1. FC Union Berlin vs SV Eintracht Leipzig-Süd
Womens Regionalliga Nordost, 20. Matchday
vs SV Eintracht Leipzig-Süd
Womens Regionalliga Nordost, 20. Matchday
Union's Lucky 13
Match report
1. FC Union Berlin's women's side continued their excellent current run of form in the Regionalliga Nordost on Sunday when, in front of their home crowd, they were remorseless in their 31-1 win over SV Eintracht Leipzig-Süd.
1. FC Union Berlin: Wagner - Wildner (46. Spolaczyk (88. Ketzer)), Becker, K. Orschmann (60. Schulz), D. Orschmann - Frank, Trojahn (46. Görsdorf), Heiseler (60. Reichenbach) - Youssef, Rurack, Krauss
SV Eintracht Leipzig-Süd: Schock - Börner, Arndt, Stolle, Jankowski, Weber, Leise (63. P. Förster), Melsheimer, Schuster, M. Förster, Pfretzschner
Goals: 1:0 Youssef (3.), 2:0 D. Orschmann (8.), 3:0 Youssef (14.), 4:0 Rurack (17.), 5:0 Rurack (19.), 6:0 Youssef (25.), 7:0 Heiseler (43.), 8:0 Youssef (45. ), 9:0 Spolaczyk (47.), 10:0 Rurack (60.), 11:0 Spolaczyk (62.), 12:0 Spolaczyk (69.), 12:1 Jankowski (81.), 13:1 Ketzer (90.)
Spectators: 150
8:0 at half-time. Union on fire
Union head coach Ailien Poese made two changes to the starting line-up from last week's win over Stern 04. Zita Rurack came in on the right for Naika Reissner, who is on national team duty, and Celine Frank replaced Lisa Görsdorf.
After three away games in a row, Union started very aggressively in front of the 150 spectators at Dörpfeldstraße, keen to remind them of the comforts of home. It all went by in a blur. After just three minutes, the ball was in the net for the first time, Nour Youssef finding herself in plenty of space on the edge of the penalty area, from where she calmly slotted into the far corner.
It set off a wild first half performance. Within a quarter of an hour, Union had added five more.
First, Dina Orschmann increased the lead to 2-0 with a powerful shot in the 8th minute. Youssef then added another six minutes after that. Rurack was keen to re-establish herself, scoring twice beforein the 17th and 19th minutes, before Youssef made it half a dozen before even half an hour had been played.
Captain, Lisa Heiseler, scored with a finish into the far corner to make it 7-0 in the 43rd minute and shortly before the half-time whistle, Youssef again made it eight.
Goalkeeper Ketzer nets the final goal
Union remained hungry after the change of ends, and in the 47th minute, the wild chase for goals continued. After Rurack's long-range shot hit the crossbar, substitute Elisa Spolaczyk followed up and made it 9-0. On the hour, Rurack pushed the score into double figures. Two minutes later, Spolaczyk skipped past the goalkeeper to make it 11-0, and in the 69th minute she scored her hat-trick with a header to make it 12-0.
The only slight blemish on Union's performance came in the 81st minute, when a back pass to keeper Melanie Wagner was seized upon by Leipzig striker Maleen Jankowski, who rolled the ball over the line for what was little more than a bitter consolation.
The final goal of the day, however, did more than bother the statisticians. Reserve goalkeeper Laura Ketzer had replaced striker Spolaczyk in the 88th minute as the sole-remaining elligible player on the bench, and it was she who slid in a cross in the 90th minute to make it a lucky 13 for Union. her team-mates mobbed her in delght.
The win means Union remain in 2nd place in the table on 47 points with 20games played, behind city rivals Viktoria Berlin (51), and level on points with Türkiyemspor in 3rd place.
The coach and players' views on the match
"We dominated the entire game," said Union head coach Poese after the final whistle. "The opponents had very few opportunities to get on the ball at all. We scored the goals today and in the end the result is justified."
Four-goal scorer Nour Youssef echoed the sentiments, "We started very well, scoring an early goal straight from the kick-off. We had a lot of chances today and even though it might sound a bit stupid, we could have definitely scored more goals. Overall, of course, it was still a very good game and an excellent result."
The outlook
Union now have a match-free weekend before their huge clash with Türkiyemspor in a fortnight's time, on 16 April 2023. Kick off at the Willy-Kressmann-Stadion in Kreuzberg will be at 2pm.
Back Home
Match preview
After three away games in a row, the women's team of 1. FC Union Berlin will be back home on Sunday. For the 20th matchday of the Regionalliga Nordost, Union will host SV Eintracht Leipzig-Süd to Dörpfeldstraße. Kick-off is at 2 pm.
The opponents
SV Eintracht Leipzig-Süd are currently in 13th place - second from bottom - in the Regionalliga Nordost table with only six points so far, and the last of those for head coach Karoline Aulrich's side was five long months ago. They've gort nothing since beating bottom of the table Rostocker FC 3-1 last October.
If that win offered a glimmer of hope, then those hopes were quickly dashed. One week later, Eintracht suffered their worst defeat of the season, losing 11-0 to Viktoria Berlin. Eight more defeats then followed.
Accordingly, the Green-Whites need a little miracle to avoid relegation, something that seems even more unlikely when considering the fine margins by which many of those games were lost. They lost 1-0 to their direct competitors, Babelsberg, Zehlendorf and Hohen Neuendorf. Last weekend they were beaten 3-0 by Bischofswerdaer FV.
The head to head
So they can be hard to play against, and this was proved when Union played them in Leipzig, beating against a solid, and very deep lying side, with a single goal from Luise Wildner.
That continued a series, Union are still undefeated against Leipzig-Süd since their re-promotion to the Regionalliga in 2018. In five encounters so far, the Köpenick women have won four and there#s been one draw.
The coach's views ahead of the match
"Leipzig-Süd caused us problems in the first leg due to their passionate way of playing, and their good defensive work," said Union head coach Ailien Poese before the match. "So, we are prepared for another fierce and intense game."
None of Elisa Schindler, Pauline Wimmer, Hannah Kratz and Luca Scheel will be able to play due to injury. Latoya Bach and Lena Bucher will also be absent due to illness. In addition, Naika Reissner will not be available. The left-winger has again been nominated for the Austrian U19 national team and will travel to Italy on Sunday for the European Championship qualifiers.
