Preview: Dortmund versus FC Union Berlin in the friendliest of friendlies

Today, marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of FC Union Berlin, and to honor the occasion, Union will host Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund for a friendly match at their home stadium, the Satdion An der Alten Forsterei.

The match will be an interesting one to watch due to its timeliness. It falls one day after Dortmund's first game of the ruckrunde (or second half of the season), so the team will most likely use it as a chance to rest their big-name starters, and test their bench and youth, especially the prospects who trained with them in Dubai (I'm looking at you Pulisic and Passlack).Union, on the the other hand, don't start their ruckrunde until February 5th, when they play away to FC K'lautern, so expect them to field a stronger side with a few youthful subs during the tail end of the game.

The famous fans of the "kult" club should be excited to see the partnership of top scorer Bobby Wood and central midfielder Damir Kreilach, who have scored 13 or the clubs 31 goals in all competitions, resume again in Union's preferred 3-5-2 formation. While Dortmund fans should take the opportunity to see how their U19 and second team players stack up against opponents from Europe's strongest second tier league.

As far as expected line-ups go, Union Berlin's should look something like this: Haas, Parsensen, Leistner, Thiel, Zejnullahu, Kreilach, Danbe, Kesset, Wood, Skrzybski

Dortmund's line-up will be a little more unpredictable but definitely expect Pulisic, Passlack, Serra, and a whole lot of cameos from BVB II.