Union Berlin enjoyed a strong start to manager Ruprecht Prusseit’s first-ever season in top-flight football. They’d been as high as fifth in the early stages of Bundesliga and went into the winter break just a few points behind the European places.
Their strong start to the campaign was rewarded as the Union board doubling Prusseit’s wages to £16k a week with a new contract through to 2035. The challenge now was for the manager to maintain that strong start and avoid any relegation concerns.
Throughout this save, no side has been relegated from Bundesliga with more than 31 points. So Prusseit’s team needed to pick up at least six more points to remove any feats. Prusseit was especially keen to stay up and finish as high as possible purely to start bringing in some of the Bundesliga’s rich prize money. That was because the club came into 2033 with a negative bank balance having lost £13m since the start of the season.
Shaky Start To 2033
The new year began in disastrous fashion as Union got pummelled 8-0 at Hertha in the Berliner Derby with a hat-trick from Thiago Almada and four from Julian Rijkhoff, who immediately moved to Liverpool for £80m. However, it had only been 2-0 when Matej Lnenicka got sent off for a two-footed lunge. And the performance was so bad that Prusseit fined all 11 players a week’s wages.
Union were now five games without a win with a tricky run of games upcoming. For obvious reasons, Prusseit went a little more cautious and they were lucky to only lose 2-1 at Wolfsburg after being battered by 21 shots to six then slightly unlucky to lose 1-0 at home to Köln. Just what they didn’t need now was a visit from Bayern, although they had just lost their second game of the season 1-0 at another promoted side Nürnberg. But there was no such generosity as Bayern cruised to a 2-0 win with a brace from their ridiculous striker Florian Kreuzer.
A 1-0 loss at Hamburg had fans firmly on Prusseit’s back as they’d gone eight league games without a win, lost five on the bounce and scored just three in eight. As a result, Union slumped to 14th in Bundesliga.
However, that poor run was finally snapped as Prusseit made a few tactical and defensive tweaks for a trip to Gladbach. Winger Grga Picak put them ahead with a delicious 30-yarder just after the hour mark then midfielder Andrej Kovac ran through the Gladbach defence to double the lead nine minutes later. The hosts got a goal back but Prusseit went more defensive and held on for a 2-1 victory.
Union couldn’t take momentum from that as a tough game at home to Bayer Leverkusen saw a 2-0 defeat. But another good performance on the road saw Kovac create the opener for Picak then nick a point at Werder Bremen with a superb 95th-minute strike from the edge of the box.
A vital game for Union saw a visit from 15th-place Nürnberg and Prusseit thought this was the ideal time to move back to his two striker formation. And a Picak penalty edged a terrible game of just 11 shots between the two teams. More importantly, that moved Union onto 32 points and 14 clear of the relegation places with nine games remaining.
Edging Towards Survival
A solid 13th-place in Bundesliga meant Union were virtually safe heading into the final quarter of the season. But their run-in was pretty tough, starting by losing 3-0 at 3rd-place Stuttgart before Lnenicka and Ahmed Ramadan ended their long goal droughts to nick a 2-2 draw with 4th-place Wolfsburg. Another OstDeutsche rival clash resulted in defeat as they were edged out 3-2 by RB Leipzig, in which Ville Paavolainen ended his 13-hour goal drought.
They lost 2-0 at Frankfurt before goals by the strikeforce of Ramadan and Lnenicka mathematically confirmed survival. The season rounded out with a 1-1 at relegated Hoffenheim, 0-0 at Arminia Bielefeld and a 3-1 loss at Dortmund, before a final-day 1-1 draw at home to Freiburg on Prusseit’s 49th birthday.
Union finished up in 13th place in Bundesliga with 39 points, finishing 17 points above the relegation places, 11 points above the relegation playoff and 15 points off the European places. Those efforts saw Prusseit come second in German Manager of the Year while right-back Nico Korte won U19 Player of the Year. And, more importantly, they bagged £41m in prize money.
Plenty Of Promise At Union Berlin
Prusseit was pretty pleased with his first season in the German top tier, safely avoiding any relegation trouble thanks largely to a strong start to the campaign. However, he was a little concerned by just three wins and 14 points from 18 games after Christmas.
Lnenicka led the way with 11 goals followed by Paavolainen and Picak with nine, Ramadan’s seven and Kovac’s six. Picak topped the club’s assists chart with 13 followed by Kovac with six and Antonio Villalonga’s four. And Kovac was the only player to average over a 7.00.
However, there was plenty to get excited about given the potential at the club. Prusseit saw his first player represent Germany as Korte was handed his debut against Ukraine in March, despite being in pretty terrible form for Union. While the potential at the club was proven by Paavolainen coming 2nd in NxGn 2033, along with Korte (9th), Satoru Iida (18th), Ori Kanuk (20th), centre-back Kresten Vilfort (23rd) and Jindrich Scasny (39th).
That potential was added to by a solid youth intake that contained two 5-star potential players in goalkeeper Michael Reitz and winger Christopher Middendorf plus 4-star holding midfielder Younes Müller.
Bayern continue their ridiculous dominance of Bundesliga, winning a 22nd consecutive title by seven points from Dortmund, while Leipzig were down in sixth. Bayern also wrapped up a DFB-Pokal and Champions League treble!
A third OstDeutscher side will be in Bundesliga next season as Hansa Rostock won 2. Bundesliga but Prusseit’s former club Energie Cottbus were relegated back to 3. Liga. While Chemnitzer were relegated from 3. Liga and Chemie Leipzig were relegated from Regionalliga. But two more of Prusseit’s former clubs were promoted as Hansa Rostock II won Regionalliga Nordost and Stendal won Verbandsliga Saxonia-Anhalt.
Could Prusseit develop more of the potential at Union Berlin for an improved campaign in 2033/34? Join us on Friday to find out!
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