Union Berlin Stuns Dortmund, 3-1

The beauty of having a DVR is being able to sleep in on Saturdays.  Fox Sports broadcast their Bundesliga games live.  This means the first game comes on at 8:30am.  I never get up that early on a Saturday unless I have to work.  The Borussia Dortmund-FC Union match was today's 'afternoon' game (evening in Germany).  As is my wont, I was up until 4am this morning and slept through the afternoon match.  This might be one of those games where I could erase it if the outcome was as expected.  This was not one of those games.

Union’s Stadion An der Alten Försterei has a capacity of 22,012, and this is the second-ever first division game played here.  On paper, this one looked like it was going to be a blowout, like Union's Matchday 1 4-0 thrashing by league-leaders RB Leipzig.  But games aren't played "on paper".

The little stadium erupted when Marius Bülter scored Union's first-ever Bundesliga goal at home. The goal came off of a corner kick.  The set piece has always been the Achilles' Heel for Dortmund's defense, and today was no different.  Dortmund doesn't stay behind for long whenever they are scored upon.  Again, today was no different.  Three minutes later Dortmund attacked.  Marco Reus and Jalon Sancho combined with Paco Alcacer, who tied the game three minutes later with his fourth goal of the young Bundesliga season.  Dortmund controlled the ball 73 percent of the time.  The Union players worked their butts off trying to keep pace with Dortmund, logging a collective 6 kilometers more than there Dortmund counterparts.  Dortmund had their chances, but the score remained tied at the half, 1-1.

Five minutes after the restart, Marcus Andersson capitalized on Manuel Akanji’s bad defense to burst clear and force a smart save from the feet of Roman Bürki. Marius Bülter caught Bürki's rebound of Andersson's shot and found just enough daylight to put the ball past him to restore Union's lead, 2-1.  It was Bülter's second goal. Roman Bürki did everything right.  Bülter proved that football is also a game of inches. Bürki just wasn't tall enough.

For the next 25 minutes, Dortmund ran Union all over the pitch, but they couldn't find the net again.  Julian Brandt, the wunderkind and German international signed away from Bayer Leverkusen, looked like he wasn't on the same page as the rest of the team.  Whenever Paco Alcacer got the ball, he seemed determined to do it all himself. 

At the 75th minute, Union received another corner kick - another set piece.  Dortmund made a poor clearance of the corner, and Marcus Andersson made them pay.  He slipped by defender Mats Hummels for Union's third goal.  With Bayern bringing in younger, faster defenders, perhaps THAT is why Hummels is no longer at Bayern.  Andersson scored last week in the draw against FC Augsburg, and he scored this week.  According to the clock, there were fifteen minutes left to play, but this match was over.  Dortmund is one of those teams that aren't beaten until the final whistle.  The referee added 7 minutes of stoppage time (an eternity in football), but there could have been 10 extra minutes and it wouldn't have mattered.  Today, after Union's third goal, whatever Dortmund tried was met by a sea of red Union jerseys in the penalty area.  They were done.

After their opening week debacle at home against RB Leipzig, Union was better-prepared mentally.  And these guys were tough against Dortmund.  They won this game on sheer determination.  They don't have the star power of Dortmund or Bayern Munich, but they played better as a unit than did Dortmund.  They made Dortmund look ordinary.  I hope FC Union Berlin is in the first division to stay.

I finished watching this match at 7pm Central Time.  Berlin is 7 hours ahead of us.  I bet those Union Berlin fans are still celebrating at their tiny stadium.

Bayern Munich 2, Hertha Berlin 2

Today used to be the day She Who Must Be Obeyed would dread – the first day of Bundesliga season.  She has since mellowed and actually enjoys watching the games.  Quite a bit has happened in Munich since the end of last season.  Arjen Robben retired, Franck Ribery left [time caught up with ‘Robbery’].  Defender Mats Hummels went back to Borussia Dortmund, and James Rodriguez returned to Real Madrid.  French defender Benjamin Pavard joined from Stuttgart [just in time to avoid playing in 2. Bundesliga], French defender Lucas Hernandez joined from Atletico Madrid.  Bayern has yet to replace the departed Robbery, and in the German Super Cup against Dortmund, it showed.  Dortmund earned a shutout against Bayern, 2-0.  Bayern has been slow to replace departed players, and Bayern fans who are used to complete domination in the Bundesliga are nervous [for once].

Bayern’s opponent today was Hertha Berlin.  They have a new singing as well.  Dodi Lukebakio joined Hertha from Fortuna Düsseldorf.  The last time Lukebakio played in Munich, it was last season when he scored a hat trick against Bayern, giving Düsseldorf an unexpected 3-3 draw against Bayern.  Bayern was ahead 3-0 in that game, so this result was a bit of a shock for Bayern fans, and the death watch for first-year coach Niko Kovac began.  After the winter break, Bayern righted the ship and won the Bundesliga championship on the season’s last day, the first time that had happened in a long time.  With some holes still left to fill, Bayern is not the prohibitive favorite to win it all again this year.  

Bayern started in their usual 4-3-3 formation.  Hertha started in an attacking 3-4-1-2 formation, and in the first half it looked like that would pay off.  Bayern scored first – Robert Lewandowski broke the ice at 24 minutes, who slotted home the first goal from a perfect cross from Serge Gnabry.  The lead lasted twelve minutes.  In his second game at the Allianz Arena, Dodi Lukebakio scored his fourth goal against Bayern.  His shot at goal bounced off the back of teammate Vedad Ibesevic and bounced past Bayern goalie Manuel Neuer.  Only three minutes later Hertha grabbed the lead when Marko Grujic took an excellent long pass from Ibesevic, dribbled around Neuer and scored.  The long ball was working well for Hertha, and Hertha speedsters Mathew Leckie and Dodi Lukebakio gave Bayern’s defense some trouble.  Bayern’s Achilles Hell is the counter attack.  Two mistakes from Bayern’s defense cost them two goals.  They controlled the ball sixty percent of the time, but when you’re susceptible to the counterattack, that statistic is meaningless.  Three minutes were added to the end of the first half, which ended with Hertha leading, 2-1.  Could this be Bayern’s first opening weekend defeat in 17 years?

Neither side made any substitutions at the half.  Bayern had two early scoring opportunities.  At 49 minutes Thomas Müller received a header in the penalty box off a corner kick. But missed.  There was an offside call anyway – it wouldn’t have counted.  Kingsley Coman had a chance three minutes later, but it went directly at Hertha goalie Rune Jarstein.  But at 58 minutes Lewandowski was pulled down in the box and was awarded a penalty.  He converted the penalty and tied the score, 2-2.  After Lewandowski’s equalizer, Hertha made two substitutes – Alexander Esswein for Ibesevic, and David Selkie for Lukebakio.  There would be no second hat trick for Lukebakio today.  As in the first half, Bayern continued to control the ball, hoping to wear down Hertha into making a mistake and give up a goal.  At 75 minutes Benjamin Pavard committed a hard foul.  Hertha was awarded a free-kick on the edge of Bayern’s penalty area.  However, Hertha’s Ondrej Duda slammed his free kick into Bayern’s wall.  He was substituted for Per Skjelbred shortly thereafter.

Bayern had plenty of scoring chances off set pieces in the second half.  They had seven corner kicks to none for Hertha.  In the 85^th minute, Bayern substituted Renato Sanches for Thomas Müller. Two minutes later Alphonso Davies substituted for Serge Gnabry.  Three minutes of stoppage time was added on at the end of regulation.  It ended up being four minutes of additional time, but it wasn’t enough for either team to break the deadlock.  The game ended with a 2-2 draw.  Hertha must be ecstatic about grabbing a point at the Allianz Arena, but they should be kicking themselves for letting an away win elude their grasp.  Bayern continues to remain undefeated on opening day since 2002, but they didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory today.  This is going to be a long season for Bayern fans.