Match Report: Battling Union sucker-punched by Leverkusen

Pre-match

Today's game featured the erstwhile giants of Leverkusen roll into town. A cold day in the Hauptstadt, but a warm welcome for the visitors, in stark enough contrast to last week's scenes.

Union made some tweaks from that fruitless trip to Wolfsburg - Leite still out after his injury replaced by the young tank Leo Querfeld.

Bo Svensson continues to tinker with the front line, Skarke preferred to Jordan and Jeong playing from the start. While the rest of the team seems quite settled, the forwards rotate as much between games as they do within them.

Leverkusen were without the dangerous Boniface and started with Wirtz on the bench.

Winter in its many miserable guises has arrived in Berlin. Today's was one of the better ones, cold verging on bitter, but clear and bright for the eight minutes of daylight we had after kickoff.

While we didn't hang around before the game, preferring the warmth of the stands to the bitter winds of Hämmerlingstraße, it was nice to bump into some familiar faces on the way in.

First Half

We were still finding our optimal positions in the stand when Leverkusen took the lead.

After a mini-foray in the first minute, they sort of pumped it aimlessly over the top on the left, Vogt and Ronnow had a minor disagreement over who it belonged to, and Hincapie or whoever it was gratefully galloped onto the ball.

He simply squared it to Frimpong who had all day to pick his spot for 1-0.

I had Frimpong down as a marauding full back but he played most of the game extravagantly, giddily high on the right, giving Rothe a headache all game.

The early and chaotic punch to the gut threw Union somewhat, and for 10 minutes we looked quite sketchy at the back, Freddy shanking a routine pass to Vogt out of play under no pressure.

Union were getting on the ball and Leverkusen were increasingly happy to sit back, Vogt turning on the jets a couple of times to snuff out Schick with his usual elegance and class.

Vogt really is up there in the Arjen Robben bracket when it comes to how fast he looks vs how fast he is. A marvel to behold.

It wasn't quite clicking though for us. One thing I feel about changing the central striker between Jordan and Skarke is that one stays central and barely moves and the other is barely central and never stops moving.

I wonder if this confuses the team a bit.

A few times we played the ball half-blind to an empty space where a centre forward should be, a shame because in general we were competitive and recovered really well after that start.

After 20 minutes or so we really started to find our range, combining direct balls out from the central defenders with heater play through the middle via Kemlein.

One ball flashed in from the right, falling kindly in the box for our man in the middle. Sadly that man was Doekhi and he was unable to trouble Hradecky with a scuffed effort.

It was a real battle, Leverkusen allowing absolutely no time and the referee helping them with some pillowy-soft calls throughout, but we were sensing something.

The crowd was in good voice too (when is it not), the UBI crowd adding our honeyed baritones to the masses. Credit to Leverkusen too, travelling in numbers and bringing a buzz if not a ton of noise.

Jeong wriggled into some space and got one on target from range without much power.

Skarke bulldozed his way through on the right but was harried all the way and couldn't get a shot off.

Ronnow almost released Hollerbach on the break only for Frimpong to hare back and just pluck it out of the sky, an unbelievable touch.

But a few minutes later it came, and because a lot of stuff happened in my blindspot - the entirety of the left flank - I saw precious little of it.

I glimpsed Rothe and Hollerbach's blond locks going down the left and a rumble of anticipation from the crowd rolled its way along the touchline.

The rumble turned to a roar as somebody found an opening, before the ball came in low from the left for Jeong to touch in a deft finish with his left, the ball glancing off the post on its way in.

Cue pandemonium. The equaliser was well deserved. Thankfully most people kept hold of their drinks today.

A few moments before the goal I saw a man stride past with what appeared to be a steaming pint of Glühwein, like a German Sam Allardyce. I sincerely hope it didn't go flying.

Leverkusen decided to start playing forward again but with limited success. They were getting crosses in, one breaking to an attacker who - as we say in my country - fucking blooted it into orbit.

He skied the shot so badly it hit the top edge of the stand, really quite an effort that. A chorus of Alte Försterei broke out in response, lovely stuff.

Schick came much closer, letting a gorgeous cushioned header setup from a teammate bounce before thumping a volley that from our perspective looked very, very in but in fact hit the side netting.

A good half overall, a shocking start but we were the better team without creating a ton of chances.

Second Half

We kicked off the first half in sunshine and the second in darkness, and Union continued on the front foot.

Kemlein was trying to take the game to Leverkusen, he's some player. I love the little roll over the ball he does when setting off, no idea what purpose it serves but it looks great. But he is calm, brave and inventive and he just strikes the ball so well.

Not always on the same wavelength as everyone just yet - a few passes pinged stylishly into absolutely nobody - but I think Svensson has done a good job of bringing him into the team, and he seems a key starter now.

Leverkusen seemed to focus on crosses from the right but they weren't troubling our defenders much, everything repelled or claimed by Ronnow.

We had them under pressure, a corner coming in to Skarke completely unmarked at the near post, but unable to keep his header down.

Hollerbach was his usual thorny presence and almost combined with Jeong, getting into the box where his cross just had a little too much on it for the Korean.

Jeong did well to get a touch around the defender and scampered after it, we all held our breath, but Hradecky just got there before he could apply the finish.

We were sensing something again, and in some ways we were right. Hollerbach again got in down the left, but with other options available he tried to trick past the defender and lost it.

In a flash the ball was down our right flank to Wirtz, on as a sub. He had time to pick out an early cross which got past Doekhi and was met by the charging Schick to put the visitors 2-1 up after about 70 minutes.

A real kicker, that one.

From here we made some subs, Schafer and Volland plus Vertessen on, but I thought Leverkusen looked fairly comfortable overall and we ran out of gas.

In the end, a disappointing result. We were worth a draw but Leverkusen were clinical and had a cutting edge that we lacked today.

Last year in this fixture I wrote about a valiant but doomed effort against the odds. This felt markedly different and much more even.

Certainly Leverkusen aren't the force they were last season, but we have equally improved across the board. Though the outcome was the same today, the game was not.

We still have a striker conundrum to solve but everything else looks in good shape to me at least. It hasn't been the best run, but we're a handy team.

And there's still no better place to be on a cold Saturday afternoon.

Eisern!

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By @MarkJB on Bluesky