The first women’s team of 1. FC Union Berlin won their first game of 2024, against the Spanish 3^rd division side Elche CF, 2-1. Having gone a goal down in the first half, Union’s constant pressure, and numerous chances, were rewarded with superb strikes from captain Lisa Heiseler and the substitute, Katja Orschmann.

1. FC Union Berlin: Hornschuch (46. Wagner) – Schulz (46. Schindler), K. Orschmann (46. Niesler), D. Orschmann (46. Becker) – Bach (78. Moraitou), Moraitou (46. Trojahn (55. D. Orschmann)), Frank (45. Görsdorf), Heiseler (74. Scheel), Reissner (46. Metzker) – Abu Sabbah (46. Youssef), Blaschka (74. K. Orschmann)

Elche CF: van Nuland (79. Rocamora) – Marroquí (67. López), Ruiz, Popova – Pino, M. Pérez (46. Pazos), Ñíguez (59. Fructuoso), L. Pérez, Zaragoza (67. Salas) – Prieto (46. Herrero), Moreno (46. Rabasco)

Goals: 0:1 Prieto (34., Foulelfmeter), 1:1 Heiseler (67.), 2:1 K. Orschmann (83.)

It had been almost two months since Union’s women’s side had kicked a ball in earnest, since their last league game of the first half of the season, a 9-0 drubbing of Bischofswerda at the end of November. They had been jolted by a return to training during the bitterest weeks of the year, but now faced the next change, the balmy Iberian evening.

Though a thousand times more pleasant than the bitter chill of Adlershof, they also had to face a side in Elche who are based upon youth, and who are rich in technical ability. This was a different ball game altogether, in many ways.

Still, Union were keen to get on the front foot, to start 2024 off with a bang. They pushed Elche back, with Athanasia Moraitou and Celine Frank pushing hard in the centre of midfield while, ahead of them Lisa Heiseler, was a bustling engine of creativity. It was her clever layoff that set up Union’s best chance of many, a gorgeous, bending, dipping, left-footed drive from Moraitou that drifted over the keeper, but just wide of the back post.

Moraitou was a menace. She had already chased down the ball, robbing it off a defender accustoming herself to the game, before setting up the willing Anouk Blaschka.

But it wasn’t a stroll, belying the conditions and the beautiful setting. Sarah Abu Sabah, herself frustrated in front of goal, was brought down in the box, and was certain that if it wasn’t a penalty, then she had at least earned a corner. The referee gave neither.

Then Naika Reissner took a wild lunge at ankle height, leaving Union’s young winger on the floor in agony. Later on, Sophie Trojahn would have to be carried off, disconsolate arms draped over the shoulders of the two coaches taking the weight her ankle couldn’t as she left the pitch.

But for all Union’s dominance, it was Elche who would take the lead when Latoya Bach shoulder charged Marta Prieto in the box, giving Elche a penalty. Prieto took it herself, and swept it home with little fuss.

Union roared back, as if offended at the impertinence of it all. Abu Sabbah couldn’t understand how her shot had gone wide, and Blaschka saw one saved superbly at the near post before hitting the rebound off the bar. Dina Orschmann, a second half arrival, was immediately everywhere, drawing another fine stop from van Nuland, diving to her left at full length. Then she cleverly flicked a header backwards, a piece of improvisational brilliance that, too, could only come back off the woodwork.

The skipper took things into her own hands with 25 minutes to play. Union won a free kick, 20 yards out. Dina Orschmann ran over it, and Heiseler whipped it past the keeper and inside the back post, a superb shot, taken with her sleeves rolled up. 1-1.

As it would be Katja Orschmann who scored the winner, turning her marker inside the Elche box with the kind of impudent pirouette she usually leaves to her sister, giving the keeper no chance with a powerful strike at the near post.

One of Ailien Poese’s strongest messages – and one of her side’s greatest strengths – is the ability to keep focussed, no matter the result, whether they’re winning or losing, whether in the league or on a still Spanish evening such as this.

They had proved that it’s one they’ll take into the new year just as well as they had the last