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.