OstDeutscher Sieg | Part 22 | First Taste Of Bundesliga

After 10 years of life as a proper Football Manager, Ruprecht Prusseit had gone from virtual obscurity to joining Germany’s elite in Bundesliga. He led Union Berlin back to Bundesliga in 2031/32, lifting only the club’s second professional trophy as 2. Bundesliga Champions.

But there was little time to reflect on his journey from a local football injury and subsequent minor management experience to managing in the lower tiers, then a rise from the third tier up to the top in three seasons. As Prusseit had plenty of hard work behind the scenes.

That’s because his star midfielder András Schäfer was joining Monaco at the end of his contract, left-back Jan Hosek went to Slavia Prague for £1.2m and centre-back Jan Sodiq joined Energie Cottbus for £1.3m. And the squad was set to be very light when a mass of loanees departed, so Prusseit wasted no time in locking down deals as soon as promotion was secured.

Indeed, 11 (eleven!) players arrived the day the transfer window opened. The pick of the new signings were probably two 18-year-olds in striker Ville Paavolainen, who joined for £3.1m from AGF, and Satoru Iida, who Prusseit was going to use as a holding midfielder after joining for £500k from Niigata Unicorn. The defence got a significant makeover, including left-backs Ori Kanuk and Marcel Müller, for £2.6m and £1.3m from Hapoel Be’er Sheva and St. Pauli, and centre-backs Jindrich Scasny, Ali Salameh and Emiliano Otero for £5.75m, £2.5m and £2.5m from Slavia Prague, Viktoria Plzen and Boca Juniors.

They were still very light in midfield, which Prusseit addressed with a couple of loan deals for Inter’s Andrej Kovac, who looks like being a special player, and Lucas from Flamengo.

Those deals had the squad packed with potential, with 14 players of at least 4.5-star potential. And, with a fairly hefty rebuild completed, Prusseit decided to move to a more conservative 4-3-3 approach. Four of the new signings come in as starters, with striker Matej Lnenicka retraining as a midfielder and new boy Paavolainen battling it out with last season’s top scorer Ahmed Ramadan for the lone frontman role.

Facing A Tough Bundesliga Challenge

The bookies certainly didn’t fancy Union’s chances of survival, predicting them to finish 17th with odds of 400/1 to win the league. Bayern are the only team fancied to win it with odds of 8/15 followed by Bayer Leverkusen, who’ve built a really strong team, at 9/1, RB Leipzig at 12/1, Dortmund at 16/1 and arch-rivals Hertha at 25/1.

Prusseit’s first-ever match in top-tier football took him to what may be the biggest ground he had been to in his 48 years, as Union travelled to RheinErgieStadion to face 1. FC Köln. But Prusseit’s team was far from overawed as they started well with winger Grga Picak beating two men to slam home after 14 minutes. Köln got level with a penalty just after half-time and began to dominate but Union defended well before an inspired sub saw Ramadan take advantage of a defensive howler to score an 84th-minute winner.

A massive fixture followed as Prusseit’s first home game in Bundesliga was also his first Berliner Derby against Hertha. The rivals played out a dreadful first half but, deep into injury time, Lnenicka got forward from midfield and latched onto a loose ball to smash home from 12 yards. An equally bad second half followed with Hertha offering nothing and they were again made to pay by Lnenicka in injury time!

Another home game followed against Hamburg and Kovac got his first goal to earn a solid 1-1. But Prusseit’s second away game swiftly saw his biggest-ever stadium visit broken as they faced the toughest test of all away to perennial champions Bayern. Union unsurprisingly got thumped 4-0, which wasn’t bad after giving up an outrageous 39 shots to one, before losing 1-0 at home to Gladbach.

Another huge game followed as Prusseit face his first-ever clash with OstDeutscher top dog RB Leipzig. Prusseit switched to a more conservative approach and it worked as a Ramadan brace and a Paolo Di Canio-esque Antonio Villalonga volley earned a famous 3-2 victory.

A pretty disappointing 2-0 defeat at home to Werder Bremen was followed by a hard-earned 1-1 at fellow promoted side Nürnberg and a Paavolainen goal earned another 1-1 with Hoffenheim. But they got back to winning ways as Picak and Villalonga goals downed struggling Arminia Bielefeld 2-0.

But any performance so far this season was blown out of the water by a stunning performance at Leverkusen. Great play by right-back Josha Vagnoman teed up Paavolainen for the opener inside five minutes and Kovac doubled the lead seven minutes later. Leverkusen dominated the game but only managed to get four shots on target, while another excellent Paavolainen finish then his replacement Ramadan wrapped up a stunning 4-0 victory.

That was backed up with another superb performance to hammer Frankfurt 4-1 with braces by Paavolainen and Lnenicka, which lifted Union into the top five after 12 games! And they stayed there as Picak created the opener for Lnenicka then scored the winner in a 2-1 victory at Mainz. But a 4-0 hammering at home to Stuttgart ended Union’s six-game unbeaten streak followed by a 2-0 loss at home to Dortmund, before Picak and Paavolainen earned a 2-2 draw at Freiburg.

That sent Union into the winter break sitting fairly comfortably in 8th place with 25 points from 16 games. They were only three points off the European places but, more importantly, 12 points clear of the relegation place. Only four teams had conceded fewer than Union’s 23 but only six had scored fewer than their 24. But Picak had the second-most assists in the league with seven.