Day 6: Fitness, Match Off, Internal Game
Training Diary:
The friendly match, which was originally scheduled for today, was finally cancelled by local police for security reasons. Instead, the players of Union Berlin battled it out themselves in an internal game at the training camp in Klosterpforte.
Day six began half an hour later than usual as the players and staff enjoyed breakfast as a group. Head coach Urs Fischer and fitness coach Martin Krüger assembled the players on the pitch before going through a selection of exercises and stretches over a 30 minute session designed to minimise the risk of injuries.
A short endurance test followed after lunch.
After the game was abandoned last night, Oliver Ruhnert and staff agreed on the decision to play match internally. "I find it in bad taste to just decide this like that. You have to expect that in the run-up to such matches there will be direct communication with the security officers and the clubs in order to find a way of organising these matches," said Ruhnert, the Director for Professional Football at Union Berlin.
Team Red (home kit): Busk; Kurzweg, Schösswendter, Dietz, Lenz; Prömel, Schmiedebach, Kroos; Gogia, Hedlund, Wright
Team Blue (third kit): Gikiewicz (Moser 46); Parensen, Maloney, Friedrich, Trimmel; Hartel, Taz, Reichel; Zejnullahu; Mees, Redondo
It was a sharp tempo from the off with a misunderstanding at the back giving the Reds a chance from the spot. Akaki Gogia's penalty was nearly perfect as the goalkeeper Rafal Gikiewicz went the opposite way, but it only managed to clip the post. Joshua Mees timed his run to perfection and finished off a cross from the right to give Team Blue a half-time lead.
Team Red opted to go for control in the second half and went on to create a number of good chances. However, Ken Reichel, who set Mees' goal, was on hand to score a second for the blue team as the 75-minute encounter wrapped up the sixth day of training in Klosterpforte.
