Frederik Rönnow grabbed his drinking bottle again, then put the ball a few meters to the side for the tee shot and apologetically raised his hand towards the referee. He had regained 20 seconds and it was already overtime for his 1. FC Union at FSV Mainz 05. There weren’t much bigger highlights than the action of the Köpenick goalkeeper on Sunday afternoon in the duel between the two teams. Almost inevitably, the game between two winners in the Bundesliga ended 0-0.
In the end, no one was really dissatisfied, apart from perhaps the 25,009 spectators in Mainz, who might have spent the afternoon at the outdoor pool in the scorching heat. Union coach Urs Fischer, on the other hand, was happy about the draw: “Both teams worked very well against the ball and therefore neutralized each other to a certain extent. I’m happy to take a point from Mainz,” he said after the game.
Both teams are on four points after two games – for Union this is the best start to the season in the Bundesliga ever. After the derby win against Hertha a week ago, Fischer only changed his team in one position and ordered Niko Gießelmann to the starting line-up instead of Christopher Trimmel, while Rani Khedira wore the captain’s armband. He was able to do this calmly for long stretches of the game because there was little pace and both teams placed great value on safety.
In the first half there were more drinking breaks (one) than clear chances to score (zero), only a few attempts from a distance frightened one or the other fan briefly. In the second round it got a little livelier without really much happening. Union defender Robin Knoche said that as the game progressed it became more and more difficult to “pull yourself up again” and cited the high temperatures as the reason for the cultivated boredom on the pitch: “I prefer to play at ten degrees less.”
