Eisern NYC

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...

Honoring those who couldn't be there. Source: Union Berlin 1. FC Union Berlin: Gikiewicz; Trimmel, Schlotterbeck, Friedrich, Lenz; Prömel, Andrich, Gentner (Ujah); Abdullahi (Becker), Bülter, Andersson (Polter) RB Leipzig: Gulacsi; Konate, Mukiele, Orban; Halstenberg, Klostermann; Demme (Laimer), Sabitzer, Kampl (Forsberg); Werner (Nkunku), Poulsen The days and weeks leading up to Union Berlin’s first-ever game in the top flight of the Bundesliga were taken up by a narrative that had very little to do with the game on the field and everything to do with the culture of the sport itself.  Union Berlin have been endlessly hyped by the media as a “cult” club whose passionate fans built their stadium and can outsing anyone in Germany, a club that values community more than commercialism. For their first match in the Bundesliga to be at home against RB Leipzig -- a franchise literally the opposite of Union Berlin in every way -- was both terribly fitting and utterly unfortu...

Stadion an der Alten Försterei, Berlin Sunday, August 18 12:00 p.m. EDT, 18:00 CEST Referee:  Markus Schmidt All-Time in All Competitions:  1 Union win, 2 Leipzig wins, 1 draw Union Berlin Last Season: 2. Bundesliga 3rd, 57 points, +23 GD, promoted via play-off RB Leipzig Last Season:  Bundesliga 3rd, 66 points, +34 GD Union Team News Out:  Hübner (knee/match fitness,) Abdullahi (match fitness) Since it was hard to follow the pre-season in the US (and I haven't seen a live minute of action since the final whistle of the promotion play-off,) I'm not really in a great position to predict what the XI is going to look like. Pretty sure Rafał Gikiewicz will be in goal, though... also, Christopher Trimmel at right back. Florian Hübner is still a doubt because he hasn't had much time in training, having injured his knee earlier in summer training (I believe in a collision with Grischa Prömel. Classic.) Urs Fischer confirmed this morning that Hübne...

As Union Berlin prepare to embark on the club's first Bundesliga season in their history, we take a look at the glut of roster changes the side made to prepare for the top flight over the summer. Gikiewicz celebrates his goal. Goalkeepers:  Well, there's no doubt that Rafał Gikiewicz is a huge part of why Union Berlin will be playing Bundesliga football for the first time this season. Purchased from Freiburg, Gikiewicz appeared in every fixture last season and backstopped the stingiest defense in the 2. Bundesliga, conceding 33 goals in 34 matches while keeping 14 clean sheets. No other club in the second division conceded fewer than Hamburg's 42. And he scored an injury time equalizer himself against Heidenheim last October to boot (well, maybe to boot is the wrong phrase since it was a header...) Lennart Moser has gone out on loan to Energie Cottbus this season so the club brought in Moritz Nicolas from Borussia Mönchengladbach to make up the numbers between the...