Berlin

Their favourite enemies

It shows what different courses the paths of 1.FC Union and BFC Dynamo when they under 23s of the former can destroy the latter in the league like they did on Sunday at the Alte Försterei. It ended up 4-2, but could have been many more.

Image for Their favourite enemies
Photo courtesy of www.union-foto.de

It can’t be fun to be a BFC Dynamo fan right now. The hopes of pre-season have flown away like a Steven Gerrard “Hollywood pass”. There they go – up, up and away.

Since Heiko Bonan flew away to Saudi Arabia to join up with Thomas Doll in charge of Al-Hilal, it’s hard to say if Dynamo has been playing badly. In fact, as a Dynamo fan pointed out to me, it is hard to know that they have been playing at all. Igor Lazic has been in charge for four games now. Two of these were behind closed doors. These Geisterspiele, were imposed by the authorities after a few hundred idiots decided to ruin what should have been a great day out in the sunshine in the first round of the DFB Pokal against Kaiserslautern in July. BFC had to play against Torgelow and Schöneiche at the Jahn-Sportpark with nothing around them but empty seats.

Then they, apparently, played quite well in losing to Hansa Rostock II, but only the most dedicated could make it there for a Friday evening kick-off at 6pm.

The fans weren’t able to see Sunday’s game against the under 23s of the old enemy, 1.FC Union either, due to a tit-for-tat argument over ticketing. In many ways it suited BFC to have a self-imposed boycott for this game too. Not only did it mean that there was no chance of the trouble which would have been accepted with a roll of the eyes, and a knowing look – as if to say “Yeah, Dynamo, what a surprise” – it also meant that still only a select handful had seen the way they capitulated against Union.

Actually, capitulated is not the word. That would imply that there was initial resistance. But having gone 0-1 up after two minutes, Dynamo didn’t capitulate. They rolled over onto their backs and waited for their bellies to be rubbed in the sunshine. They were hopeless. Union’s centre backs were practically playing on their half way line. They stroked the ball around with ease, toying with their enemies, and it seemed scoring almost at will.

Many Union fans had been disappointed to hear of their former under 23 coach, Theo Gries departure at the end of last season, one that had been a resounding success for the newly promoted Jungs, but his replacement, Engin Yanova, has done even better. They sit in fourth place, and are playing with a verve that belies their age. Bone Uaferro was huge at right back, passing smoothly, and tackling like a titan. Ahead of him was the surprise inclusion of the day, Jerome Polenz, the player who has spent the last year in exile, deemed unworthy of his place in the club by Uwe Neuhaus. Polenz was fine, but showed his rustiness at times. He was happy to see that the opposition was so obliging to give him an easy return to playing.

Dynamo had no idea. They should have tried to hit Union on the break, but when it came down to it couldn’t string two passes together for most of the match David Schimmelpfennig bustled in midfield but couldn’t get close enough to the ball, Firat Karaduman was ploughing an increasingly lonely furrow up front, but the lines of connection were broken.

Union’s only worries after the game would be the question marks over the two goals conceded. Kilian Pruschke is warming the bench for the first team while Marcel Höttecke is injured, but he flapped at the free-kick that leads to the first goal. It was early in the game, the sun may have been is his eyes, but it was a horrible mistake. Fortunately his teammates weren’t feeling as generous. Stephen Skrzybski rifled home an excellent shot, Denis Mrkaljevic was equally unforgiving as he scored the fourth.

Union II sits in fourth now, 10 points ahead of Dynamo. They have a new score line that will sit smugly in the old scoreboard in the corner of the stadium and will relish the opportunity to play them in the return fixture. Dynamo, on this form, have rapidly become (as Werner Herzog described his erstwhile star Klaus Kinski) their favourite enemies.

Read more at No Dice Magazine.