Union Berlin is eliminated from the DFB Cup and loses for the eleventh time in a row. The trainer’s measures seem like acts of desperation. And the team’s performance was like a swansong.
If you take it with humor – and that would definitely be advisable given the alternatives – you could say: It’s astonishing that on this October 31, 2023, not many more people are wearing jerseys 1. FC Union Berlin moved across the country. Because what could be a scarier Halloween costume than this camisole?
You have to remember that again after this 0-1 defeat in the second round of the DFB Cup: “NNNNNNNNNNN”. This isn’t the work record of a sleepy civil servant who fell asleep on his favorite keyboard shortcut. “NNNNNNNNNNN”, that’s the form curve of last year’s fourth place in the Bundesliga. Eleven times “N” for defeat.
Union Berlin is eliminated from the DFB Cup with its eleventh defeat in a row
Union Berlin has been eliminated from the DFB Cup. The Köpenickers lost their second round game at VfB Stuttgart 0-1 on Tuesday evening. It is the eleventh defeat in a row for the team led by coach Urs Fischer.more
“You have to do something”
They left no stone unturned because “you have to do something,” as Captain Christopher Trimmel admitted afterwards. So coach Urs Fischer made a lot of changes and brought in five new players compared to the game at Werder Bremen. If Alexander Schwolow hadn’t injured himself during the warm-up, there would have been six changes. The change in goal already shows that a certain desperation has now set in among the Berliners.
But ultimately you have to do something. Which is why Fischer immediately tweaked the system and used a back four and a 4-2-3-1 for the first time this season.
A system with which Fischer was once extremely successful in Basel, so successful that it was considered his favorite system before he moved to Berlin a little over five years ago. What feels like 5,000 Union games with a three-man chain later seems hardly imaginable.
But there are also good reasons for the system beyond that. The 4-2-3-1 is such a common formation and practiced in every footballer’s youth that every professional, even with clouded perception, should be able to master it. Union also reflected Stuttgart’s positioning. A proven remedy in times of personal uncertainty. Eye for an eye, Stuttgart and Union.
Creepy Attack efforts
Defensively, the plan definitely worked. The distances were right, the very situational pressing releases in the center of the midfield were successful joint efforts. The fact that VfB Stuttgart is currently in third place in the Bundesliga table was not necessarily obvious, at least from the first to the third glance. The Swabians played with the self-confidence of a top team, but without being a top team.
The current situation, however, was evident in Berlin’s creepily harmless attack efforts. Anyone who had wanted to bother the Union Storm that evening with the question of trick-or-treating would only have received one answer: Nobody there.
Right winger Benedict Hollerbach showed in his starting eleven debut for Union that he has a stable body and quick legs, but has not yet reached Bundesliga level in terms of speed of action. At times you could almost see his brooding, although desperation rarely has entertainment value. At least Hollerbach appeared at all. That certainly couldn’t be said of the hanging leader Kevin Volland.
Rarely has a team played so consistently unsuccessfully and still played OK.
Volland at diving station
The ex-national player only had nine touches of the ball in the entire first half. By far they are at least on the pitch. After all, his tackle rate was 100 percent. Which was probably because he hadn’t fought a single duel.
Kevin Behrens, who was positioned in front of him, made his presence known primarily through boss-like instructions to his teammates. And as a result, in the 50th minute, Union’s only very good chance to counterattack made a mistake in such a way that, as a neutral observer, they wanted to apologize afterwards to the ball.
Sheraldo Becker, who was positioned as a left winger, had fewer problems with this. But enough with his unusual position, which he last held for the Suriname national team in July 2021 (2-1 against Guadeloupe).
Coach Urs Fischer squeezed the tension out of himself
Later, coach Fischer, among others, substituted Mikkel Kaufmann for Behrens, switching first to a two-man attack and then to a three-man attack. In short: they did and did and ran and fought. Christopher Trimmel alone must have aged by three days that evening, as he was tormenting his Methuselah-like body for a professional footballer. Which is why he was replaced in the 80th minute by left-back and national defender Robin Gosens, true to position mind you. By now, at the latest, mass had been said and the team had fallen apart.
Although, to compliment the shitty nature of things at Union: There has probably rarely been a team that played so consistently unsuccessfully and yet so consistently ok.
But it was of no use. Union’s final offensive emphasized one word above all: end. The team didn’t have a single chance to score and played like unbelievers who were driven to prayer. The photographers present must have often typed “Urs Fischer, desperate” in their photo descriptions that evening. He kept folding his arms behind his back, pressing his hands together, squeezing the tension out of him. You have to do something. Even after the final whistle.
Everything about this second-round exit points to a swansong.
From the rain into the eaves – Fischer sees red
So after this eleventh defeat in a row, Urs Fischer rushed to the prudent referee of this game only to be shown the red card by Sascha Stegemann after apparently saying too clearly. You don’t want to believe it. What Urs Fischer has achieved and achieved with Union Berlin over the past five years is too great for that. But everything about this second-round exit points to a swansong.
The personnel castling, the system change, the coach’s red card. Acts of desperation, it seems. If 1. FC Union Berlin were to free themselves from this number together with Urs Fischer, then that would probably be valued more highly than promotion to the Bundesliga. And Union jerseys would be fearsome again on 364 other days of the year. For the opponents.
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, November 1st, 2023, 9:15 a.m
