Ruprecht Prusseit had led Union Berlin into a strong position, leading Bundesliga by 10 points heading into 2038. But he was keen to avoid another end-of-season slump that had handed titles back to Bayern Munich in the last two seasons.
The new year began with a massive club record sale. Striker Michael Storskov was now Union’s Champions League starter having been usurped by top scorer Claudio Sepúlveda, was 26 and had 18 months on his contract. So when Newcastle came in with a £65m offer he bit their hands off. And Prusseit replaced him with 17-year-old Paraskevas Goulas for £3m from Frankfurt.
Maintaining A Strong Start
Union began 2038 with a trip to bottom side Mainz and duly thumped them 5-1 led by a four-goal haul by top scorer Claudio Sepúlveda. Next was a huge game as leaders Union took on 2nd-place Bayern, who they’d still only beaten once in 31 meetings in this save and Prusseit had never beaten in 12 games. Bayern bossed the early stages but midfielder Samuel Pereira chose the perfect time to score his first Union goal, drilling home from 20 yards. Bayern equalised straight after the break but Prusseit’s side held them off to earn a 1-1 and retain their 10-point lead.
That big draw was backed up by edging a 2-1 at Gladbach then beating Stuttgart 3-2 led by a Sepúlveda hat-trick. The Chilean scored the only goal at home to St Pauli then two goals in a 2-2 at Leverkusen. That saw him move past 30 goals for the season and break Ahmed Ramadam’s Union record of 28 league goals in a season. And on the same day, Dortmund beat Bayern 2-1.
Claudio continued to live up to the moniker “Sweet Sepúlveda” as his brace earned a 2-0 win at 17th-place Hoffenheim then scored the only goal at home to 14th-place Nürnberg. But he was seemingly the only Union player who could score, which showed as he got injured and they drew 0-0 at Freiburg while all the other top-five sides also drew.
Champions League Progression
Union came into the final two games of the league phase with a three-point gap to 9th place. With Liverpool away to come, a home game against Villarreal was vital. And they delivered as a Miroslav Milosevic double sealed a 2-1 win. They also did fairly well at Liverpool, only losing 2-1. And that was enough to book their place in the top eight by one point – and five places above Bayern.
That sent them straight through to the last 16, where they got one of the better draws against Villarreal. However, a few injuries struck before the away leg and they got thumped 5-2 and a 2-1 home loss saw them exit with a bit of a whimper in the round of 16.
A Bayern-Less Title Battle?
Union came into the final eight games of the season with an eight-point lead over Leipzig and a 13-point gap back to Dortmund, Bayern and Wolfsburg. Surely this time the title was heading to East Germany one way or another? But Union again had a tricky run of games coming.
Game 1 – Köln (6th, home): Sepúlveda was still missing and they weren’t looking good as Köln took the lead after half an hour. But his replacement Fredrik Fossdal headed home his first goal of the season to equal then Milosevic finished from a tight angle to nick a 2-1 win. And all the other top five sides also won.
Game 2 – Hertha (6th, away): Hertha were the form team in Bundesliga heading into the Berliner Derby but had Nicolas Makhloufi sent off for a two-footed challenge after just six minutes. Winger Leandro immediately gave Union the advantage only for Hertha to equalise after half an hour. But Union took control after the break with Satoru Iida and Sepúlveda strikes before Leandro added a late fourth. Leipzig also won to keep the gap at eight points.
Game 3 – Wolfsburg (5th, home): The tough run continued with another in-form side as Wolfsburg came to town. Sepúlveda scored again after half an hour but Wolfsburg dominated the second half and got a deserved equaliser just before the hour. Leipzig scored a 93rd-minute winner at Hamburg to close the gap.
Game 4 – Leipzig (2nd, away): That teed up a huge potential title decider as leaders Union travelled to 2nd-place Leipzig with a six-point lead. But that became three points as Union put in a terrible performance and lost 1-0 to a goal by 35-year-old Ilaix Moriba. And they lost Sepúlveda to injury again.
Game 5 – Arminia Bielefeld (15th, home): They faced another first half of frustration against a poor Bielefeld team. But Prusseit laid into the team at half-time and immediately got his reward as Bruno Rodríguez scored his first goal in five months. Leandro added a second before Rodríguez doubled his tally to seal a 3-0 victory. Later that day, Leipzig drew 0-0 at home to Dortmund, so Union grew the game back to five points with three games remaining.
Game 6 – Hamburg (14th, away): Leipzig hammered Mainz 4-0 the day before Union went to Hamburg. But Union responded with Sepúlveda and Milosevic goals either side of half-time before Hamburg got a late consolation.
Game 7 – Dortmund (4th, away): The toughest game of the run-in took Union to Dortmund and, yet again in a big game, they didn’t come close to showing up. Dortmund got a dodgy penalty then scored their first three shots on target, dominated the second half and won 4-0. While Union offered very little despite their lofty xG.
However, later that day, Leipzig went to Bayern and were equally bad, losing 3-1 with former Union player Omar Nzeyimana scoring twice, which trebled his tally for the season.
So in the most unconvincing circumstances, Union Berlin were Champions of Germany!! And Union Berlin were the first-ever East German club to win Bundesliga!!
Union celebrated their success in front of their jubilant fans at Stadion An Der Alten Försterei the day after Prusseit’s 54th birthday. And they did so in style as Sepúlveda scored once and laid on the other two for his attacking partners Milosevic and Rodríguez in a 3-1 win over Frankfurt.
That saw Union win the title by five points from Leipzig, who leapfrogged Bayern to make it an OstDeutscher one-two on the final day! Impressively, Union only conceded 24 goals all season, while 64 goals was a little on the low side compared to the 76 and 75 they managed in the previous two seasons. And the title success bagged them a cool £110m.
The key man behind this success was Sepúlveda, who was the second-top scorer in Bundesliga with 34 goals in 32 games – only bettered by Hertha’s Jeremy Dierickx scoring an outrageous 37 in 29! Also crucial was Lee Kwang-Sun keeping 16 clean sheets. They also had five players – Lee, Cláudio Borborema, Rogério Poulos, Rodríguez and Milosevic – in the Bundesliga Team of the Year, Prusseit won his third Manager of the Year in five years and Pereira won Rookie of the Year.
East Germany’s First Bundesliga Winners
This was an unprecedented season in German football history as Ruprecht Prusseit became the first manager to lead an East German club to the Bundesliga title. He was a little concerned about their inability to compete with big teams away from home, but that couldn’t detract from an excellent achievement with an exciting Union team.
The star man this season was obviously Sepúlveda, who broke the club’s league goals in a season record and finished with 38 in 40 and a 7.52 average rating in all competitions. Also impressive were his attacking colleagues Milosevic, who scored 12 and got 12 assists in 39 games, and Rodríguez, who got a club-high 15 assists plus a slightly disappointing four goals.
Stalwart midfielder Grga Picak got 10 assists and four goals with a 7.28 average rating and there were solid performances by fellow midfielders Iida and 6ft 6in Pereira, who only scored one goal despite targeting set pieces at him. While goalkeeper Lee and full-back Rogério Poulos also impressed. But Prusseit was concerned about the performances of the rest of his defensive players.
To add to the great season, Prusseit also got his first good youth intake in years. The pick of the bunch was winger Fágner, along with another winger Giuseppe Menozzi, striker Matteo Righini and full-back Besnik Dragusha, none of which were German…
Could Union build on East Germany’s first-ever Bundesliga success? And could they go further in the Champions League? Join us on Friday to find out!
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