The supporters of Union Berlin had a summer to remember, leaving the streets of Berlin painted red and white as they celebrated the club becoming East Germany’s first European champions. The success had seen Union become the 4th most reputable team in world football only behind Real Madrid, PSG and Man City.
But manager Ruprecht Prusseit had a new challenge on his hands, to re-surpass Bayern as champions of Germany and lead his team into their first attempt at becoming World Champions.
Prusseit didn’t have much space for improvement in his squad, but he did move on 13 underperforming backups for a profit of £114m. He then strengthened with exciting holding midfielder Dylan Feraud for £40m from Nice, wonderkid winger Giovanni Pasini for £26m from Frankfurt and centre-back Muck Wein for £36.5m from Hamburg.
A Shot At Becoming World Champions
Union had an early start to the 2041/42 campaign as they took part in their first-ever Club World Cup in Belgium. They got a decent group draw alongside Atletico Mineiro and Okayama FC. As is standard for this silly tournament, Union came into it with an exhausted squad and some players still on international duty. But they had far too much quality for their group opponents as they beat Mineiro 3-1 then a rotated side struggled for 77 minutes before star striker Claudio Sepúlveda came on to score four in 17 minutes and inspire a 5-0 thumping of Okayama.
It was lucky Prusseit had rested players as they faced Real Madrid two days later. Union dominated the game and had all the best chances but Real took an early lead and Union eventually found an equaliser after an hour thanks to Milosevic’s excellent volley. It went to extra time and Union’s rest worked in their favour as goals either side of the half-time break by Leandro Van Dessel and Sepúlveda nicked a 3-1 victory.
Four days later the semi-final served up a repeat of last season’s Champions League Final demolition as Union took on Arsenal. This time it was a much tighter affair but Bruno Rodríguez again haunted the Gunners as the winger scored the only goal on 44 minutes to send Union into the World Club Cup Final!
Another English opponent awaited them as 2029 and 2033 winners Liverpool defeated Bayern 2-0. Liverpool started the better and went ahead after 14 minutes. But Union grew into the game and got level as Sepúlveda finished a lovely team move after half an hour. A half-time team talk worked wonders as winger Miroslav Milosevic stabbed them ahead four minutes after the break. Five minutes later, José Marco won a penalty that Milosevic stepped up to take and coolly panenkad the keeper. Prusseit made a few changes and Liverpool got one back but they held on for a 3-2 win.
Union Berlin were World Champions!!
More Silverware Up For Grabs
Union had a chance to make it two more trophies before the season even began as they took part in an all-German European Super Cup against Eintracht Frankfurt. Union dominated the game and eased to a 3-0 win with goals by Van Dessel, centre-back Abdelkacir Belkacem and Milosevic.
Hoping For Bundesliga Improvement
Union’s summer activity saw them finally instilled as favourites to win Bundesliga at 13/8 followed by Bayern (9/4), RB Leipzig (17/2), Leverkusen (16/1), Stuttgart (18/1) and Freiburg (25/1).
The season began at home to Leverkusen, against whom Union were unbeaten in 13 games. And that trend continued as a brilliant Sepúlveda hat trick inspired a 5-1 thumping. The Chilean repeated the feat in a 4-1 win at Düsseldorf and remarkably made it three trebles in three games in a 3-0 win at home to Wolfsburg. However, he disappointingly only scored once in a 2-1 win at Freiburg and Van Dessel stole the headlines as he scored twice in a lethal 5-1 pummelling of Leipzig.
That clearly infuriated Sepúlveda as the striker went and thumped four past Köln in another 5-1 hammering. But he picked up a knock ahead of a home game against Dortmund, which showed as they dropped points for the first time this season in a 0-0 draw. And more dropped points followed with a first defeat, 2-1 at Bayern in which Pasini scored his first goal for the club.
They got back to winning ways, albeit pretty unconvincingly, as Sepúlveda and Pasini edged a 2-1 win over bottom side Nürnberg. But were much improved as Sepúlveda scored twice in the first 11 minutes and Van Dessel returned from injury to seal a 3-0 win at Werder Bremen. And they had the same deadly duo to thank again as Van Dessel bagged a brace and Sepúlveda scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 hammering of Gladbach.
Sepúlveda continued banging the goals in, scoring twice in a 3-0 win at Osnabrück that took Union top then the only goal at home to Frankfurt and another in a 4-0 win at Sandhausen. Union wrapped up 2041 with two big games against fellow title challengers. First up, they entertained 3rd-place Stuttgart and eased to a 3-1 win with goals from Milosevic, Fágner and Markus Ambrosius. They then went to rivals Hertha, who’d led the league early on but fallen away a little, but stepped up to thump a poor Union team 3-0.
That left Union top by two points from Leverkusen and three clear of Leipzig, with champions Bayern down in 5th. Union led the way with 49 goals of which Sepúlveda had scored an impressive 26, which was more than double any other player in the league.
Champions League Defence Begins
The media made Union second favourites to defend their Champions League title, with odds of 6/1 only bettered by Man City’s 9/2 with Bayern third favourites at 15/2. But they got a tough set of fixtures including Barcelona, Atlético, Liverpool and Spurs.
The league phase began with a narrow 1-0 defeat at Barca before a fully rotated 11, which was much needed due to tiredness and injuries, earned a 2-2 with Atlético. A first win arrived as a heavily rotated side won 4-1 at Rosenborg in which Feraud scored his first goal for the club then Supúlveda bagged a hat-trick in a 6-0 thumping of Celtic. A late equaliser saw Liverpool nick a 1-1 draw before Van Dessel’s brace inspired a 4-1 win at Spurs, which left Union one point off the top eight with two home games remaining.
Off the field, Union topped the Bundesliga player development list for the first time, with 26 homegrown players now at top-flight clubs. While Prusseit’s continued excellence saw the Union board hand him a new five-year contract worth £50,000 per week.
More exciting news saw Sepúlveda become the first Union Berlin player to win the FIFA Best Men’s Player and FIFPro Player of the Year awards, after scoring an incredible 73 goals in 55 games in 2041. Van Dessel came second in both and Rodríguez joined them in the World Team of the Year.
Heading into the winter break, Sepúlveda had already scored a ridiculous 48 goals in 30 appearances in all competitions. While Van Dessel had 18 goals and 12 assists in 27 games and Milosevic had 11 goals and 16 assists in 24 games.
Could Prusseit maintain Union’s form and lead World Champions Union Berlin to regain the Bundesliga title? Join us on Monday to find out!
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