Union Put 10 Past Leipzig II

1. FC Union Berlin’s women’s team beat RB Leipzig II 10-0 on Sunday afternoon when they ran riot in the Fritz-Lesch Sportplatz’s chilly early spring sunshine. The goals were scored by Lisa Heiseler, Fatma Sakar, plus an own goal from Laura Schubert, while Sarah Abu Sabbah bagged a brace and Dina Orschmann scored four.

1. FC Union Berlin: Wagner – Sakar, K. Orschmann, Becker, Reissner – Frank (57. Niesler), Heiseler (57. Görsdorf), Moraitou (74. Scheel) – Blaschka, Abu Sabbah, D. Orschmann (64. Rurack)

RasenBallsport Leipzig II: Böttcher – Dittrich (69. Pospischil), Borisch, Schubert, Braunsdorf – Misch, Petters (66. Moritz), Gruneberg – Bührig, Scheffler, Preußler

Goals: 1-0 Heiseler (11.), 2-0 D. Orschmann (14.), 3-0 D. Orschmann (45.), 4-0 D. Orschmann (48.), 5-0 D. Orschmann (59.), 6-0 Blaschka (63. Pen), 7-0 Schubert (68. O.G.), 8-0 Sakar (74.), 9-0 Abu Sabbah (78.), 10-0 Abu Sabbah (90+2.)

Attendance: 333

If there was one major thing to take away from last weekends demolition of Fortuna Dresden, it was that Dina Orschmann – who inexplicably missed a couple of chances she would usually bury without so much as a second thought – was going to take her frustrations out on someone. “We paid ourselves back today for certain situations where things didn’t go quite so smoothly last week,” she said after the final whistle.” Unfortunately for Leipzig II, they were next up, and she had her shooting boots on.

The older of the Orschmann twins by nine minutes was irrepressible from the off, operating on the left of a front three alongside Anouk Blaschka and Sarah Abu Sabbah, she was dropping deep to get on the ball, pushing and pulling her markers every which way. “It was just a lot of fun today with the backdrop and the weather,” she continued.

The biggest surprise was that she didn’t score first.

But Lisa Heiseler, operating at the tip of midfield ahead of Celine Frank and Athanasia Moraitou, is hardly of a mind to pass up any chances that come her way either. Especially when she gets a second chance, as happened when her first shot was cleared off the line after 11 minutes but only as far as herself. She rolled the ball back and over the line with ease.

By now Union were shaking themselves clear of the certain sluggishness with which they’d begun the game – and in the first half Leipzig proved to be dogged opponents – and Orschmann bagged her first after Blaschke found herself in space on the right. She could have shot, but chose to square it for Abu Sabbah, inside. She could have shot but chose to square it to Orschmann who had no-one else to lay it off for. She beat the keeper, Eve Böttcher, with a wonderful, curled finish, crashing the ball in off the woodwork of the back post’s top corner.

There were periods in the first half, particularly towards the end, when the guests started to step up, and tried to cause Union some problems, but, as when Emy Bührig tried to get the jump on Katja Orschmann she was simply knocked off the ball, and the danger was cleared without fuss. Katja, and her partner at the back of the back four, Marie Becker, was superb, but had a worrying moment as she was caught at the other end and seemed to be badly hurt. For if we know anything, it’s that Katja Orschmann doesn’t feign injury. But there she was, the wind knocked out of her, with Abu Sabbah looking over her as her team-mates took the opportunity to regroup and to catch a drink at the touchline.

It seems prosaic to mention, but one of the strengths of this side seems to be the way communicate constantly, the way they do take these moments to come together. Another break in play saw Blaschka and the superb right-back, Fatma Sakar, pointedly discussing when to give and when to go, Moraitou and Frank, hands on hips in the centre circle, deep in conversation, while Katja Orschmann talked long with Union’s other full-back, Naika Reissner. There is a scientific process that takes place amongst them. They are constantly solving problems as they go, just as they hold themselves to the highest standards. Marie Becker cried out having put a back post header straight at Böttcher. Dina Orschmann did the same when she, too, hit the keeper just after halftime.

But by that point she already had her second, having exchanged passes with Abu Sabbah at pace as she entered the box and scoring with little fuss. It was the culmination of a lovely flowing move that had started with Moraitou almost on the edge of her own box.

The half ended with Heiseler hitting a free kick over the bar, leaning back after Dina Orschmann had provided the dummy, but with Leipzig already visibly wilting since the third goal, she knew that there would be plenty more to come.
Orschmann’s hattrick came within minutes of the re-start – following that miss – and was hit on the volley with a certain violence from Blaschka’s ball in and Abu Sabbah’s flick-on, as if the ball itself was responsible for her erring just before.

The sun had come out by now, and Union were revelling in its early spring rays. Abu Sabbah, keen to join her partner on the scoresheet, lifted the longest of balls from Katja Orschmann over Böttcher’s head but saw it carved away off the line, before Heiseler and Frank were replaced by Lisa Görsdorf and Charleen Niesler, prompting a switch for Union to three at the back.

Within moments Dina Orschmann had her fourth, bringing down another sumptuous ball from Sakar, and belting it past poor Böttcher, who was having a far better game than the scoreline would suggest – and indeed would save Abu Sabbah’s first attempt at the penalty she herself had won, hauled down in the box, but she had sprung too early, and could do nothing about Blaschka’s re-take after just over an hour.

After an hour Dina was gone, replaced by Zita Rurack, herself on the back of last week’s quickfire hattrick in Dresden, but her threat would be more than adequately made up for. Union’s seventh came as a deep corner was headed back over Böttcher unwittingly by Laura Schubert; the ninth and tenth both by Abu Sabbah, remorselessly finishing from inside the six-yard box (the second of which was finished with a flourishing backheel that was coolness personified), but the crowning glory was in the eighth, a vicious strike out of nowhere from a Sakar who hit it almost from the byline, back across the keeper and almost bursting the side netting.

It was her first competitive goal for her new side, and she let her hands fall to her side and looked up to the sky. If she hadn’t meant it, she did a fine job of hiding it, at least. Ailien Poese said at the final whistle that she was “crazily proud”, not just of Sakar, or of Orschmann, but of her whole team, particularly as they look ahead to next weekend’s clash with Viktoria.

But with orschmann in this sort of form, they’ll rest easily enough tonight.