The 2-1 home defeat to Werder Bremen has been consigned to the history books, and now it is time to look forward. With 35 days until the DFB Cup final, VfB get to visit Berlin early on Bundesliga business – not that Sebastian Hoeneß has his mind on anything but league football at the moment. “The cup final is obviously something that I’m aware of, but it’s at the back of my mind,” the head coach said. “We’re 100% focused on the next match, and that’s Union Berlin.”
Facing the form team
The lads from Cannstatt will have their work cut out for them in the capital as they take on a team that are unbeaten in five – Union’s longest streak of the season. “They’ve played some of the best teams in the league during that spell as well,” Hoeneß added warily. “They’ve really settled into a rhythm, they bring high running and intensity to the pitch and are tough to break down. Add to that the fact we’re playing at the Alten Försterei stadium and that means that they’ll be a tough nut to crack.”
Cracking that nut will require Hoeneß’s team to “be ruthless and put in a lot of effort”, as he described. “We won’t get that many chances coming our way on Saturday. Taking the lead is the only way that we’ll be able to dictate terms. We’ll also have to be patient, keep our shape and stick to our processes. We have to get back to a good or very good performance, rather than just an acceptable one, which means squeezing out that extra one or two percent.”
Team news: Chabot back, Leweling out
While it was already known that Luca Raimund and El Bilal (reaction to his foot issue) would be unavailable, it has been revealed that Jamie Leweling will also miss the trip to the capital due to muscle problems. On the positive side, Jeff Chabot is back in full training and will be involved against Union. Nikolas Nartey has also started working with the squad again but still needs a little more time, while Dan-Axel Zagadou is not yet training fully. Anrie Chase, Justin Diehl and Josha Vagnoman are also at various stages of the comeback trail.
With Nick Woltemade banned after being sent off in the previous match, Hoeneß already has a solution lined up: “Deniz Undav has trained well and will start. All of us want to put in a good performance as a team.”