Union Berlin were firmly cementing themselves as the best team in Germany having ended Bayern München’s domination with three consecutive Bundesliga titles. And they reached their maiden Champions League Final in 2040, only losing 1-0 to Real Madrid in extra-time.
That success saw Union reach the top 10 in the European club rankings for the first time, moving above the likes of Arsenal, Atlético and Chelsea. And manager Ruprecht Prusseit was keen to push for European glory in his 10th season at Union.
To do that, he made some significant moves in the transfer market, after being handed a £100m transfer kitty. That was after moving on a couple of players who had 12 months on their contracts as Samuel Pereira joined Watford for £20m, Fredrik Fossdal went to Porto for £12m and Ali Anani moved to Chelsea for £30m. They also sold a couple of underperforming youngsters Pedro Murúa and Nick Madzar to Arsenal and Crystal Palace for £10.5m and £7.5m. And, critically, he managed to hold on to key players like 62-goal striker Claudio Sepúlveda, despite a derogatory £130m bid from Real Madrid, and Bruno Rodríguez, who had a bid from Newcastle swiftly rejected.
In their place came seven players, led by wonderkid winger Mohamed Ouédraogo for £16m from Köln and paying a new club transfer record of £43m for powerful left-back Amadou Diallo from Barcelona. They were joined by striker Nuno Vãladao for a slightly excessive £39m from Moreirense, 6ft 6in Brazilian centre-back Wágner Sarres for £7m from America Mineiro and holding midfielder Mauro Paredes for £500k from Sportivo Luqueno. And despite spending £113m, Union still finished the transfer window with a £133m transfer budget and £478m in the bank!
None of those players were pushing for starting places, more to offer greater depth to Prusseit’s established first 11. And he stuck with his successful 4-2-3-1 approach.
Adding More German Silverware
The 2041/42 season began with the curtain raiser DFL-Supercup against Bayern. And Union continued their dominance over Bayern with a 3-0 victory with as Sepúlveda scored early on before late strikes by attacking midfielder Leandro Van Dessel and right winger Miroslav Milosevic.
Off To A Stuttering Start
Despite winning three titles on the bounce, Union were still second favourites to win Bundesliga. Bayern are 2/1 favourites with Union at 11/4 and Leipzig at 5/1 a long way clear of Dortmund and Leverkusen (15/1).
The title defence began at home to Mainz and Union sent out a statement to the German pundits. Sepúlveda tucked home after seven minutes and wrapped up a hat-trick all assisted by Van Dessel within 47 minutes, then goals by Van Dessel, midfielder José Marco and attacker Markus Ambrosius wrapped up a 6-0 thumping. Van Dessel was on form again in their first away day, scoring both goals in a 2-0 victory at Nürnberg.
Their dominance showed again as Sepúlveda bagged another hat trick to down Schalke 4-2. Their toughest test yet came at Leverkusen in a game bizarrely played on the Friday after an international break, so Prusseit had to rotate half his team including youth academy midfielder Fágner making his debut. And they did well to earn a 0-0.
A couple of big games followed and they dropped more points in both, with a 2-2 at home to Hertha then a 0-0 at Leipzig. So after six matches, they’d won 50% while Bayern had won all six. And it got even worse as a heavily rotated team lost 2-0 at home to Wolfsburg.
Tough Champions League Fixtures
After reaching last season’s final, hopes were high of a good showing in the Champions League. However, Union got a tough set of fixtures that included hosting Milan and Liverpool and trips to Barcelona and Chelsea.
However, they got a good start as a Sepúlveda brace led a 4-1 win at Famalicao and backed it up as Van Dessel’s 45th-minute strike decided a 1-0 win at home to Milan. But they offered no surprises in a 4-1 defeat at Barcelona, in which Rodríguez was ruled out for six weeks with a knee ligament strain.
Sepúlveda’s first-half strike earned a 1-0 win at Rosenborg before Liverpool took an early lead. But an impressive comeback saw Milosevic equalise on 83 minutes then young midfielder Oskar Czerwinski nicked all three points in injury time. But Union unsurprisingly fell to a 2-0 defeat at Chelsea, which left them in 10th place with two more league phase games remaining.
Injury Crisis Sees Struggles Continue
Union got a helping hand in getting back on track at Fortuna Düsseldorf, who had a man sent off after 52 minutes and Union eased to a 3-0 victory. But Rodríguez’s injury was one of six attacking midfielders ruled out at the end of October, which saw them lose 2-1 at home to Freiburg and left them in 9th place after nine games. The injury issue was even worse as Vãladao also got injured ahead of a trip to 12th-place Frankfurt and they lost again 1-0, which made it a recently unprecedented four consecutive defeats and five in the last six in all competitions.
Prusseit then only had 15 fit players going into a home game against Stuttgart, who scored inside five minutes through former Union man Leonardo. But Union responded to earn a draw through José Marco’s strike. That sent them into a November international break a huge 14 points behind Bayern, and any hopes of another title were long gone.
The calamitous form forced Prusseit into a tactical change, switching to a 4-4-2 diamond. Its first outing came at fellow strugglers Dortmund, which saw 13th play 9th and it was a disaster as they created four chances, gave up 19 and lost 1-0. So that tactical gamble was rapidly thrown on the scrap heap.
Moving into December, Rodríguez returned to fitness but the struggles continued as Van Dessel rescued a late draw at home to Köln. That seemingly sparked some confidence as a run of five games without a league win and just one win in 10 league games was ended with a 4-0 thumping of 14th-place Gladbach led by a Van Dessel hat-trick.
That was backed up by consecutive Sepúlveda braces leading a 3-1 win at Werder Bremen and a 4-2 win at home to Hamburg, in which Fágner became the first Union youth graduate to score a league goal during Prusseit’s reign. And the year ended with a trip to Bayern, where they did well to hold on for a solid 0-0 draw.
That slight pickup in form saw Union finish 2040 in 7th place in Bundesliga, trailing the European places by 1 point, Champions League places by 5 points, but surprise leaders Stuttgart by 11 points. Despite their struggles, Union had scored the third-most goals in the league with 31 and only conceded 14.
One of the few positives in the first half of 2040/41 was the form of Van Dessel, who came third in the FIFA Best Men’s Player and FIFA FIFPro Player of the Year awards. This season, he’s scored eight and got nine assists in the league with a 7.68 average rating. Prusseit just needed the rest of his teammates to start delivering heading into the new year.
Could Prusseit turn Union’s fortunes around in the second half of the season? Join us on Monday to find out!
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