These days the Argentinian rocker Charly García celebrated his 72nd birthday, and this can be mentioned in the context of a football game for several reasons. Because Charly, as he is called in Argentina, was one of Diego Maradona’s best friends, 1. FC Union met Maradona’s former club SSC Napoli on Tuesday, and of course because Charly is Charly. And he could be a Unioner.
On the occasion of his special day, an old TV interview circulated in which he told an equation. It was about the guy who asked the guru where the path to success was. “This way,” said the Guru. But as soon as the questioner had taken a few steps in the indicated direction, he was beaten up by highwaymen. He went back to the guru to make sure he was on the right path, got the same answer, and then suffered the same fate again: a beating. He went to the Guru a third time and wanted to insult him. But the guru clarified his answer: Success was exactly where he pointed. Behind the place where they get beaten up. Which brings us back to 1. FC Union. Because he has only taken a beating in the past few weeks – eight defeats in a row – and has repeatedly made new attempts at success. On Tuesday, in the Berlin Olympic Stadium, there was another blow. SSC Napoli won 1-0 with a goal from Giacomo Raspadori.
Why Charly Garcia could be a Unioner? Because his fable could also be formulated more succinctly, and Union’s supporters did exactly that: “Iron is … to always pick yourself up,” was written on a banner. They did it: Because Union was anything but a deeply depressed Bundesliga team. Rather, it was reminiscent of the team that caused a stir last year.
Coach Urs Fischer chose a kind of Motorino tactic for the offensive against the Neapolitans: He called on small, agile, fast two-stroke engines like Brenden Aaronson, David Fofana, Janik Haberer and Sheraldo Becker to curve through the narrow Neapolitan streets. Instead, he initially left the much heavier players Kevin Behrens and Kevin Volland on the bench. And behold: it rose for a long time. This was not just due to the abilities of the offensive forces. But also because the defense was more solid than it had been for a long time. And the outstanding Rani Khedira kept the ranks together, as Fischer had wished the day before.
Kvaratskhelia shows its class
This wasn’t necessarily expected when right-back Christopher Trimmel received a yellow card in his first encounter with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, known as “Kvaradona”, after just ten minutes. But when the first half was over, the struggling Union had far better chances than the Neapolitans. Two of Fofana’s actions in particular were spectacular. In the 24th minute, he dribbled his way down the right side and passed to Haberer from the baseline, but his goal was canceled because Fofana was offside. In the 37th minute, Fofana almost capped a counterattack. But goalkeeper Alex Meret knew how to direct his sharp shot at the near post towards a corner with a remarkable reflex.
After the break, the game lost some of its cleanliness – mainly because the Bosnian referee Irfan Peljto got involved in the wrong situations and thereby made the players nervous. Both teams lacked clear actions, although a trend from the first half continued: the Unioners had a higher number of shots, although the Italians had more possession of the ball and also combined better than before the break. But then Kvaratskhelia drew attention to himself a few times – including when he slipped through two defenders in the penalty area and only didn’t get the ball on goal because Robin Knoche got his foot between them (50th). Fifteen minutes later, the Georgian had another spectacular appearance – and opened the scoring for Naples.
Fofana refuses to shake Fischer’s hand
After neither Fofana, Danilho Doekhi nor Diogo Leite were able to clear the ball, it ended up back at Kvaratskhelia on the left. He went around Trimmel in the penalty area, played the ball with the outside of his foot to Giacomo Raspadori – and he shot in from a half-left position to give Naples a 1-0 lead.
Fischer reacted – and brought on Aissa Laidouni, Kevin Behrens and Alex Kral for Aaronson, Fofana and Khedira, later Kevin Volland and Lucas Tousart came for Haberer and Doekhi. Fofana didn’t take it well. He refused to shake his boss Fischer’s hand. On the pitch there was still a chance for central defender Knoche, who after a good cross from Trimmel put a header just wide of the left post (80th). But that couldn’t hide the fact that Naples felt comfortable – and Union had hit the central nervous system through the goal. After three matchdays in Group C, the Köpenickers are bottom of the table with no points and only have a theoretical chance of one of the top two places. But the real problem remains that the negative series is getting longer and longer.