Union Berlin and Carl Zeiss Jena play out 1-1 draw
Season opener:
Philipp Hosiner scored from the penalty spot as 1. FC Union Berlin were held to a 1-1 draw by Carl Zeiss Jena at the Stadion An der Alten Försterei on Sunday. A crowd of 11,085 toasted the start of a new campaign under new head coach Urs Fischer, with Hosiner equalising after Manfred Starke’s goal.
1. FC Union Berlin XI: Gikiewicz; Trimmel (Kurzweg 46), Schösswendter (Parensen 46), Friedrich (Dietz 46), Lenz (Reichel 46); Schmiedebach (Prömel 46), Kroos (Mees 46), Hartel (Zejnullahu 46); Gogia (Taz 46), Hedlund (Redondo 46), Hosiner (Andersson 46)
FC Carl Zeiss Jena: Coppens (Sedlak 73); Brugmann (Kühne 46), Slamar (Reitstetter 46), Schüler (Grösch 46), Schlegel (Cros 46); Wolfram, Eckhardt (Erlbeck 46), Schau (Pannewitz 46); Starke (Bock 46), Brügmann (Rogerson 46), Tchenkoua (Jäpel 46)
Match officials: Alexander Sather, Justin Weigt, Hannes Wilke
The festivities continued to mark the 50th anniversary of Union’s FDGB Pokal triumph against Jena in 1968. Union’s current stars — dressed in all three new kits for the 18/19 campaign — were presented to the Alte Försterei crowd alongside several of the legends of the cup-winning team including scoring hero Ralf Quest, keeper Rainer Ignaczak and captain Ulrich Prüfke.
Jena opened the scoring on 16 minutes when Fabian Tchenkoua’s right-foot shot trundled through to Manfred Starke, who slid in unmarked. The lead was short lived until Felix Kroos was clattered in the box just over a minute later with referee Alexander Sather having no hesitation to point to the spot. Austrian striker Philipp Hosiner stepped up and fired the ball past Jo Coppens.
A mixture of pre-season rustiness and some stoppages for injury kept the tempo quite low for the remainder of the half.
Fischer fielded a second-half setup, which featured new signings Ken Reichel, Joshua Mees and Sebastian Andersson. The remaining player from the first half, Rafal Gikiewicz, was forced into action in 47th minute, reacting to Denis Jäpel’s left-foot shot from distance. At the other end, a rasping drive from Kenny Prince Redondo landed in the back-end of the net rather than the inside.
Mees, who arrived on a permanent deal from Hoffenheim after an impressive loan stint at Jahn Regensburg, lit up the second half around the hour mark. The 22-year-old’s defence-splitting through ball played in Redondo, who rounded Coppens but couldn’t convert into the empty net. Three minutes later, Coppens pulled off a great intervention to prevent Andersson from heading in Zejnuhallu’s inch-perfect cross.
On Sunday August 19, Union Berlin make the trip to Jena in a return fixture in the first round of the DFB Pokal.
