World Champions Union Berlin regained their Bundesliga title in 2042 and Ruprecht Prusseit was now targeting domestic and continental success in his 20th and potentially final season as a Football Manager.
The previous season’s success saw Prusseit and attacking midfielder Leandro Van Dessel instilled as Union Berlin legends. Record-breaking striker Claudio Sepúlveda became the only player during this era to be considered an icon while winger Bruno Rodríguez and midfielder José Marco joined former winger Grga Picak as fans’ favourites. Furthermore, Union was now the third most reputable club in the world, only behind Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Prusseit used the summer transfer window to move on some of his underperforming backups, including selling Markus Ambrosius, Mohamed Ouédraogo, Ignacio Ludueña, Nuno Valadão and Hüsamettin Ayan for a total of £127m. That boosted the club balance to £628m and the transfer kitty to £308m. Prusseit invested some of that by signing two 18-year-olds in left-back Henrique Duarte for £27m from Moreirense and midfielder Lucas Bastholt for £3.1m from OB.
Prusseit saw no need to change up his tried and tested tactic and stuck with the familiar first-choice 11. That said, Giovanni Pasini is showing great progress and pushing Rodríguez for his left-wing berth and Dylan Feraud is close to replacing Satoru Iida in the anchor role.
Bundesliga Defence Begins
Union were huge favourites to defend their title at 6/5 followed by Bayern, who appointed journeyman Mikel Arteta after spells with Arsenal, Spain, Hertha, Roma, Leipzig, Freiburg, Napoli, Dortmund and Juventus over the summer, at 3/1, Leipzig at 7/1, Leverkusen at 16/1 and Stuttgart at 20/1.
The title defence began at Hamburg and a Sepúlveda brace led an easy 3-1 victory. But the season started with a mini-injury crisis that saw Rodríguez, Pasini, Iida, centre-back Abdelkarim Belkacem and right-back Zé Serrão all ruled out for several weeks. But they still thumped Freiburg 5-1 in their first home game of the campaign with Sepúlveda and Rodriguez braces then a Sepúlveda hat-trick and Rodríguez and Van Dessel doubles inspired a 7-3 away thrashing of Hoffenheim.
A first OstDeutscher clash of the season looked to be ending 2-2 until full-back Rogério Poulos scored his first Union goal in his 171st league game to nick a late winner. The winning start ended with a 2-2 at Frankfurt but they bounced back by defeating Leverkusen 2-1 then a Sepúlveda hat-trick earned a 3-1 victory at a poor Dortmund side to go top of the league. They consolidated that position with a 7-1 win at Werder Bremen, with seven different scorers and José Marco bagging three assists, then Sepúlveda’s hat-trick led a 6-1 hammering of Gladbach.
That teed up a big clash as unbeaten leaders Union travelled to 2nd-place Bayern with an eight-point lead. But Union again tasted defeat in Munich with a disappointing 3-1 loss. However, they got back on track with late Rodríguez and Sepúlveda strikes earning a 2-0 win at home to Wolfsburg then a Sepúlveda double leading a 3-1 victory at Jahn Regensburg.
2042 concluded with two tasty local clashes. First, Union travelled to Hertha for the first Berliner Derby of the campaign and a Sepúlveda brace and a Van Dessel assist hat-trick led a dominant 4-0 victory. They then entertained fellow OstDeutscher side Magdeburg for the first time in Bundesliga and eased to a 2-0 win.
That left Union with a healthy seven-point lead over Leverkusen at the halfway mark of the campaign with Bayern 13 points back in 4th. Sepúlveda again leads the way with 25 goals while Van Dessel has a league-high 12 assists plus 10 goals.
Champions League League Phase
Union got a relatively easy set of fixtures in the league phase, with the big challenge being a final-day trip to PSG. They began with a draw at home to Arsenal before dominating Juventus 4-0, winning 3-0 at Espanyol then Milosevic’s late winner nicked a 2-1 at Porto. Van Dessel scored twice to defeat Red Star 4-0 then again in a 4-2 victory at home to Leeds, which left Union 5th going into two away games.
Significant Union Award Recognition
Sepúlveda’s form over the last year saw the Chilean deservedly become Union Berlin’s first-ever winner of the FIFA Ballon d’Or. And he was followed in second place by Van Dessel. He then became the first Union player to win the Goal 50 award, in which Van Dessel again came second, Rodríguez came 13th and Serrão was 40th. Sepúlveda also defended his FIFA FIFPro Player of the Year award but Van Dessel beat him to FIFA Best Men’s Player of the Year.
Could Union maintain their league form to defend their Bundesliga title? And could they push towards a 2nd Champions League success? Join us on Monday to find out!
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