Eisern Union in the Jahnsportpark!

Union Berlin hat nur 1 Heimat: an der Alte Försterei...

 

 

Since this season German football has 3 national divisions, while until last season there were only 2 nationwide divisions followed by the regional divisions. The brand new 3.Bundesliga was formed by a few relegators from the 2.Bundesliga, plus the best teams from the Regionalliga who narrowly missed promotion to the 2.Bundesliga. Amongst those latter teams is Union Berlin. The "Eisern Union" from the Berliner district Köpenick was in the running for promotion to the second division until the last game, when a 0-3 defeat versus Oberhausen terminated their dreams of promotion. But no worries, Union had long qualified for the new 3.Bundesliga.

 

This new "Dritte Bundesliga" started last week and contains quite a few nice teams with a long history: Dynamo Dresden, Union Berlin, Fortuna Düsseldorf, Eintracht Braunschweig, SpVgg Unterhachung, Carl Zeiss Jena, Wuppertal... they are all present in the newly formed third division. And indeed, Union as well. After their first game away from home in München it was time for the first home game of the season this weekend.

 

"Home" game is a bit questionable though for the Köpernicker outfit. Their own stadium "an der Alte Försterei" in the southeastern outskirts of Berlin was for a long time in danger of disappearing because it did not fit the standards for the new third Bundesliga. Several Union fans were outrageous: leaving the Alte Försterei was unthinkable and should never happen as it is a part of the club's history. A move to the Jahnsportpark where enemies Dynamo Berlin used to play, was even less acceptable. In the end the club found a solution: the Alte Försterei is being modernised so that Union can stay in their own Heimat. The modernisation is unique in a way: not only professional construction workers but also many fans who volunteered are rebuilding the stadium. Yes, the stadium is being rebuilt by the club's own fans!! The Alte Försterei will be completely up-to-date with modern security standards in less than 3 months and end of October, when Paderborn travel to Berlin, the new Alte Försterei will be officially opened.

Union can stay at home, only for 2,5 months while the construction works at their own stadium are going on, a temporary solution was needed. As no other options existed, Union will play 6 home games in the Jahnsportpark. Only 6 games and then back home to the Alte Försterei, this was acceptable for the fans as well. And thus, this first home game was played in the Jahnsportpark.

 

The Friedrich Jahnsportpark is situated in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin, not too far from the city center. Prenzlauer Berg is, like Union itself, former East Berlin. It used to be a neighbourhood known for its alternative population including punks and artists. Nowadays it still is a bit like that, with many artists residing here and a vibrant nightlife with its many narrow streets and bars. The Jahnsportpark lies in the middle of a nightlife area so you won't get bored after the game... It is the second biggest stadium in Berlin at the moment, only the Olympiastadion of Hertha Berlin is bigger. The Jahnsportpark was used by several clubs in the past. The now defunct Vorwärts Berlin used to play its home games here, and Dynamo Berlin  as well for a while. Especially the latter was a reason why Union Berlin fans did not like the stadium: while Union was the people's club without ties to the communist regime, Dynamo was during the East German era the police club who often committed fraude in order to win trophies to please the communist regime. Needless to say the hatred between Dynamo and Union was big, very big. Since Dynamo left the stadium to move to the Sportforum a bit further down the area, the Jahnsportpark has served several clubs from several sports. American football, soccer, ... have all been played in the stadium. Hertha Berlin recently beat an obscure Moldovan team here (8-1) in the UEFA Cup while their own stadium was unavailable. Union Berlin itself used the stadium 8 years ago to play their European games in the UEFA Cup. From this season on, Türkiyemspor Berlin will have their home here because (after being promoted to the Regionalliga) their own stadium in the Kreuzberg area became too small.

 

And now Union Berlin are using the "stadium from nobody but for everybody in Berlin". The first 6 home games will be played here, before going back home to the Alte Försterei. The Union board hopes to use the occasion to promote Union Berlin to people living closer to the city center.

I had never been inside this stadium, only outside but with locked gates. I do remember the impressive sky-high floodlights, classic floodlights like in the good old days. Inside the stadium was quite nice actually, even despite the athletics track around the field. Because of the athletics track the stands around the field have an oval shape. Two stands aside the pitch have a roof (one of them is the quite high VIP stand) while the seats behind the goals have no roof. The stadium is an all-seater and, which gives it a colourful outlook, the seats are all in yellow-red-green. Yes, the colours of my beloved KV Oostende :) About 5100 Union fans have made the trip to the stadium, while opponent Stuttgart had brought about 30 maximum. If you include however the VIPs and guests who got in for free, you can say we probably had not much less than 6000 fans at this game.

 

 

 

 

 

Introducing Union is not really necessary, but the opposition today was far less interesting. The rules of the third Bundesliga say that maximum 3 reserve teams of 1.Bundesliga teams can participate. Union had to start last week against the reserves of Bayern München (and lost 2-1) and now another reserve team was the opposition: the reserves of VfB Stuttgart. Two reserve teams as first two opponents, you can hardly call that attractive games... (a third reserve team in the 3.Bundesliga are the amateurs of Werder Bremen).

 

I personally don't like reserve teams in the regular leagues. And today you could see again why: VfB Stuttgart reserves were supported by exactly 30 fans. OK, it is a long drive from Stuttgart to Berlin, but still. If this was the normal Stuttgart team there would have been several hundreds. Reserve teams simply don't interest or attract lot of people. Last week in München, the game between the Bayern reserves and Union Berlin was attended by only 3000 fans as well. Personally I would have prefered the likes of FC Magdeburg or VfL Lübeck in the third division instead of reserve teams of 1.Bundesliga clubs. But anyway...

 

 

 

 

The game started off with an aggressive Union team but apart from a lot of posession and mainly playing on the Stuttgarter side of the pitch, there were few chances. The first danger even came from the Stuttgart amateurs when a cross frpm the left narrowly missed their striker at the far post who could otherwise have slided the ball into the open goal. Union had most posession however and their noisy fans screamed them forwards. Gebhardt's free kick was the first good chance for the "Eisern Union". Shortly after Union broke the deadlock: a free kick from Gebhardt from the right reached Ruprecht who headed the ball into the net. 1:0 für die Eisernen!

 

10 minutes later Union doubled their lead: the Stuttgart Amateure did not clear the ball outside of their box, and a Ruprecht header was narrowly saved by goalie Ulreich. The ball bounced back in the field from the crossbar and Benyamina easily shot the rebound into the net. 2-0!

 

The second half was less exciting with VfB Stuttgart II being more dominant and having more posession, but they had very little chances. When they could not keep up their tempo, Union saw counterstrike possibilities. A Dogan corner was headed in by Benyamina but the Stuttgarter goalie saved. One minute later a new corner followed and this team Benyamina headed the ball into the net from close range at the near post. 3-0 and the Eisernen were now sure of victory.

 

Stuttgart's reserve team played well but was very sterile in attack, apart from a few shots from distance easily saved by the goalkeeper Glinker. 13 minutes before the end, Hofmann gave the Stuttgarter reserves a consolidation goal when he shot the ball past goalkeeper Glinker in the far corner of the goal. 3-1 but that latter goal was just a statistic.

 

Overall a deserved victory for Union whose fans seemed to have enjoyed their first day out in the Jahnsportpark. 5 more home games to go in Prenzlauer Berg, und danach ist's züruck nach Hause, züruck nach dem Alte Försterei! The home game versus Paderborn in the last weekend of October will celebrate Union's return home to the modernised stadium in Köpenick. Und niemals vergessen: Eisern Union, Eisern Union!

 

 

 

 

2/8/2008: 1.FC Union Berlin - VfB Stuttgart II : 3-1

Jahnsportpark, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin

 

Union: Glinker - Göhlert, Stuff, Ruprecht, Kohlmann - Bönig (80. Menz) - Bemben, Younga Mouhani (66. Dogan), Gebhardt - Benyamina, Biran (87. Patschinski)

 

VfB Stuttgart II: Ulreich - Schwabe, Kovacevic, Feisthammel, Enderle (82. Rahn) - Ikeng - Funk, Träsch, Rudy (82. Klauß) - Schipplock (46. Schieber), Hofmann