Khedira welcomes Benes back to top flight football: "I didn't know his right foot was that good!"
Benes turned and fired in a scintillating unassisted goal from 17 meters out with his supposedly weaker foot when scoring a late equalizer against Mainz on Saturday.
Slovakian international Laszlo Benes hadn't had a taste of German top flight football since working with Borussia Mönchengladbach during the 2021/22 campaign. The 26-year-old scored his last Bundesliga goal whilst on loan at Augsburg on match-day 24 of the 2020/21 campaign. After two seasons spent failing to gain promotion with Hamburger SV, one of Union Berlin's more interesting summer acquisitions picked an excellent time to tell the Bundesliga he was back.
After fighting relegation last season, 1. FC Union Berlin have gotten off to a somewhat sluggish start under newly-appointed trainer Bo Svensson. Köpenick's "Eisernen" only managed to just scrape by fourth-tier side Greifswalder FC 1-0 in the Pokal. An uninspired 3-3-2-2 from Svensson against his former club Mainz on Saturday afternoon produced choppy, sloppy, and genuinely ugly football at the MEWA Arena. Only when Svensson began introducing subs and switched to a 3-4-3 did matters improve.
For a time, it appeared as if Svensson's changes came too late. Mainz's resurgent German national team midfielder Nadiem Amiri had already given Svensson's former club the lead off a free-kick. As the final quarter of an hour approached, Union remained behind 0-1. Benes - only on the pitch for a minute - chose that moment to strike, bolting home the 1-1 unassisted from 17 meters out with his supposedly weaker foot. Benes' midfield partner Rani Khedira praised his teammate for helping rescue a point.
"It was such a breath of fresh air from the bench," Khedira told the Sky mics afterwards, "I knew his left foot was world class, but I didn't know his right foot was that good!"
"When I come in, I want to help the team out," Benes himself curtly noted, "I'm happy that it worked out."