Union Thrash Berolina Mitte

1. FC Union Berlin’s women’s team thrashed SV Blau Weiss Berolina Mitte 13-0, winning their sixth match of six in the Regionalliga Nordost. Maria Christina Lange scored five, captain, Lisa Heiseler, four, and they were joined on the scoresheet by Sarah Abu Sabbah, Sophie Trojahn, Dina Orschmann and Athanasia Moraitou.

1. FC Union Berlin: Wagner – Metzker (64. Bach), K. Orschmann, Niesler, D. Orschmann – Görsdorf, Moraitou (46. Trojahn), Heiseler (64. Youssef) – Lange (79. Kratz), Abu Sabbah (46. Rurack), Blaschka

SV Blau Weiss Berolina Mitte 49: Macaulay – Dittrich, Hansen, Nenninger, Graffstädt (63. Konradi) – Zeuzem, Aping, Ruf (63. von Schorlemer) – Lamprecht (77. Scheidemann), Wegner (56. Altin), Sturm (56. Loftus)

Goals: 1-0 Lange (2.), 2-0 Lange (8.), 3-0 Moraitou (31.), 4-0 Heiseler (36.), 5-0 Heiseler (37.), 6-0 Abu Sabbah (43.), 7-0 Heiseler (51.), 8-0 Heiseler (57.), 9-0 Lange (59.), 10-0 Lange (63.), 11-0 Lange (69.), 12-0 D. Orschmann (73.), 13:0 Trojahn (85.)

Attendance: 259

There was a scene near the end of the second half of Union’s decisive and devastating victory over Beroina Mitte when Dina Orschmann found herself in a tussle with the right-back Shari Dittrich. Having tormented her for much of the game she fought tooth and nail for possession of the ball out near the corner flag. There was no tactical need, and Union were 13 goals to the good at that point, but herein lies the thing…

Orschmann is one of the figureheads of a side put together with the simplest of goals, promotion. And if they want to be promoted, they can’t afford to lose a game. And if they can’t afford to lose a game, then they cannot take their foot off the pedal for a moment; for momentum, once built up, needs to be constantly fed. For Orschmann to let Dittrich boot the ball into the netherland of midfield where it would only be gobbled up by one of her team-mates anyway, would have been to, somehow, concede defeat.

And as such, Union never gave their neighbours a sniff. From Maria Cristina Lange’s opener, volleyed at hip height with her left foot from Anouk Blaschka’s cross, to Sophie Trojahn’s near post stab to round things off with five minutes to go, they were unremitting, they were devastating.

Within the first quarter of an hour Lange and Lisa Görsdorf exchanged passes between themselves, flickering in the inside right channel, Orschmann worked the opposite wing, a mixture of power and nous, Sarah Abu Sabbah twisted and turned past opponents, the ball always at her toe, as if spellbound, and Athanasia Moraitou pulled the strings from the base of a midfield that had already pushed up so high it was as if the guests were being squeezed out of their own half and onto the running track behind the goal at the Fritz Lesch Sportplatz.

Moraitou provided the cross for Lange’s second, her cross leading to chaos in the box, before hitting the third, herself, with a wonderfully lobbed effort that sailed over the Berolina keeper, Joelle Macaulay and in under the crossbar.

It wasn’t Macaulay’s day. She was sent off near the end for a wild lash at Nour Youssef’s ankles, having rushed out of her box, but in truth she had kept the scoreline down, saving from Lange with her legs, Moraitou, as the ball seemed destined for the top corner, from Lisa Görsdorf to her right, and making a wonderful, diving save from Dina Orschmann, tipping the ball wide of her left hand post at full stretch.

.Her team-mate, Mona Aping, had Berolina’s first effort when she hit a first time shot that drifted and dropped just wide of Mel Wagner’s goal after about half an hour, but other than that it was largely one way traffic. Heiseler scored two within a minute, before Abu Sabbah got one before the half was up following a horrible slip by Macaulay. The Union striker was aware enough of the keeper’s plight not to celebrate, but she deserved the goal, nonetheless.

Union’s head coach, Ailien Poese was delighted of course. She sat back in her town hall meeting chair, her feet touching the white fringe of the maroon track, her hands in her pockets, and though she made changes, the second half showed more of the same from her side. Heiseler completed her hattrick with a lovely turn and finish inside the box, as she got her fourth with a poke over the line from the substitute, Zita Rurack’s layoff. Lange scored two more, to be joined by Dina Orschmann, firing high into the roof of the net, and Sophie Trojahn, stabbing home at the near post following one of an endless array of corners with five minutes to go.

And then came Orschmann’s battle in the corner; it was instructive of the performance on the day, but also of all they have yet to achieve and how they need to go about it.

Union hadn’t humiliated their opponents, even though they’d swatted them aside. They had no other choice. They have a three-point lead over Hertha and Viktoria in the table, and a game in hand. They just can’t let themselves let up.