1. FC Union Berlin and HSV played out a superb breathless 2-2 draw in their first game of the new 2. Liga season. Having gone a goal down early it was the twins, Dina and then Katja Orschmann who scored Union’s first half goals, both from distance, both brilliant.

1. FC Union Berlin: Bösl – Sakar, K. Orschmann (46. Steinert), Niesler, Metzker – Moraitou (62. Blaschka), Markou, Heiseler – Janez (46. Trojahn), Abu Sabbah (74. Reissner), D. Orschmann (46. Halverkamps) 

Hamburger SV: Schuldt – Lahr (56. Dönges), Hirche, Braun, Stöckmann – Kardesler (69. Woelki), Büchele (56. Stoldt), Machtens, Krüger – Marquardt, Meyer (68. Wrede)

The starting XI

Ailien Poese had a surprise up her sleeve for the 2. Liga start. In goal was Cara Bösl, fresh from her DFB Pokal penalty heroics, behind a back four (compared the the three that had made themselves such a mainstay last season, but also on Tuesday) of Pia Metzker, Charleen Niesler (in for Marie Becker who pulled up in the warm-up), Katja Orschmann and Fatma Sakar. In midfield were Athanasia Moraitou, Eleni Markou and Lisa Heiseler, while Korina Janez joined Dina Orschmann and Sarah Abu Sabbah up front.

Attendance: 5508 
 
Goals: 0-1 Büchele (7.), 1-1 D. Orschmann (22.), 2-1 K. Orschmann (28.), 2-2 Kardesler (68.)

After HSV take an early lead, the Orschmanns shine

For the first time in over decade – since the likes of Lisa Heiseler and the Orschmanns were teenagers, and the idea of becoming pro’s at Union seemed the stuff of fantasy - Union were back in the 2. Liga, and the Alte Försterei was a fitting scene for the day. Awash with red and white, and swelling with pride. It was the twins, who one would leave to further their careers, but return to lead the new charge, who set the old place on fire in front of a record 2. Liga crowd of over five and a half thousand.

But as they learned in midweek, the 2. Liga is a different beast to that of the Regionalliga. And it was HSV who had the first sniff on goal, when Dana Marquardt scooped a shot out from under her feet, but it was straight at Bösl, a chance for the keeper to feel the ball in her hands for the first time since the penalty shoot-out in Gütersloh. The next time, she’d be picking it out of the net.

Jobina Lahr won a penalty, brought down by Niesler as she ran into the box. It looked light, but the referee showed no doubt in pointing straight to the spot. There had only been a couple of minutes played. Mia Büchele grabbed the ball, and wandered back to spot it, taking her time, loitering around the dge of the box first. The whistles grew, and Bösl guessed right, but she couldn’t repeat Tuesday’s heroics. Bücheler’s spot-kick had too much on it, was too well placed.

Union roared back, winning a free-kick that Moraitou whipped into the box, but Dina Orschmann couldn’t get enough on it. They certainly weren’t cowed or overawed by the occasion. Heiseler was next up, hitting a good strike too close to Inga Schuldt in the Hamburg goal.

Union started putting some moves together; Moraitou linked up with Janež and Metzker, the ball fizzing between them in neat, sharp triangles, and when Christin Meyer found some space to break down the right for the guests, Niesler was there to chase the ball down, hitting it out for a corner. Katja Orschmann made a perfect tackle on Vildan Kardesler after she picked up Heiseler’s uncharacteristically misplaced pass.

But the skipper was playing high up in the middle now, and she had another strike with quarter of an hour played, having been teed up by the excellent dogged work of Sakar out on the right. Then Dina Orschmann hit a gorgeous diagonal ball to Abu Sabbah, advancing on the left, drawing the corner, taking it short, getting the ball back and winning another. Janež took this one, and it looped over the box, somehow evading everyone on its way out again.

Union were pressing hard, and it would be the endless hard work of the superb Sakar that would end in the most magical of equalisers. The right-back robbed the ball out on the wing, taking a touch inside before nudging it perfectly into the path for Dina Orschmann.

Her strike was emphatic, brilliant, hit with her right foot, bending over Schuldt and inside the top corner from 25 yards. If she had torn the Regionalliga up, she was gracing the 2. Liga. Within two minutes she won the ball, herself, on the inside right, before finding a Heiseler growing in dominance as Union switched between four and three at the back, Markou slipping back into the middle between Niesler and Katja Orschmann when necessary, addancing into the midfield when Union had the ball.

But whatever Dina can do, her sister can more than match, and what came next took the breath away. Katja Orschmann gave Union the lead after 25 minutes, picking the ball up just inside the HSV half. She took it forward and saw Schuldt off her line. If Dina’s was hit with pace and power, hers was struck with flight and drift, it sailed over Schuldt like it was buoyed by the lightest of winds.

The Orschmanns had now turned the game on its head and Union were flying. Moraitou put Abu Sabbah through after half an hour, but this time Schuldt saved her effort, grabbing it down to her left. Soon after, Heiseler would see another one bounce out from the crowd in the box.

It was hot down there on the pitch, and tempers were also raising, but it was the sight of Dina Orschmann down on her back, immediately clutching her hamstring that gave the Unioner in the stands the most cause for concern. She is not one to go down easily. But she was immediately back in action, buffeted between Lahr and Pauline Machtens, with the ball at her toe and the players at her back.

Kardesler caught Moraitou; Jana Braun banged into Heiseler; Melina Krüger caught Moraitou, and it took a throng of blue-shirted players to stop the excellent Sakar as she cut inside again with 45 minutes played. This time Moraitou couldn’t get it further than the grasping hands of Schuldt.

Union came closer still as the half wound down. Metzker - also excellent and indefatigable on the left - won a final corner off Lahr. It went as far as Moraitou who hooked a volley back almost over her shoulder, before Niesler flicked it on and off the top of the bar.

Union were up for the fight, and as Meyer thought she had a final chance with the whistle now looming, Markou threw herself at the ball, punching the air in wild delight as she won the tackle.

Bösl flies, but can’t stop Kardelser’s equaliser

Poese made three changes at the break, bringing Judith Steinert, Sophie Trojahn and Antonia Halverkamps on for Janež, Dina Orschmann and Niesler. But again it was Sakar who would be putting in the hardest yards, her tackle on Krüger back on the edge of her own box was a perfect example of timing under pressure.

Union pressed and harried, and both Halverkamps and Abu Sabbah were sure they’d been fouled in the opening periods, but the referee was impassive to their pleas, and HSV weren’t to roll over so easily.

Krüger barged Katja Orschmann of the ball before crashing the ball off the back post after 53 minutes, but, fortunately for the home side, Marquardt could only hit the rebound into the arms of Bösl. But Abu Sabbah and Halverkamps were showing signs of a dangerous partnership, the former setting the latter away one moment, exchanging a clap of hands the next having conjured a move that saw the ball clatter into the standing leg of the referee. Trojahn sent a wicked ball in towards Halverkamps that Schuldt had to be precise to mop up at the Union strikers’ feet.

But HSV were probing, too, and equalised after 67 minutes when Meyer saw her header superbly tipped onto the bar by Bösl. The ball bounced down and she clawed it off the line, but Kardesler was there to bundle home, the stranded stopper desperately trying to get in the way for a third time. But to no avail.

Union now had to be patient, and it almost paid off as Abu Sabbah was millimetres away from Sakar’s clever through ball. She was replaced by Naika Reissner a couple of minutes later, Poese wanting to use the winger’s pace to test the tiring HSV legs for the final 15 minutes. But after 120 minutes in the cup, their own were hurting too as time went on, and with every break in play both sets of coaches called their players over into the shade of the main stand for a quick second’s respite.

Sakar, meanwhile, looked born for this. She was everywhere on the right, up and down, and the whistles and jeers that greeted a free kick for HSV, when it looked to all like she had been fouled, reflected her tireless work and the respect she is held in by the Unioner since her arrival last winter (though that was nothing compared to when Reissner got a yellow card in time added on, having been blocked from bursting into the HSV half). Her running battle with Amelie Woelki was a brutal delight, neither refusing to give in.

Neither side would. Hamburg pushed on as the game went into time added on, with Steinert and Markou both clearing the decks, while Trojahn couldn’t direct her shot from distance when it seemed that suddenly Schuldt was out of position. Blaschka dragged her shot wide with her left when played in, again, by Sakar.

The Union players dropped to their knees at the final whistle, spent. But they had already shown what they can do in this league. It had been a pleasure.