It is a painful time for the ‘big city club’ from Berlin, rubbed in by a comprehensive and clear derby defeatThe difference between Germany’s two sharply contrasting capital clubs has always been clear. Now it is even more so, just not in the manner that one ever expected. Beyond bragging rights, the fifth top-flight derby between Union and Hertha underlined that one is a professional, slick outfit that knows where it is going, that one has a plan and an identity – and neither of those, it seems, is the latter club.Hertha tried to find their poise, led by Kevin-Prince Boateng, who ushered the players to the away end for communion and dialogue with some unhappy travelling supporters, post-defeat at...
Hansi Flick brought in new faces with Tuesday in mind but dropped points gave hope to RB Leipzig belowHansi Flick’s biggest expression of frustration on Saturday afternoon was saved for five minutes from the end of normal time, when a dogged Union Berlin pilfered a hardly inevitable but not exactly undeserved equaliser at the home of the champions, as Marcus Ingvartsen’s scuffed effort rolled over the line. In tandem with RB Leipzig’s easy 4-1 win at Werder Bremen, it trimmed Bayern Munich’s lead at the top of the Bundesliga to five points – an inconvenience rather than a crisis – but the keenest suggestion from hearing Flick shout “Mann!” across the turf was less the effect of the goal itself...
In a global city where football doesn’t often take centre stage, it needed someone to seize the moment: enter the Union strikerIt was going to take something to be heard through the cacophony, to guide the way through the fog that sporadically impaired vision of proceedings, and to cut a tension that was quite unusual in the context of Berlin’s football. In a global city where football doesn’t often take centre stage, it needed something or someone to seize the moment. Sebastian Polter was ready.In this first top-flight meeting between Berlin’s two most prominent clubs, Union and Hertha, where nerves crackled and fireworks fizzed, the football had been fractious in the Bundesliga new boys’ atmospheric, old-school home, rebuilt by the...