Eisern NYC

Hamburg: Pollersbeck; Santos, Sakai, van Drongelen, Lacroix; Holtby, Hunt (Bates), Mangala (Moritz); Jatta, Hwang, Narey (Arp) Union Berlin: Gikiewicz; Trimmel, Friedrich, Hübner, Reichel; Schmiedebach, Prömel; Abdullahi, Mees (Hedlund), Hartel (Gogia); Polter (Andersson) Goals: Hamburg: Hunt - 58; Holtby - 65 Union: Mees - 12; Abdullahi - 90 Same, Abdullahi, same. Source: Union Berlin Seeing as Hamburg had never been relegated to the 2. Bundesliga before this year and Union Berlin have never been promoted above the 2. Bundesliga, the first-ever competitive fixture between the two clubs was always going to be a big event. (While Union’s ancestor club did play against Hamburg a couple times way back in the 1920s, the modern iteration of Union Berlin has not.) Der Dino’s debut in the 2. Bundesliga was an inauspicious one -- a 3-0 loss at home to Holstein Kiel. But apart from one other wild home loss -- 5-0 loss to Jahn Regensburg -- Hamburg have pieced together a string of posit...

Volksparkstadion, Hamburg Monday, November 26 2:30 p.m. EST, 20:30 CEST Referee:  Frank Willenborg All-Time in All Competitions:  First competitive meeting Union Berlin's League Form:  W-D-D-D-D-W Union Berlin's League Position:  3rd, 23 points, +11 GD Hamburg's League Form:  D-W-D-W-W-W Hamburg's League Position: 1st, 27 points, +3 GD The win over Fürth was the first time Union scored in the first 10 minutes since beating Sandhausen in February. Thanks to the international break, it feels like it's been forever since Union's 4-0 win over Greuther Fürth left us all feeling a little more comfortable about the state of the team. If that had been yet another draw, I'm not certain how we all would have felt going into a match like this one. On Monday night, Union make the trip north to face top of the table Hamburg in what is probably their biggest league test since the early season trip to Köln. This is one of those measuring stick so...