Part of the liturgy at 1. FC Union Berlin is to mercilessly whistle at the video referee (VAR) when the players are being read out. His efforts are, to put it mildly, rarely appreciated: “You are destroying our sport!” is what they like to sing Choir, to the tune of an old gospel called “Just over in the Gloryland.” In the second minute of added time it was that time again: whistles, disapproval, shouts. And this time it was understandable as the referee team made a controversial decision and thus deprived Union of a possible fourth home win of the season against Eintracht Frankfurt at the last second. Via VAR. And what you could certainly say on Sunday evening: those responsible and players at 1. FC Union Berlin shared the resentment that underlies the choir.
“We definitely lost two points. The referee takes it home with him,” complained Union manager Horst Heldt after Harm Osmers denied substitute Tim Skarke’s possible 2-1 win. Striker Benedict Hollerbach, who scored the goal in the 66th minute that ultimately made the score 1-1, found it “scandalous” that Skarke’s goal was not recognized. That was “not in the spirit of football,” said Hollerbach. For which there were good arguments.
SZ Plus Mats Hummels in Rom
:An own goal after four and a half minutes of play
Mats Hummels came on as a substitute for AS Roma for the first time when the score was 1:4 in Florence and scored into his own goal to make the final score 1:5. His case seems tragicomic, but his club has even bigger problems.
The referee team complained that part of Christopher Trimmel’s body was offside when Union’s right-back was involved in setting up Skarke’s scoring opportunity. This couldn’t have been seen with the naked eye. This required the finest technology – and the drive of the VAR to rewind in the so-called “Cologne cellar” to the Pleistocene era of the move in order to draw a calibrated line and cancel the goal.
While Trimmel acknowledged this somewhat with a shrug of his shoulders, perhaps because he knows that the rule shows no mercy in such a situation, Heldt called it “embarrassing” and he was “really angry about how it was handled today.” What made matters worse was that the referee made the right decision in this situation, but was often wrong in small things. The recordings of the reactions on the Union bench could be passed off as a senior gymnastics video: every few minutes they jumped up and raised their arms in protest.
Krösche is also dissatisfied with Osmer’s performance
Heldt was also angry with the referees because of another detail: the injury time. The other day in Mönchengladbach, Union had to accept an eight-minute serve and a goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time “without any VAR fuss” (Heldt). Now it was only four minutes with fuss, lots of substitutions and a lot of delays in the game by Eintracht goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. Union coach Bo Svensson thought you could also “flip a coin”. And don’t give the wrong impression: Union not only attacked the referees on their own behalf, they also found time to sympathize with the guests.
They ended the game with ten men because defender Arthur Theate saw yellow-red (71′). The second warning against the Belgian was excessive simply because Theate had been fouled by Union’s Skarke immediately before his entry against Andras Schäfer – basically in the same action. Heldt’s Frankfurt colleague Markus Krösche bit his tongue after the game. “It’s hard to find the right words now without getting another call,” he said. Then he complained.
Next week Union will travel to Munich for a small top game
Because Osmers was only standing “five meters away” and therefore “should” have seen that Theate had lost control of his body through no fault of his own; The expulsion was “annoying, decisive,” he complained. That was a plausible idea, but also a risky one. In the second half, Union not only equalized Hollerbach’s opening goal from veteran Mario Götze (300th Bundesliga game). But also clearly gained control of the game.
A week before the visit to the leaders FC Bayern Munich (Saturday, 3:30 p.m.), the game against Eintracht also showed: The Köpenickers are well on their way to becoming the team again that was labeled “disgusting” under former coach Urs Fischer ” perceived as a title of nobility. They are unbeaten in four games at home and are in fourth place with 15 points after eight Bundesliga rounds. And: That doesn’t encourage anyone in Köpenick to block the Champions League dates for the 2025/26 season. Union seems to be well aware that DSC Arminia Bielefeld, who they face in the DFB Cup on Wednesday, represents a challenge.
In any case, Eintracht coach Dino Toppmöller’s remark that it was “a very good Bundesliga game” was a bit misleading. At the Alte Försterei, the approximately 22,000 people were not necessarily forced to click their tongues like in a star restaurant. Toppmöller’s additional information that the game was “very intense” was, however, completely correct. He was able to see himself fully confirmed in the remote analysis he had made the evening before.
Because Union is a team that indulges in duels, collects a lot of second balls, gets crosses and shots and was able to increase the pressure in the end – because of the majority and because, unlike Eintracht, Union did not play in the European Cup during the week. Svensson, in turn, said that he commands a team that dares to “defend aggressively going forward, running as a team not only for many meters, but also very intensively” in order to win the ball as far forward as possible. “This is our game idea, our DNA,” said Svensson, and it sounded as if Union had found a new Urs after a long search.
