You can feel happy that Malmö FF was shining in Europe, happy that Eisern Union was here, happy with a football match.
And then you couldn’t.
MFF lost 1-0. The union lost more.
Should I say what I thought?
That this was required. She was very nice.
Eisern Union in Malmö, the MFF’s mid-autumn pacemaker is on its way to apathy. Who leaves the ball and the opponent is running? Who can not buy the West? Union Berlin is a living legend in icy European football. The Federation is the club where Nina Hagen sings the anthem, as fans build the stadium and literally donate their blood to raise money. It should be the club where the players do more than is possible. The club that came from the backyard of East Germany to first place in the Bundesliga without compromising its ideals.
With nice people visiting, Malmö mobilized so that it felt like it should, with full pressure on the arena and the spur line on the field. Union Berlin spent the fall conquering the German Football League from another era, 3-5-2, with minimal possession and quick transfers against rockets Sheraldo Becker and Jordan Pivok up front. If anyone in the MFF wondered what lay ahead, they found out two seconds later, when Union sent a long ball toward Jordan in front.
Bang. Bang. second.
This was a test of the MFF’s triple line of defense, and they passed it calmly and for so long. Halfway through the first half, Malmo puffed his chest with strong pressure and his furious towering forward. Gradually Felix Pigmo and Oscar Lewicki Going forward and playing attacking football, the skies were blue all over, and he slipped to three points after Al Ittihad midfielder Andras Scheffer Paphamar played as the last player and had to take a red card.
And then: bang. Lively bang again.
Eisern Union’s toughest players are said to have been provoked by a Hertha Berlin flag in the MFF’s heel, just as they were said to have been provoked by a dynamo flag in Djurgården’s heel when they stormed a practice match at the Tele2 Arena a few years ago. Now the fireworks were lit on the stadium, now the people in the family stand were shot, at the match, the whole picture of the sympathetic Berlin Union.
A magical football night turns into interruptions, failed rhythm and embarrassment for a high-end football club.
Urs Fischer, coach of miracles, shook his head at the masked in the distant stands. How do you say in German, “You can’t pick raisins from a booster cake”?
Malmo FF He had good grip even after the long break, but lost the flow in his attacking play and struggled against the low team Union Berlin. They rolled the ball, and the task was more straightforward: try to find holes in a compact German team, and avoid exposing themselves to the supersonic player Shiraldo Becker in the back.
It can be so cute
They failed the first, and they failed the second too.
Oscar Lewicki missed a play, Robin Knoshi stabbed the ball forward at the rear and Becker ran his way to 0-1. You can say whatever you want about how Malmo controlled the game, how they got it where they wanted, how much ball they had – but it all boils down to the fact that they faced a team with certain extreme qualities, and that they lost everything that matters. Union Berlin didn’t have the ball, but they faced more attacks, more finishing touches, more dangerous scoring opportunities, and they scored exactly another goal.
Sky blue eleven against ten Germans, 0-1. Zero points in three games.
Now awaiting UEFA reports and sanctions, sharp tools against a minority of masked vandals. Malmö FF’s got a half that was a glimpse into something more than we’ve seen before, or a glimpse into everything we used to see before – but here and now the guest division celebrates a reasonable win on an incredible night.
It would have been very nice. It turns out to be this.