In just over 24 hours, the 2025 Bundesliga year starts for the men’s professional team of 1. FC Union Berlin against 1. FC Heidenheim 1846. The duel on the 16th matchday will take place on Saturday, January 11th, 2025, at 3:30 p.m Voith Arena kicks off.
The initial situation
Both Union and Heidenheim can look back on mixed results: 1. FC Heidenheim survived the winter in relegation place 16 after a 2-0 defeat at bottom team Bochum. With this result, coach Frank Schmidt’s team has been waiting for a win for ten games and stands at ten points before the clash on Saturday.
The Eisernen also went into the break with a defeat, while SVW from Bremen lost 4-1. The team said goodbye to the short winter break in 12th place.
The opponent check
In the second year after promotion to the upper house of football, the Heidenheimers are in a direct relegation battle: before the 16th matchday, FCH is in the relegation zone with ten points, four points short of 15th place. The club was eighth last season even got into the UEFA Europa Conference League. But the success aroused desire: with Jan-Niklas Beste (to Benfica Lisbon) and Tim Kleindienst (to Borussia Mönchengladbach), two top performers left the club, who were responsible for a total of 38 of the 50 goals scored in the previous season.
Things are going better with the first international competition participation in the club’s history: After the Baden-Württemberg team prevailed in the qualification against the Swedish representative BK Häcken, victories against Olimpija Ljubljana (2:1), Pafos FC (1:0) and Heart of Midlothian (2-0). When the six-time English champions Chelsea FC visited Heidenheim, there was their first defeat in the Conference League (0:2). Most recently, FCH lost 3-1 at Istanbul Basaksehir FK and drew 1-1 at home against FC St. Gallen. With ten points, the Schmidt team is in 16th place and has qualified for the playoff round. FC Copenhagen is waiting there for the southern Germans.
After the turn of the year, and as one of the few teams, the Heidenheimers traveled to Algorfa on the Spanish Mediterranean coast and spent seven days preparing for the Bundesliga restart. During this time, the two winter signings Budu Zivzivadze (from Karlsruher SC) and FC Bayern loanee Frans Krätzig also joined the team.
The direct comparison
1. FC Union Berlin and 1. FC Heidenheim have met 14 times so far. There are four wins for the Iron team and seven for the Heidenheim team. There was a division of points in three duels. This was also the case recently in the Bundesliga – a 2-2 draw at the An der Alten Försterei stadium.
Personal
Union head coach Steffen Baumgart has to do without Frederik Rönnow, Ivan Prtajin, Josip Juranović and Oluwaseun Ogbemudia. Rani Khedira also missed the game due to a yellow card suspension.
-The reunion
There is a reunion for Lennard Maloney, Mikkel Kaufmann and Tim Skarke.
Born in Berlin, Maloney came to Köpenicker in 2012 and went through all of the youth teams there. He made his first professional appearance with the Union team in the 2nd Bundesliga in 2017/18. In 2022, after stints in Chemnitz and Dortmund II, he moved to 1. FC Heidenheim.
Mikkel Kaufmann was under contract with 1. FC Union Berlin until last summer and scored one goal in 19 appearances.
Born in Heidenheim an der Brenz, Tim Skarke moved from TSG Nattheim to the FCH youth department at the age of eleven. There, the right-footer went through all the junior teams before he was able to collect his first second division minutes in the 2015/16 season. His debut goal didn’t take long to arrive: In the second game ever, the then 19-year-old redeemed his team against bottom team MSV Duisburg and scored in the final phase for a 1-0 victory. The Heidenheim homegrown player played 70 games for his hometown club.
Voices before the game
“When you talk about Heidenheim, you see a similar path to the one Union took. From the regional league to Europe, you have to get there first. It speaks for them and also shows that they have stayed true to the basics: high willingness to run, lots of intense duels. They also show good transition play and counter-pressing and generally have a good plan when in possession of the ball. In any case, we want to play a good game, repeat the point we lost and show where our future path leads,” said head coach Steffen Baumgart before the game.
“With Steffen Baumgart, Union has a coach who won’t just carry on like this. He will have his own ideas and convey them with a lot of emotion. Against Kiel, for example, they played in a back four and were generally more attacking. We will see how Union does it, but first and foremost we have to look at ourselves and regain stability,” explained Frank Schmidt before the clash.
Serviceinfos
Almost 1,900 Union players are traveling for the away game in southern Germany. The Union-Fahr-Zeughaus will also be on site. Information about visiting the stadium can be found here.
The game will be broadcast live on Sky. There is also an audio stream on rbb24 Inforadio and rbb24. As usual, Union will also provide information about the game in the club’s own live ticker.
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