Max Kruse ended up with a pretty simple explanation for what had happened in the 90 minutes before. “We left our hearts on the pitch, as it should be for a derby.” The striker himself did not score despite two great chances that evening, but the fact that Union Berlin could afford it says a lot about this game. His team, so Kruse summed up, was “superior in all respects”. You could say that.
The question of power in the capital has been resolved for the time being. 1. FC Union is number one in Berlin – and much more dominant than the amount of victory in the local derby against Hertha BSC says. The Eiserne won 2-0 in a game in which they needed a little involuntary start-up help from Hertha, but otherwise played their rivals from the Westend almost at will. The hosts appeared more self-confident, combined more skillfully and sought success more resolutely. Union is now seven points ahead of Hertha BSC in the table. The city championship, said captain Christopher Trimmel after the game, was “a special championship”.
It was the first game in front of full ranks at the Alte Försterei since March 2020. The Berlin Senate had allowed full capacity utilization of the stadium in the capital despite the massive increase in corona incidences: 22,000 spectators. The 2G regulation, according to which only vaccinated and convalescent people were allowed into the stadium, caused discussions in the city in the days before and already an hour and a half before kick-off there was a crowd in front of the entrance gates. The stewards, increased in number from 300 to 400, were instructed to carefully check the vaccination certificates. The waiting remained largely patient, at the start of the game, most of the spectators were obviously in their seats. The recommendation of the host association to wear the mask in the stands was followed by about as many fans as customers go to a butcher’s shop to buy tofu.
Hertha makes creepy mistakes
At Union, Max Kruse was back after an injury lasting several weeks, as was captain Christopher Trimmel. Pal Dardai gave preference to Davie Selke in Hertha storm Krzysztof Piatek. Urs Fischer had predicted that “little things” would decide the game. But the Union coach was wrong.
Because the hole that Hertha defender Marton Dardai cut with his right foot into the Köpenicker air after just eight minutes was quite big. The ball that the Hertha coach’s son had actually wanted to hit was taken over by Taiwo Awoniyi, who has been the Unioner’s reliable goalscorer for weeks, and shot it relaxed into the lower left corner to make it 1-0. The striker has “found a home” at Union Berlin, analyzed coach Fischer in an almost fatherly manner. Now, according to Fischer, after 13 goals meanwhile, he is “on the right track”.
After falling behind, Hertha tried to hold onto it, Pal Dardai half demanded, half predicted “a fighting game”. But it didn’t come to that. Even in the construction phase, his team made creepy mistakes, attacks came about more by chance than planned. Coach Pal Dardai looked a little desperate afterwards: “We practiced that a lot, three-on-two situations, controlled passing, but we didn’t succeed today.” The opponent, Dardai admitted without hesitation, was “better and more dynamic”.
On the other hand, Kruse and Awoniyi appeared again and again in front of the goal of the blue-whites, whose defense seemed disoriented and unsettled at times, as if their bus driver had made a mistake in the stadium gate. After 30 minutes the ball flew across the field after a Unioner corner until it landed at Christopher Trimmel, who thundered him – no small matter – from a good 20 meters with a cut into the same corner that Awoniyi had hit before. “Just go for it,” said Trimmel, describing his recipe for success after the game. The situation was “not rehearsed”.
The second goal was a deserved reward for the Unioner’s superiority in the first half. A supposed Hertha goal in stoppage time had to take back referee Felix Brych after video evidence. The ball wasn’t behind the line.
Dardai replaces half the attack – without fortune
Hertha tried to be more offensive after the change. But the closer the guests got to the Unioner’s goal, the less the blue-whites knew what to do with the ball. The first real chance had promptly on the other side Max Kruse, whose shot from the edge of the penalty area was deflected by Alexander Schwolow around the post. Pal Dardai finally changed half of his attack, brought Jurgen Ekkelenkamp and Kevin-Prince Boateng for Piatek and Maximilian Mittelstädt, but the result was only more chances for the hosts, for example when Genki Haraguchi finally did after a long dance in the Hertha penalty area still decided to aim at goal, but overlooked one last Hertha leg.
His team has already spent a lot, said coach Fischer. That’s why he would have liked her to have rewarded herself for it sooner. Nevertheless, the win, seen over 90 minutes, is deserved.
And so the Union fans had every reason to hurl their aerosols in different melodies through Köpenick long after the final whistle, while the related risk of infection in the quiet Hertha block remained minimal.