Union Berlin footballers are defensive and minimalist legends. Actually. Everything is different on Sunday evening against Bayer Leverkusen – and the championship lead is gone. The team from the league lowlands celebrates a furious resurrection. And Union practices humility.
Well, now the situation in the Bundesliga has returned to normal. FC Bayern has achieved its goal and taken the lead in the table before the World Cup break. On the one hand, the Munich team owe this to their entertaining tremor victory at Hertha BSC (3: 2) (colleague Stephan Uersfeld judged harshly here) and on the other hand to the furious resurrection of Bayer Leverkusen. This starving ensemble finally kindled that world champion fire on the pitch on Sunday afternoon, which until now had only been smoldering on the sidelines. Xabi Alonso’s team dismantled Union Berlin 5-0 (0-0).
Only once before had the irons been dismantled in this way in the Bundesliga. On February 1, 2020, Borussia Dortmund thundered over Berlin with the same result. Erling Haaland met then, as did Axel Witsel and Jadon Sancho. Experts know: It was a different time. Will that also start for Bayer and Union? Nobody can tell. Experts know (II): A game alone does not trigger autumn depression. And so the Unioners humbly withdraw from the top spot for the time being. “We now have to accept the new situation in the table,” said coach Urs Fischer. He’s not disappointed, “the team just did too well for that this year.”
Interesting: Berlin did well in Leverkusen too. Maybe not quite as good as usual, but good. But then referee Robert Schröder whistled at half-time. It was a whistle that will go down in history. Because what followed were the bitterest 45 minutes in Union Berlin’s Bundesliga history, which has now lasted three and a half years. After the break, “we were hit hard,” said captain Christopher Trimmel, who, like two weeks earlier at VfL Bochum (1: 2), calmly processed the bankruptcy and reminded DAZN of all the good things. “We’re having a great season, we’re through in the cup, we’re through in the Europa League. We knew we’d get a pack.”
However, it was far from clear that this undermined prophecy would come true against Bayer Leverkusen. So far, nothing has worked out for them this season. Nothing at all. Although you had assured yourself before the start that you had an outstanding squad together. Even title debates were allowed. But then that: bankruptcies, embarrassments and the expulsion of coach Gerardo Seoane, under whose direction such beautiful and successful football was played last season. But now stop this, this resurrection, this merciless efficiency against the stunned defense and minimalism legends from Köpenick. “We got in badly and as soon as you turn around three times, it’s 5-0. Unfortunately, that’s a total failure,” said Rani Khedira, who is said to be on Hansi Flick’s secret desert World Cup list.
Ex-Unioner Robert Andrich, of all people, had initiated the debacle immediately after the break (46th) after a corner. And, of all people, total failure blitz analyst Khedira fell asleep in his own penalty area. When the guests quickly tried to sweep up the shards of this minor accident and push for an equalizer, she was countered with bitter anger. Twice Moussa Diaby (56th/58th) as well as Adam Hlozek (68th) and Mitchel Bakker (76th) made the joint highest Bundesliga success against a table first in this millennium perfect in front of 30,210 spectators. Previously, only FC Bayern had managed to do that. On April 6, 2019, BVB was dismantled. Among others, Robert Lewandowski, Mats Hummels and Javi Martinez met. Experts know (III): It was a different time.
To classify what happened at the interchange: Before this 13th match day, Union had only conceded nine goals. Now five have been added. That was actually what annoyed coach Fischer a lot more than anything else that happened that Sunday afternoon. “I don’t care about the way we lose here,” complained the cult coach. A standard situation to make it 0-1 and “a gift from us” to make it 0-2, when goalkeeper Lennart Grill on loan from Leverkusen (he played for the injured Frederik Rönnöw) muddled the ball well in front of his goal, led the Berlin Bundesliga collapse one. “And then you play into the hands of Leverkusen if you give them too much space and you get even more goals,” Fischer said angrily. “You mustn’t walk into the open knife like that. That was youth football for me.”
But it goes on, on, on and on. Surprisingly fast even. The bread-and-butter competition invites you to the next duel on Wednesday. FC Augsburg travels to the Alte Försterei before the pre-World Cup match against SC Freiburg is scheduled for Sunday evening. Fischer has plenty of things to discuss in this furious finale of the year. “It was a slap in the face, so you have to take with you that you can’t behave like that. There are one or two things to talk about and then you have to get up again.”
Leverkusen showed how it works. And coach Xabi Alonso and can opener Andrich announce how to deal with such a momentum. “Of course I’m very happy today,” said the Spanish legend, who celebrated only his second win in eight games. His footballers, already 14th in the table, would have implemented a lot of the things he expected of them after half-time: simple play, quick combinations and consistent completion. “If we just play, we’re brutally good,” said goal scorer Andrich.
(This article was first published on Monday, November 07, 2022.)
