World Champions Union Berlin headed into 2042 with a narrow lead at the top of Bundesliga as they looked to regain the title they’d previously won three times in a row.
Ruprecht Prusseit didn’t see too much need to add to his strong squad but he did add a couple of promising talents in striker Danilo Luna, who needs to work on his finishing, for £3m from Nacional and holding midfielder Félix Costa for £4m from Real Madrid.
Maintaining Bundesliga Push
The new year began with a tricky game at 2nd-place Leverkusen. But a brace by Claudio Sepúlveda, which outrageously took him to 50 goals for the season in January, earned a 2-2 draw. It also started with three league games in a week, which saw Union win 3-0 at Wolfsburg led by a brace from attacking midfielder Leandro Van Dessel then a Miroslav Milosevic penalty and Sepúlveda strike earned a 2-1 win over Fortuna Düsseldorf.
A big test of Union’s chances came with a trip to fellow OstDeutscher side RB Leipzig, who took the lead after half an hour. But Union rallied after the break and goals from Milosevic and Sepúlveda earned a vital victory that moved them nine points clear of Leipzig.
Sepúlveda scored twice in a 4-2 win over Hamburg, which tied his club record of 62 goals in a season in 2040 and took him to 199 league goals for the club. And he became the first Union player to score 200 league goals and broke his club goalscoring record with the final strike in a 3-0 win at Dortmund that moved them seven points clear with 10 games remaining.
Champions League Progression
Union came into two home Champions League league phase games with a chance of making the top eight. A Van Dessel hat-trick and Sepúlveda brace inspired a 5-0 thumping of Maccabi Tel-Aviv before Sepúlveda ran riot with a five-goal haul and midfielder José Marco got four assists as they annihilated Benfica 8-1. And that was enough to wrap up 6th place with a league-high 30 goals in eight games.
The round of 16 paired Union with Milan, who they’d beaten in four of their five meetings. They maintained that record as Sepúlveda scored both in a 2-0 away win and scored in a 4-1 home victory. A tougher test followed against Barcelona, who dominated the first leg in Germany but Union held on for a 1-1 draw. And their hopes of defending the Champions League ended with a 3-0 loss in Spain.
Chasing A 4th Bundesliga Title
Union kicked off the run-in with a big game at home to champions Bayern, who were struggling in 5th. And Union showed their dominance as Milosevic, Sepúlveda and Van Dessel sealed an easy 3-1 win that moved them 18 points clear of Bayern.
Their lead stretched to 10 points as José Marco’s penalty earned a 1-0 win over Köln then Sepúlveda bagged yet another hat-trick in a 4-0 win at Nürnberg, which took him past 70 goals for the season! The lead stretched to 14 points with six games remaining with a 3-0 success at home to Werder Bremen then an easy 2-0 win at home to Osnabrück made the title virtually done. And the next day, Stuttgart lost at Leipzig, so Union were Champions again!
Union put their Champions League disappointment behind them with a 4-2 win led by a Sepúlveda brace. Sandhausen were relegated with a dominant 3-0 victory led a Milosevic brace then a Van Dessel hat-trick led a 4-0 hammering of Stuttgart away. Sepúlveda shockingly didn’t score in either of those games… but… made up for it in style in the season-concluding Berliner Derby by scoring a new Bundesliga record SIX to down 10-man Hertha 7-0!
That saw Hertha win the title by a huge 16 points from Leipzig with Bayern 20 points behind the champions in 4th. They came within one point of Bayern’s all-time record of 91 points and just two goals behind Bayern’s record of 101 goals.
Speaking of records, Sepúlveda smashed his own Bundesliga record of 42 goals, scoring an incredible 48 in 32. He also broke his own records for highest average rating with an amazing 8.26 (beating his 7.92) and most player of the match awards with 14 (beating his 11). While Milosevic broke Joshua Kimmich’s record of 17 assists set in 2024 by creating 18 goals.
Celebrating A Famous Treble
Union enjoyed another stellar season in which they regained their Bundesliga title and became World Champions as well as winning the European Super Cup.
The star of the show was undoubtedly Sepúlveda, who scored 80 goals in 52 games in all competitions including the Club World Cup. Van Dessel scored 32 with 20 assists in 43 games and Milosevic got a club-high 31 assists and 23 goals in 45 games. Bruno Rodríguez got 22 assists but only five goals and José Marco assisted 18 but only scored four goals. Sepúlveda’s ridiculous exploits also saw him become the first Union player ever to win the Best Player In Europe award.
Away from the first team, Union’s Under 19s won the UEFA Youth League for the first time, led 19 goals in 12 games by exciting striker Jonathan Mascias, and won their league for the third time in a row. They also finally delivered a good youth prospect in Spanish left-back/winger Lars Bergmann.
OstDeutscher Sieg Next Steps
An exciting development saw Union’s feeder club and fellow OstDeutscher side Magdeburg gain promotion to Bundesliga for the first time in their history. While another East German side Chemnitzer were promoted from 3. Liga. That means three OstDeutscher sides are now in Bundesliga and four are in 2. Bundesliga.
Prusseit had been thinking about calling it a day after regaining the German title. However, he was keen to have another stab at the Champions League after last season’s disappointment and aim to defend the Bundesliga success. And he was keen to see how Magdeburg got on in their first season in Bundesliga.
Could Prusseit achieve European and domestic success in 2042/43? Join us on Friday to find out!
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