Eisern NYC

Have you accepted your lord and savior Sebastian Andersson? source: Union Berlin 1. FC Union Berlin: Gikiewicz; Friedrich, Hübner, Parensen; Lenz, Trimmel, Gentner, Andrich (Kroos); Ingvartsen (Ryerson), Polter (Bülter), Andersson 1. FC Köln: Horn; Schmitz, Bornauw, Sobiech, Katterbach; Höger (Kainz), Ehizibue (Schaub), Verstraete, Drexler; Cordoba, Terrode (Modeste) Goals: Union: Andersson (33, 50)  The home game against Köln on Sunday was a funny thing. On one hand, a top-flight fixture against a team that you played last year in the second division (and took four of six points from, lest we forget) is decidedly less glamorous than, say, Bayern Munich away. On the other hand, what the game against Köln lacked in glamour it made up for in absolute necessity. These are the games you have to win in order to avoid relegation -- the ones at home, against opposition on your level, surrounded by the most passionate fans in the league. If you can’t snag all three points in tha...

With six goals so far this season, Sebastian Andersson leads Union and is the fourth in the league's top scorers list. Source: Union Berlin. 1. FC Union Berlin: Gikiewicz; Subotic, Friedrich, Schlotterbeck; Trimmel, Kroos (Schmiedebach), Gentner, Lenz; Ingvartsen (Ryerson), Ujah (Bülter), Andersson Borussia Mönchengladbach: Sommer; Elvedi (Strobl), Ginter, Kramer; Wendt, Zakaria, Neuhaus (Stindl), Laimer; Plea, Thuram (Embolo), Herrmann Goals: Union: Ujah (15), Andersson (90+1) How many times does a shock result have to occur before it stops being described as shocking? Because, for the second time this season, Union Berlin handily beat the team at the top of the Bundesliga. While this game was against a different team than it was the first time around (though still one whose name begins with Borussia), there’s no denying that it was a giant-killing. Yet with four wins from their last five games, Union are showing on a regular basis that despite an inglorious start to to...

Is it weird that this is my favorite Union kit this season? source: Union Berlin. 1. FSV Mainz 05: Zentner; Brosinski, Martin (Burkhart), St. Juste, Niakhate; Boetius (Onisiwo), Fernandes, Baku; Öztunali (Maxim), Quaison, Szalai 1. FC Union Berlin: Gikiewicz; Schlotterbeck (Parensen), Friedrich, Subotic; Lenz, Trimmel, Gentner, Andrich, Ingvartsen; Polter (Kroos), Andersson (Ujah) Goals: Mainz: Onisiwo (81), Brosinski (90+4) Union: Brosinski OG (30), Andersson (45+3, 51) As we head into the November international break, things have started to shape up nicely for Union Berlin. They’ve won four of their last five games across all competitions, and the one loss was 2-1 away at Bayern -- a much less ignominious defeat than many bigger clubs have suffered at the Allianz. Those four wins include a DFB-Pokal tie away at Freiburg that sees them face Regionalliga side Verl in the next round. They sit in 11th place in the table, one spot above Hertha, cementing their status as Stadt...

Polter penalty! source: Bild FC Bayern Munich: Neuer; Kimmich, Pavard, Boateng, Davies; Thiago, Coutinho (Goretzka), Muller; Perisic (Tolisso), Lewandowski, Coman (Gnabry) 1. FC Union Berlin: Gikiewicz; Trimmel, Subotic, Friedrich, Lenz; Kroos (Becker), Andrich, Gentner; Ingvartsen (Ujah), Andersson (Polter), Bülter Goals: Bayern: Pavard (13), Lewandowski (53) Union: Polter (86)  It’s been a weird season so far in the Bundesliga. Borussia Mönchengladbach currently sit top of the table, with SC Freiburg and Wolfsburg also occupying Champions League qualification spots. Meanwhile, the usual suspects in the title race continue to drop points and just look generally unimpressive against sides that they would typically dominate. The result has been a far more exciting start to the season than we’ve had in quite some time, even if we’re only nine matches in with plenty of time left for Bayern to get, like, Gareth Bale on loan and just steamroll over everyone else again. Speaking ...

Marius Bülter has three league goals so far this season, all coming in Union's two wins. source: Union Berlin 1. FC Union Berlin: Gikiewicz; Parensen, Schlotterbeck, Friedrich; Trimmel, Lenz, Andrich, Gentner (Kroos); Ingvartsen, Andersson (Ujah), Bülter (Mees) SC Freiburg: Schwolow (Thiede); Lienhart, Koch, Heintz; Günter, Höfler, Abrashi (Petersen), Schmid, Haberer; Waldschmidt, Höler (Grifo) Union Berlin didn’t take much time to get back to winning ways after the international break, with the first of their two goals coming in literally the first minute of the home match against Freiburg. They didn’t score again until the 84th minute, yet despite the tight scoreline and having the minority share of possession (39%), Union appeared to be in full control of the game throughout. A sharp cry from most of their performances in the top flight so far, with the exception of their already legendary 3-1 win over Borussia Dortmund. So, what changed? In their last game before th...

GDI Polti.  Bayer Leverkusen: Hradecky; L. Bender (Weiser), S. Bender, Dragovic, Wendell; Baumgartlinger (Demirbay); Amiri (Paulinho), Aranguiz, Volland, Havertz; Alario 1. FC Union Berlin: Gikiewicz; Trimmel, Friedrich, Schlotterbeck, Lenz (Reichel); Gentner, Andrich; Bülter, Ingvartsen (Polter), Becker (Gogia); Andersson Goals: Leverkusen: Volland (20), Alario (25) Union Berlin have not won away from Berlin in league play since they defeated Holstein Kiel 1-0 back in March. Indeed, the team managed promotion while only winning three league games total, and two of those three teams ended up relegated from the 2. Bundesliga by the end of the season. (Though we mustn’t forget that they managed to take Borussia Dortmund all the way to extra time in their cup tie at the Westfalenstadion before eventually losing 3-2 -- clearly there is something about playing Borussia Dortmund that works for Union!)  All of this is a roundabout way of saying that to expect Union Berlin...

BayArena, Leverkusen Saturday, September 21 9:30 a.m. EDT, 15:30 CEST Match Officials Referee: Robert Hartmann Assistants: Christian Dietz and Markus Schüller 4th Official: Nicolas Winter Video Assistant: Robert Kampka All-Time in All Competitions: 2 Leverkusen wins Union's League Position: 12th, 4 points, -3 GD Union's League Form:  D-D // L-D-W-L Leverkusen's League Position: 8th, 7 points, -1 GD  Leverkusen's League Form:  D-W // W-W-D-L Team News Neven Subotić will serve a one-match ban for his second yellow card sending off (the German "Gelb-Rot" is a much cleaner phrase, in my opinion) against Bremen. Grischa Prömel, still out with a knee injury, is unavailable as well. Urs Fischer also mentioned that the club will be without "three who played in the Baltic Sea Cup," which is an Under-21 tournament, where Union lost 2-1 to Halmstads. Those three were ostensibly Lennard Maloney, Julius Kade, and Maurice Opfer...

All hail our Swedish King, who now has three goals in four matches. source: Union Berlin 1. FC Union Berlin: Gikiewicz; Trimmel, Friedrich, Subotic, Lenz; Gentner (Abdullahi), Andrich; Bülter, Becker (Gogia); Andersson, Ujah (Polter) Werder Bremen: Pavlenka; Friedl, Groß, Gebre Selassie, Lang; J. Eggestein (Pizarro), Sahin, Klaassen, Osako (Sargent); Bittencourt (Goller), Füllkrug Goals: Union Berlin: Andersson (14) Werder Bremen: Klassen (5), Füllkrug (55) If you had told me before the match that Werder Bremen’s visit to the Stadion An der Alten Försterei would have been one of the most intense fixtures of the season thus far, I would have been...well, confused, mostly. Union and Werder do not share a particularly robust history, they aren’t located anywhere near each other in Germany, and they aren’t necessarily going to be rivals to avoid relegation. And yet, despite the dearth of reasons for there to be any more drama than your average Bundesliga fixture between these two t...

In the battle between my two Swiss dads, Urs Fischer bested Lucien Favre, likely because of this awesome tifo. source: Union Berlin Union Berlin: Gikiewicz; Trimmel, Friedrich, Subotic, Lenz; Becker, Schmiedebach (Gentner), Andrich, Bülter (Mees); Andersson, Ujah (Kroos) Borussia Dortmund: Bürki; Hakimi, Piszczek, Hummels, Akanji; Delaney (Dahoud), Weigl (Guerreiro); Sancho, Reus, Brandt (Bruun Larsen); Alcacer Goals: Union Berlin: Bülter (22, 50), Andersson (75) Borussia Dortmund: Alcacer (25)  Apologies for the delay, but I needed a few days to come down from the adrenaline high that was Union Berlin’s first-ever win in the Bundesliga. My memories of the game are honestly a bit fuzzy, as my ability to focus at that time was clouded by extreme emotion (not to mention a few whiskey sodas). Yet even if the precise details of the match aren’t clear to me, one thing is for certain: it was a huge statement of intent by a team that many had already written off for relegati...

Stadion An der Alten Försterei, Berlin Saturday, August 31 12:30 p.m. EDT, 18:30 CEST Match Officials Referee:  Dr. Felix Brych Assistants:  Mark Borsch and Stefan Lupp 4th Official:  Martin Petersen Video Assistant:  Günter Perl All-Time in All Competitions:  2 Dortmund wins Union's League Position:  14th place, 1 point, -4 GD Union's League Form:  W-D // D-D // L-D Dortmund's League Position:  1st place, 6 points, +6 GD Dortmund's League Form:  L-D-W-W // W-W Union Berlin had to come from behind, but Sebastian Andersson's 80th minute goal last week, the first in the club's Bundesliga history, earned the club their first top flight point. With those accomplishments out of the way, Union return home this weekend to face one of the title favorites. So, what can Union expect to accomplish against a club with the attacking prowess of Borussia Dortmund, who have already racked up eight goals and a +6 goal difference...

Our beautiful goal-scoring and goal-creating Sebastians. source: Union Berlin  FC Augsburg: Koubek; Max, Jedvaj, Lichtsteiner, Khedira; Baier, Gruezo (Oxford), Vargas (Richter); Hahn, Gregoritsch, Niederlechner (Finnbogason) 1. FC Union Berlin: Gikiewicz; Trimmel, Subotic, Schlotterbeck (Sent off 84), Lenz; Prömel, Andrich, Ingvartsen (Andersson); Becker (Abdullahi), Ujah (Polter), Bülter Goals: Augsburg - Vargas (Niederlechner), 59 Union - Andersson (Polter), 80 In preseason predictions of how the 2019-2020 Bundesliga table would look at the end of the season, Union Berlin and Augsburg both featured prominently in the relegation positions. While Augsburg have been in the top flight since 2011, and even featured in the Europa League in 2015-2016, recent seasons have shown a slow but steady decline. They finished in 15th place last season, just above Stuttgart in the relegation playoff position (and we all know how that turned out for Stuttgart). Like Hamburg before them, w...

WWK Arena, Augsburg Saturday, August 23 9:30 a.m. EDT, 15:30 CEST Match Officials Referee:  Robert Schröder Assistants:  Jan Nietzel-Petersen and Guido Kleve 4th Official:  Patrick Alt Video Review:  Bibiana Steinhaus All-Time in All Competitions:  1 Augsburg win, 3 draws Union Berlin's League Form:  L-W-D // D-D // L Augsburg's League Form:  W-L-D-L-L // L I mean, this rain couldn't have helped... Well, Union Berlin come into this match following their worst Bundesliga loss in history... so, there's only one way to go from here, right? Right?! To earn safety in the Bundesliga and avoid the relegation playoff for that matter, you need to finish no worse than 15th, which means finding three teams in the league that will finish below you. I'm probably not going to harp on that point every week , but it'll also take at least a month to really figure out who Union fans should be hoping loses week-in, week-out. But there's a...