Preview: Bayer 04 Leverkusen v. 1. FC Union Berlin

BayArena, Leverkusen

Saturday, September 21

9:30 a.m. EDT, 15:30 CEST

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 Opfermann Arcones. Since Laurenz Dehl started as well, I count that as four players. If any of these four appeared against Leverkusen at this point, there'd be serious depth problems at hand...
Without Subotić, we'll see whether Keven Schlotterbeck returns to center back to play with Marvin Friedrich or if Florian Hübner is fit again to reunite last year's central defensive pairing.
Otherwise, it appears the full squad is available for selection.
If there were enough news to warrant it, I'd separate Leverkusen's team news into another section but, as far as I can see, they have no injury concerns in their squad at the moment. Good for them, must be nice.

Current Form

After a worse-than-expected performance in the season's opening fixture, Union Berlin have looked decent in the three matches that have followed...
...which makes losing at home to Bremen all the more disappointing. That point could prove crucial in a relegation battle and it almost negates the three points "stolen" from a title contender in the previous fixture.
What I mean by that is, when you examine the fixture list to figure out where enough points to survive will come from, a home loss to Dortmund and a home win over Bremen would have been a reasonable haul for a team with optimistic expectations.
Having the results flipped brings you to the same end point: three points from two games. Winning the "difficult" fixture first, however, psychologically makes the end point feel worse than it would have if they had done it the "expected" way. It's deflating, even if you would've taken the three points from two games at the start.
As for Leverkusen, they opened the year with two wins over Paderborn and Düsseldorf, but haven't won since.
They played a 0-0 draw with a struggling Hoffenheim side, then lost 4-0 at Dortmund after the international break.
To make matters worse, they lost at home in the Champions League on Wednesday to Lokomotiv Moscow, 2-1, which is a very damaging result as they sit in a group with Atlético Madrid and Juventus.

Match Facts

Union and Bayer Leverkusen have met in two previous Pokal ties, with Leverkusen winning both.
Most recently, the sides met in the second round in 2017 at the BayArena. Julian Brandt gave the hosts a 1-0 halftime lead, but Dennis Daube scored for Union just after the restart. Leverkusen retook the lead around the hour mark, then made their lead safe as Union pushed forward for an equalizer, scoring a third from the penalty spot in the 89th minute, then a fourth from a set piece after Stephan Fürstner was sent off in the 92nd.
Back in 2003, the sides met in Berlin in the second round; Leverkusen won 5-0 as a 22-year-old Dimitar Berbatov scored twice.

The Referee

The referee is Robert Hartmann, from Wangen im Allgäu.
One of his claims to fame is that he was the first German referee to use vanishing spray in a match. Fascinating!
In 11 previous matches with Hartmann, Union have a record of seven wins and four losses.
Union did not see Hartmann at all last year; his last Union match was their 3-1 win over Düsseldorf at Alte Försterei in February of 2018.
For Leverkusen, Hartmann has worked 15 matches; they have a record of eight wins, four losses, and three draws.
One quirk of these club records: both Union and Leverkusen have suffered 2-1 Pokal losses to Heidenheim with Hartmann as the referee. Union's loss came in 2014, Leverkusen's was last year. So, you know, watch out for that...

Around the Bundesliga

Friday (night): FC Schalke 04 v. 1. FSV Mainz 05; Veltins-Arena, Gelsenkirchen
Saturday: Bayern München v. 1. FC Köln; Allianz Arena, Munich
Saturday: Hertha BSC v. SC Paderborn 07; Olympiastadion, Berlin
Saturday: SC Freiburg v. FC Augsburg; Schwarzwald-Stadion, Freiburg im Breisgau
Saturday (late): Werder Bremen v. RB Leipzig; Weserstadion, Bremen
Sunday (early): Borussia Mönchengladbach v. Fortuna Düsseldorf; Borussia-Park, Mönchengladbach
Sunday (late): Eintracht Frankfurt v. Borussia Dortmund; Commerzbank-Arena, Frankfurt am Main
Monday (night): VfL Wolfsburg v. 1899 Hoffenheim; Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg

Eisern NYC