With Bob Marley on the chest of their new away shirts, the players of Bohemian FC from Dublin took to the stage at the Stadion an der Alten Försterei on Saturday – at least putting their hosts in the shade a little. Because next to the reggae design of the guests, the new, simply striped home jerseys of 1. FC Union looked almost boring.
Fortunately, football is still not a catwalk, and despite the fashion defeat, Union were able to celebrate a successful season opener against the Irish first division club. In front of almost 16,000 spectators, the Berliners won the first home game of the preparation 2-1 and thus secured their third win in the fourth test game of the summer.
Despite the victory and the happy mood, the Berliners were self-critical. Coach Urs Fischer spoke of a “modest performance”, while Rani Khedira complained about a “sluggish” performance. “The fans gave us a very nice game today, we the fans not so much,” said the midfielder.
After the 0-1 draw at Eintracht Braunschweig last week, Union quickly got back in the mood to score in front of their home crowd. After just twelve minutes, new signing Danilho Doekhi provided the well-deserved lead with his first goal in Union dress. After a good attack from the left, the Dutch defender slammed a loose ball under the bar from 20 meters away.
Before the half-time whistle, the Berliners were denied two more goals, including a volley by Sven Michel that is well worth seeing. Substitute Jordan Siebatcheu had two good chances after the break before Andreas Voglsammer extended the lead.
When Ali Coote scored the goal for the guests shortly afterwards, the few thousand Dubliners in the away block celebrated as if they had won the Champions League. But in the end, the Berliners also celebrated, who can now go to the training camp in the south relatively satisfied. On Monday the team will travel to Austria where they will play friendlies against Dynamo Budweis and Udinese.
