After the brief winter break, Freiburg had a short, two-week-long period of preparation for the remaining 18 Bundesliga games of the season. The 5-2 friendly win over Eintracht Frankfurt and the death of Franz Beckenbauer were the most notable occurrences. Though Christian Streich did not want to place too much emphasis on a friendly match, he was pleased about the positive things. “It was an intensive friendly and I saw some good things. We were disciplined off the ball and also created our own chances with the ball.”

All four goalscorers – Merlin Röhl, Vincenzo Grifo, Michael Gregoritsch and Roland Sallai, who scored twice, are also available on Saturday. The coaching team will however be missing an attacking player for the next few weeks. Ritsu Doan is at the Asian Cup with Japan. Philipp Lienhart is still a doubt, while Nicolas Höfler misses out due to suspension. Lucas Höler, who did not feature in the friendly against Eintracht due to illness, is however available again.

An improvement in Berlin

It’s the first competitive game of 2024, but also the last of the first round of matches. After 16 games in the Bundesliga, two in the DFB-Pokal and six in the Europa League, the break, even though it was short, was good for the players. “The players have recovered a bit and you could see that they were fresh again against Frankfurt. I hope that we’ll see this freshness on Saturday too,” said Streich, who is expecting a “really tough game”.

Union Berlin’s performance in the first-half of the season was certainly unexpected for most. The side from the capital are now sat in 15th place this time around, and have had spells right at the bottom, despite finishing the last two campaigns in the top third of the table alongside SC Freiburg. Union’s former head coach Urs Fischer was a huge factor in the club’s success, but he stepped down from the position in the middle of November.

However, things have been looking up for the boys from Berlin since December. Slowly but surely, Union’s new head coach Nenad Bjelica has helped the team climb out of the relegation zone to 15th in the table, with one draw and two wins under the belts in the last four games. “I’m excited to see how Berlin play. They’ve changed their playing style a lot recently. Gladbach didn’t stand a chance against them a few weeks ago,” Streich added. “We can’t afford to think it’s okay to not work our socks off against Union. However, the boys will analyse the game thoroughly and be aware of how they’ll need to play in order to win.”

There will be a minute’s silence prior to kick-off at the Europa-Park Stadion in memory of Franz Beckenbauer, which will occur at every Bundesliga fixture on matchday 17. Streich, who knew the ‘Kaiser’ personally, shared: “He was just an incredible player, a great presence on the pitch. He was everything to us when we were kids. We’re all following in his footsteps. A make-up artist working at the ZDF-Sportstudio once said that he was the nicest man there. That says it all really.”
 

Photo: Achim Keller