Match Report: TSG Hoffenheim (H)

Pre-match

It's early in the season, so who knows what to make of any team at the moment. We came into this one on the back of a great opening day win, followed by a heavy defeat but by all accounts a credible performance against Dortmund.

Likewise, our opponents in Hoffenheim followed up a surprise opening day win over Leverkusen (caveat: Erik Ten Hag's Leverkusen) with a home defeat by Frankfurt.

Our lineup suggested confidence, more or less a 5-2-3 with Haberer and Khedira the sole midfield pair while Ilic, Ansah and Burke were tasked with creating chaos up front.

The pre-match playlist was especially strong, a conspicuous, all around the ground sing-along to Abba's Mamma Mia interspersed between Chop Suey and Master of Puppets.

The Alte Försterei was, as ever, in good voice, celebrating a 5-1 win for the Frauen over Hertha and giving a big round of applause from around the ground to the Einlaufkinder. My German failed me a bit, but if I heard right, the kids were all affected directly or indirectly by disability or illness. They did a great job and got a wonderful reception from all four sides of the stadium.

For Hoffenheim, a couple of Fußballgotts returned in the form of former youngster Asllani and Union stalwart Grischa Prömel.

First Half

The sides were evenly matched in the opening stages, Hoffenheim perhaps shading it. My, it was scrappy though.

We all got a great neck workout from watching the ball ping back and forth in the air, nobody able to control the thing.

A pleasant day gave way to drizzling rain, not helping matters.

Hoffenheim got in early, the dangerous Toure breaking on the left and working it right to Asllani in acres of space on the right of our box.

Rothe and Skov couldn't get close to him, but the main man Freddie Rønnow made a big block to prevent a certain goal.

We grew into the half, but it was all frustrating, flashes of promise before a misplaced pass or miskick.

Haberer and Khedira were everywhere in an outnumbered midfield, Haberer particularly putting himself about.

Burke, Ilic and Ansah are still developing their understanding. Burke stayed mainly wide right, Ilic central, and Ansah just drifted around everywhere.

Ansah already looks our best player, bags of skill plus pace, power and good decisions. Twice in the first half he effortlessly skinned Coufal - who otherwise had an outstanding game for the visitors - and crossed, one leading to a Burke header which flashed wide on the stretch.

Burke blew hot and cold, clearly full of pace but with mixed end product today.

This was neatly encapsulated with our best chance of the half.

A rare opportunity to counter attack in the 20th minute saw a deep ball from midfield set Burke haring off down the inside right channel. He absolutely burned the defender for pace.

The keeper was worried enough to come for it, way out of his area, but the Flying Scotsman beat him to it and advanced down the right, the goal at his mercy.

He was a fair way from goal and the angle was right, but a moment's indecision allowed Bernardo to get back and block his low shot. Attempting to cross on the followup, Burke simply thumped it back out of the box and the move was done.

That was kind of the story of our day and especially Burke's. A moment of something great - at one point he made a spectacular slide tackle at speed - followed by a poor touch or decision.

As we approached half time, the momentum was with Union. Set pieces were causing huge problems for Hoffenheim, and a deflected Burke drive from the edge of the box after a free kick was cleared to him was inches wide.

Hoffenheim were content with a scrappy, broken game and their players spent an inordinate amount of time on the ground, to the ire of the Unioner.

Union had been far from fluent, but looked the better and certainly more attacking side, Trimmel even managing to do the fullback for pace at one point. But nothing would bounce for us and the final touch was always lacking.

We ticked into 45 minutes feeling like Union were going to kick on into the second half, but the warm feeling was quickly dispelled by a fast break down the left from Toure. Trimmel actually got there first, but his attempted hook away bounced off the opponent and fell perfectly for him.

Alone against Querfeld on the left of the box, he chipped the big defender, who leapt to intercept but was powerless when the striker just ran into him and went down.

A soft penalty was given and Kramaric duly dispatched it to take the wind out of our sails.

Things went from bad to worse moments later as Hoffenheim just breezed through a non existent midfield after another bout of head tennis, and Lemperle had all the time needed on the right to swing a fine cross between Rothe and Querfeld onto the head of Asllani. His admittedly excellent glancing header was beyond Freddie's reach, and after a bit of a direct exchange between the celebrating Hoffenheim players and the Unioner, suddenly it was 0-2 at half time.

Second Half

A pretty deflating end to the half, but perhaps a quick start could salvage something?

Ansah looked up for it, rescuing a nothing situation on the right with a delightful bit of skill to bamboozle two or three opponents and break into the box before being bundled out.

In the 50th minute a banner went up for a member of Grenzenlos, Silvio, who very sadly passed away recently. It was a nice tribute both today and at the women's game last Sunday.

Back in the game, Baumann in the Hoffenheim goal had looked shaky from set pieces, and it was a long throw, Stoke mid-2000s style, that got us back into the game.

It was ugly as sin, Trimmel launching it in, Querfeld with a looping header up, Ansah and Baumann jumping together on the line before the keeper spilled it. It pinballed off a couple of players before settling on the boot of Ansah who just had to hammer it in from a yard out. Game on!

Sadly, game was very quickly off again. With two in midfield, there were multiple occasions where Haberer would look behind, expecting to see a holding player, only to find a big empty space.

Just a minute or so after the goal, the livewire Toure robbed a pass on the halfway line and bounded off into said space before darting into the gap between Rothe and Skov on Union's left.

He slid a nice cross over, but it seemed covered until Khedira had a moment of madness, tapping the ball back across goal straight to a Hoffenheim player, who gladly buried it.

To their credit, the players kept at it, sensing chances to get back into it.

A slew of changes saw Ansah and Burke off, much to Ansah's visible frustration, Skarke and Jeong coming on.

Kral also came in for Haberer, Kemlein eventually on as well.

We hadn't given the opposing goal too much to worry about from open play, Skarke getting under a couple of volleys.

Ilic was looking tired after running hard all day and being doubled up by the Hoffenheim centre backs. At one point he was arguing with Baumgart about who should be pressing, which was not a great look.

With about 10 minutes left, notwithstanding the added time for all the Hoffenheim playacting, Rothe rampaged forward and curled in a peach of a cross which was put out by Hoffenheim. The corner from Trimmel caused mayhem again.

It bounced up and off someone, and dropped for Rothe, who leathered home from about 8 yards. Game on!

Sadly, game was very quickly off again.

After a great effort to win the ball back, we looked to break through Kral. Trimmel was flying off down the right, but Kral's pass was intercepted.

Trimmel was now halfway into Hoffenheim's half and could only watch with anguish as the visitors attacked down his now empty flank.

From our position, it looked as though the low cross had missed the sliding striker, but the referee promptly blew and went straight for a red card to Rothe, who must have pulled him down.

One of our members was out in Sektor 4 and said it was a clear foul.

Rothe went off head in hands, kicking bottles and straight down the tunnel. Hopefully he's not too hard on himself. Rothe's playing in a new position in a young defence, he didn't really get a lot of help all day from Skov, and he scored and pretty much created the second goal.

The second penalty was dispatched, the taker having the gall to panenka Freddie, and that was finally game over.

We kept huffing away and almost got Ilic in at the death but Baumann crowded him from close range and Skarke sent the rebound into the cool afternoon sky.

Overall, a frustrating day. More water bottles met more boots at full time, Ilic looking especially pissed off.

It's hard to read too much into the team at this stage. It's clear that we have quite a talented group of players, and a lot of younger talent at that, but today it just would not click, and we lacked cool heads.

We looked very light in midfield with two in there. Kemlein added some control and tempo. Having someone comfortable with putting their foot on the ball would have helped a lot.

There's lots of potential up front but today it looked a bit chaotic. Ansah looks the real deal but played out wide a lot - he is for sure dangerous there, but him and Ilic central could be more effective.

Burke looked a little short of confidence and cohesion but you can see his advantages.

Hoffenheim rather played us at our own game, happy to sit back, break it up and counter, with some dark arts thrown in.

It'll be interesting to see how Baumgart sets us up in future in this type of game. It's easy in hindsight to say the tactics didn't work, but really with a little more luck and calmness we could have won comfortably.

But hey, results are one thing. What never frustrates is a late summer afternoon at the Alte Försterei.

The stadium in full voice, belting out songs alongside your mates, is a wonderful, visceral thing, and something you don't realize you miss until you haven't felt it for a couple of months.

Win, lose or draw there's no better way to spend a Saturday afternoon in Berlin.

Eisern!

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By @MarkJB on Bluesky