It is often trite to describe a particular goal as the turning point of a season. Especially with late goals, we have the tendency to let the emotion describe them, as if they are more important than they actually might be.
Divorcing events from emotion has never been a speciality of Union Berlin, however. This is a club and a fanbase that feels everything. The club whose supporters literally gave their own blood to raise funds to fill empty coffers, who rebuilt a crumbling stadium with their own hands – and who, on the back of a horrendous run of 12 successive defeats which turned what should have been a dream season into an unfolding nightmare, chanted not for their head coach to be sacked, but emptied their lungs with the gospel that he was still a FußballGott to them.
That extraordinary outpouring of support still wasn’t enough, ultimately, to save Urs Fischer. The coach who had given Union everything – an improbable first-ever promotion to the top flight, the status of top dog in Berlin as they entrenched themselves while Hertha teetered, European football and eventually, astonishingly, arrival to the Champions League – had come to the end point of a line that would have arrived much more quickly at almost any other club.
Now Union have a new coach, which still sounds strange to say. The Croatian Nenad Bjelica, who was last with Trabzonspor until being relieved of his duties in mid-October, was announced on Sunday morning and has been greeted as an unknown in Germany. Yet he actually has much in common (CV-wise) with his predecessor Fischer, having guided second-level superpowers Austria Vienna and Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League.
The difference, of course, is that Bjelica starts at a higher level than the man who came before, and at a lower ebb. The negative sequence of results this season is such that it pushed Fischer to go, a seemingly unimaginable scenario just weeks before. The decision, made public and final three days after the humbling at Leverkusen which signalled the break for internationals, was a genuinely mutual one, president Dirk Zingler had been at pains to stress. “He didn’t resign, and I didn’t fire him,” Zingler insisted.
It had appeared earlier in the weekend that Raúl, the coach of Real Madrid’s B team Castilla, might be the chosen one before Bjelica moved to centre stage. He at least has something to work with, Kevin Volland’s late equaliser against Augsburg bringing an end to nine straight Bundesliga defeats on an afternoon where much of what could have gone wrong did.
The home side fell behind to Ermedin Demirovic’s penalty in the first half when referee Florian Badstübner had a look at the images of Robin Gosens’ firm challenge on Arne Engels at VAR’s behest, but stuck with his original award. “I’m sticking to the fact it wasn’t a penalty,” said Gosens afterwards, “but I have to say I’m putting the team in danger [with such a tackle].” Union then received a penalty of their own in the second half, only for Robin Knoche to have his shot saved by Finn Dahmen. Gosens then had a header ruled out for offside, but heads didn’t drop.
Volland’s goal was just how this new Union, signing recognised names as they stepped up for their go at the Champions League, was supposed to work. In some ways it was a typical goal in this setting, coming from a set piece. In others it was a window into a step up in terms of individual quality, with the Germany striker taking a sniff of a chance and finishing it past Dahmen with craft and clarity, not an easy trick in the current situation.
And it felt pivotal. As well as being Volland’s first Bundesliga goal in 1,246 days after his spell at Monaco, it was Union’s first in the competition since 7 October, and their first at their Alten Försterei home since the opening game there this season, the win over Mainz on 20 August – which seems a lifetime ago now. After Köln’s Friday night defeat to Bayern Munich, the point also lifted Union from last place in the table. The grit shown was a credit to Marco Grote, the club’s under-19 coach, and his assistant Marie-Louise Eta, who have taken the team post-Fischer. “It was a step in the right direction,” Grote said with some circumspection.
While Grote will go back to the under-19s, Eta, the first woman to be on a Bundesliga bench, will stay with the seniors and with Bjelica for now, with club legend Sebastian Bönig stepping down for an undetermined period. Bönig was also acknowledged in Saturday’s choreo at Köpenick that hailed Fischer and his also-departing assistant Markus Hoffmann (“You have realised dreams that we never actually had,” said the script on the moving display). The new team’s start is a tough one, with a midweek visit to Braga in the Champions League followed by a trip to Bayern on Saturday. It is likely to make Bjelica’s home debut, against Borussia Mönchengladbach, even more crucial.
Moving on is important, but so is preserving the old feeling. “It was similar to what happened with Urs Fischer five and a half years ago,” Zingler said on Sunday as he presented Bjelica and his assistant Danijel Jumic, talking of their first meeting. “I don’t talk to coaches about tactical formations or styles of play, I talk to the coaches about life.” And life will continue at Union, as it always does. They would prefer if it did so as a top division team.
Talking points
• The international window hasn’t interrupted Leverkusen’s rhythm. Xabi Alonso’s leaders stormed to a 3-0 win at Werder Bremen, with increasingly influential wing-backs Jeremie Frimpong and Alejandro Grimaldo both on the mark with sensational strikes. For the latter, who punctuated his incredible season to date with a full Spain debut against Cyprus last week, it was his ninth goal of the campaign.
• Harry Kane is on to 18 after his winner for Bayern at Köln, which had made the champions overnight leaders before being usurped again by Die Werkself. A 1-0 win rather undersold the level of Bayern’s dominance, though Thomas Tuchel bizarrely made no substitutions having complained extensively about the demands on players pre-match.
• Borussia Dortmund avoided the worst, again, turning around a 2-0 home deficit against Gladbach to eventually win 4-2, with their individual qualities just about trumping more collective malaise. It was perhaps put into context by CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke at Sunday’s AGM, in which he praised the club’s ability to begin to recover from losing the title on the final day of last season, which he referred to as “the most terrible day of my life”. With Leipzig losing at Wolfsburg, with the outstanding Jonas Wind registering a goal and an assist for Rogério’s winner, BVB are back in the top four despite everything.
• Stuttgart continue in third after winning at Eintracht Frankfurt, with Sebastian Hoeneß taking what he called “the safe option” in replacing travel-weary top scorer Serhou Guirassy in the XI with Deniz Undav – and the on-loan Brighton man’s brace (including an opener after 56 seconds) sealed the victory in a match marred by crowd violence which left over 100 injured.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayer Leverkusen | 12 | 27 | 34 |
| 2 | Bayern Munich | 12 | 34 | 32 |
| 3 | Stuttgart | 12 | 16 | 27 |
| 4 | Borussia Dortmund | 12 | 6 | 24 |
| 5 | RB Leipzig | 12 | 17 | 23 |
| 6 | Hoffenheim | 12 | 3 | 20 |
| 7 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 12 | 5 | 18 |
| 8 | Wolfsburg | 12 | -4 | 16 |
| 9 | Freiburg | 12 | -8 | 15 |
| 10 | Augsburg | 12 | -3 | 14 |
| 11 | Borussia M'gladbach | 12 | -2 | 13 |
| 12 | Werder Bremen | 12 | -7 | 11 |
| 13 | Heidenheim | 12 | -9 | 11 |
| 14 | VfL Bochum | 12 | -14 | 10 |
| 15 | Darmstadt | 12 | -18 | 9 |
| 16 | Mainz | 12 | -13 | 8 |
| 17 | Union Berlin | 12 | -15 | 7 |
| 18 | Cologne | 12 | -15 | 6 |
