance of himself. Sebastian Rode and the impressive Djibril Sow were moving the ball quickly through the middle, while Kolo Mouani was drifting into spaces on the left, on the right, wherever he fancied.
He wasn’t afraid of using all the tricks at his disposal, either, throwing himself down after eight minutes on the edge of the box under pressure from Trimmel, but the referee, Bastian Dankert, was quick to tell him to get up.
But he didn’t need to do that again, he was dangerous enough on his feet, and it was with a certain inevitability that it was the French international who would suddenly tear Union apart, scoring two in two minutes. First, he ran onto a delightful flicked backheel by Mario Götze and finished with his left past a Grill who had no chance.
He then made it 2-0 before the Union players had even had chance to catch their breath, to take stock and organise. He ran onto a long ball that Borre had chipped over the top from behind the halfway line. He slipped Leite and chipped Grill with devastating ease, the keeper caught in no-mans-land, hitting the ball with his right this time.
He was at the heart of everything, he showed an amazing piece of control from Sow’s through ball, killing it stone dead with an extended boot stretched out a mile in front of him. He chose to square to Rafael Borre this time, but the striker blazed over the bar.
The black clad home fans were sure it was three when again Kolo Muani squared from the right after 20 minutes, this time after Aurelio Buta had marauded through the middle, cutting Union’s back line to shreds as he went, but the striker was offside before hitting the ball first time.
Union tried to counter, Khedira and Haberer combining, but Juranovic couldn’t control Khedira’s flicked ball down. Paul Seguin pinged a volley into the stands. Leite’s long ball after 35 minutes was flicked on to no-one. Nothing Union tried was coming off.
And they were getting overrun. Rode and the impressive Sow found Philipp Max on the left, crossing for Borre to hit the bar, wondering just what he had to do to score. Kristijan Jakic drove just wide from distance, making Grill sweat for a moment, straight after. Robin Knoche knocked the ball out when Kolo Muani charged at him, just to be sure of things. He chased Khedira down from the edge of the Union box 20 yards out wide, hassling and testing him all the way, and it was all the Union vice captain could do to stop him robbing the ball.
He was a menace. It took all of Juranovic’s wiles to stop him crossing from the other side on 44 minutes, knocking the ball out for a corner.
Khedira and Seguin conjured a chance, a ball going over the top for Behrens, as the half wound down, but it was just a glimmer. Khedira cut inside of Rode, but couldn’t find the final pass.
Union strive to break through but with no success. Eintracht are jubilant.
Fischer made three changes immediately. Morten Thorsby, Sven Michel and Paul Jaeckel coming on for Seguin, Haberer and Leite. He knew he had to do something, to try and cause Eintracht some problems of their own.
Michel was the pick of the bunch. He flashed a drive wide from outside the box after a couple of minutes, but Eintracht still worked their devastating combinations, Sow and Götze swapping the ball between them, Buta finding space out wide on their right. Buta’s cross was just cleared, Götze’s put out for a corner by Jaeckel.
Michel and Juranovic then contrived a space for Becker to turn into after almost an hour, but his shot from 35 yards didn’t have the pace or the bite on it to trouble Kevin Trapp. He threw his arms down in frustration.
But it looked like it might be the start of something. Michel beat Jakic and almost found Behrens who had been running tirelessly all evening long. Then Becker beat Jakic on the right and crossed for Michel, but it was too high. Fischer threw on Jordan on the hour, desperately trying to seize a bit of momentum. Becker found Michel, who found Jordan: his backheel didn’t have enough on it to complete the one-two as Michel came for the return into the box.
Eintracht were now sitting deeper, soaking up everything Union threw at them as the sun set and the clock worked its way towards full time. Becker was now operating almost exclusively as an old-fashioned left winger, Trimmel covering miles on the opposite flank, even chasing a ball from inside the box, having popped up there to try and win a header, that seemed certain to go out.
Trapp claimed a Trimmel cross from above the head of Knoche. Thorsby won a free kick on the edge of the box having been caught by Makoto Hasebe. It was dead centre, 25 yards out. The whistles rang out around the stadium, and Juranovic bent it agonisingly past the right-hand upright.
Leweling won a corner, but Hasebe headed his cross out. Juranovic hit the set-piece into the box where chaos suddenly reigned, Jordan and Hasebe and Jakic all tussling, but Eintracht broke, and suddenly Trimmel had to chase Kolo Muani down over the length of the pitch to tackle him before he could shoot.
Kolo Muani then doubled back on himself, tying Doekhi in knots as he went, winning a free kick on the right wing.
Juranovic kept on going, he never stopped. He hit a lovely long ball across to Leweling but Hasebe’s control of it as he intercepted was flawless. He made light work of stopping Paxten Aaronson on the the left though his lungs must have been burning.
Leweling had a sniff with five minutes to go, but Trapp did well to stop him, diving at his feet. Khedira saw his shot pinball out for a corner with just two minutes to go. Leweling skipped past Max afinal time, winning another corner.
Union never gave up, and they had been much better in the second half. They were then sure they had a penalty as the ball struck a hand in the box, but as with everything else, it came to nothing in the end as the referee waved impassively on for play to continue, as it continued into the four minutes of time added on.
For despite all their efforts, despite everything they threw at Eintracht, it was for nothing. They were out of the Cup. And the looks on their faces as they saluted their fans who had never stopped singing showed the pointlessness of the original question. Because their eyes betrayed that this – the Cup – was the most important thing in the world.
It’s why the loss hurt so much.