VfL Bochum - Union Berlin

Just a few weeks ago seemed to be Union Berlin on the best way to confirm the predictions from some experts who had them on the list as big promotion candidate. But since the 0-4 defeat in Cologne early in November they are on a huge downtrend and out of the promotion zone at the moment. Union lost 3 of the recent 4 matches, they got only one draw and knocked out in Cup against league rival 1.FC Kaiserslautern in their stadium. With the second half of the season starting they want to get back on track and show a different face to recent weeks but this can be a very hard task as Bochum is on a good run lately. With only one lose of the last six matches they showed a huge uptrend according to stats too.

With the 0-0 draw at Karlsruhe they have been able to stabilize their position in midfield but it is still not clear away from drop zone. Therefore every point is needed in this close league this season. Coach Neururer will do everything to make the last home match before the winter break successful. Compared to the last match he can count again on Freier and Jungwirth, both were suspended in Karlsruhe while Acquistapace and Latza move out of the starting lineup again. No further changes in the starting lineup expected, although some players like Christian Tiffert or Ken Ilsøe did not have their best day last week.

A lot of trouble and problems for Uwe Neuhaus and his Union Berlin as they have a lot of suspended players today. With Özbek and Parensen are two players suspended with red card but last weekend saw Brandy and Kohlmann his fifth yellow card and both are suspended today too. This means that he must replace 4 regular players what should be not the best for a successful start into the second half of the season. Additional to all the suspended players comes that both central backs are out with Schönheim and Stuff injured. Once again he has to build a completely new central back what is very dangerous as the stability was not such good in the past anyway. For Kohlmann Björn Kopplin can play on the wing while with Dausch and Quiring we have two players for the midfield ready who are normally only bench players but they have to show their skills today. In attack it is also not unlikely that the disappointing Adam Nemec must give his place away to Simon Terodde. But overall the team never played together with this lineup what brings a lot of problems today.