"We had been prepared for this all week"

The Zerofivers endured a Bundesliga opening game to forget on Sunday afternoon, as they went two goals down away to Union Berlin in less than 10 minutes. In their post-match interviews, the team were aware that their slow start set the wheels in motion for the 4-1 defeat, but were unable to explain the reasons behind it.

FSV post-match reaction from Köpenick

Robin Zentner: “I’d say the opening period, when we were simply fast asleep and Union were steps ahead of us, was what finished us off. To come back from 2-0 down is tough, but apart from that there’s not too much that we can fault. The second half was good, even though the scoreline looks rough. It’s tough to explain, but we were heavily punished and only got woken up by the two goals.”

Leandro Barreiro: “We had spent the whole week preparing for what lay ahead of us here. We know how Union play, so to concede a goal like we did, inside the first minute, is just so tough to take – it was so poorly defended by all of us as a team. We showed a reaction in the second half, made a few steps forward and created more goalscoring chances – we took the fight on a bit more. We really need to sit down and discuss how the first three goals all came from the exact same pattern. We’ll do that tomorrow.”

Stefan Bell: “The first two goals were extremely simple for them to score. Having two goals where the striker can head home under no pressure is something which simply cannot be allowed to happen. The even more annoying thing is that we weren’t even surprised by anything they did – they play how they play, they’re effective in doing so, and that was the biggest difference on a day where the game was pretty even in large portions. It also hurts because we had more chances against Union today that we’ve had in years gone by. To miss two penalties is very tough, but that’s Ludo for you. He's his own biggest critic and nobody else is angry with him. He’s still a fantastic player and he’ll get back on the goalscoring road in the coming weeks.”