A good atmosphere is guaranteed at least when singing Christmas in the stadium at the Alte Försterei.
Photo: imago/Contrast
Because three days later no one in football asks how a victory came about, around 30,000 people will gather a little more blissfully this Saturday to sing Christmas in the Alte Försterei. At the same place, the fans of 1. FC Union celebrated the 2-0 win against 1. FC Köln in the last game of the year on Wednesday. And the three points ensured that the Berliners did not start the new year in a relegation zone in the Bundesliga. However, there will be no peaceful holidays in Köpenick.
A European champion causes the greatest unrest. Leonardo Bonucci wants to leave Berlin again. The 36-year-old defender had already publicly expressed dissatisfaction with his situation in October, but he hasn’t really been able to improve his record since then. In total, the Italian, whose transfer caused a stir in the summer, was only on the pitch for 719 minutes in ten appearances for the Köpenick team. Now his desire to move during the winter break became public.
A great strength of 1. FC Union Berlin has always been cohesion, at every level of the club. Differences of opinion, discussions and arguments are of course part of it, but most of the time none of this is sensibly communicated to the outside world. Bonucci is an inglorious exception, but not the only one. David Fofana scored his first Bundesliga goal against Cologne. Coach Nenad Bjelica later said: “If he understands that he has to work hard, then he can achieve a lot.” Praise sounds different. The 21-year-old striker came to Berlin from Chelsea FC in London in the summer and was suspended by Urs Fischer at the end of October. He refused to shake the then coach’s hand after a substitution – another exception in the Köpenick feel-good club.
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Benedict Hollerbach went into the winter break with “euphoria” and “great joy for the second half of the season”. No wonder, he scored 1-0 against Cologne and led Union to victory after a first half that was described by everyone as miserable. The 22-year-old is one of the winners of the coaching change. “There are certain social media patterns that do not correspond to the club’s values.” A “Union source” was quoted as saying this in the summer; the transfer negotiations between Union and Hollerbach seemed to be over. Ultimately, the offensive player came to Köpenick – and is also one of the misunderstandings that caused Union to turn away from the path to success.
The change in direction came on May 27, 2023. With a 1-0 win against Werder Bremen, 1. FC Union qualified for the Champions League as fourth in the Bundesliga. Everything looked like a continuation of the Köpenick club’s football fairytale, which had begun five years earlier: With new coach Urs Fischer, Union was promoted to the Bundesliga, managed to stay in the league, qualified first for the Conference, then for the Europa League . Sales increased and the number of members exploded – from 21,000 to almost 65,000.
»Today we are in a situation where we can decide what is good for our club. When we were promoted to the Bundesliga, we had to do things to be competitive.” Union manager Oliver Ruhnert formulated this sentence on May 28, 2023. He then signed players like Bonucci, Fofana and Hollerbach – apparently without, as he always liked in previous years emphasizes asking the question of character. That can sometimes disrupt a successful structure, because the extraordinary cohesion also made Union’s team strong.
The list of mistakes on the transfer market can be extended with midfielder Lucas Tousart. Former German national player Kevin Volland was also there until the coaching change. Hardly any newcomers fit into Urs Fischer’s successful system. The assumption expressed here after the Swiss’s departure in mid-November that the increased quality in the squad could make things easier for the new coach Bjelica seems to have come true so far. “He was the best man on the pitch,” enthused Hollerbach about Volland’s “witty passes” after the game against Cologne, two of which led to Union’s goals. Bjelica said: “He played a very good role in all five games.”
Under Fischer, Union had fallen to last place in the table, with two wins in three Bundesliga games, Nenad Bjelica brought the Berlin team to 15th place. But no one wants to talk about a real upswing yet. Fear still played a role, said Volland on Wednesday after the game against Cologne. In the poor first half he was reminded of the 3-0 defeat in Bochum four days earlier: “We conceded a goal there, but not today.”
Volland’s feeling wasn’t wrong; the numbers also prove him right. Apart from the almost balanced duel behavior of both teams, Cologne was ahead in every statistic: more shots on goal, crosses, corners and ball possession as well as a significantly better passing rate. Only the most important thing was right: 2-0. But the fact that Union is having such big problems in the home game, as before at VfL in Bochum, against an equally broken competitor in the relegation battle, is not a good sign at all.
When preparation begins on January 2nd, a lot of work awaits the team and coach. And Bjelica had already promised that everything would get better when he could finally practice intensively with the team. What will also be crucial is whether the atmospheric problems can be solved. The coach seems to have just created a new one. As the “Kicker” reported, Sheraldo Becker was not in the squad for the game against Cologne for “disciplinary reasons”. A “normal coaching decision,” explained Bjelica when asked. He just decided on Fofana.
Becker was one of the crucial players on Union’s way to the top. He may no longer be there in the upcoming relegation battle, but there are interested parties. A lot of work awaits Oliver Ruhnert, who often emerged victorious in the wild struggle on the transfer market.
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