On the wave of success: Union around Rani Khedira (left) achieved a special victory against Gladbach.
If you want to tease Urs Fischer, you ask him about the championship. Whether there are stupid questions remains to be seen. In any case, the coach of 1. FC Union Berlin has been giving the same logical answer to this for seven weeks. The goal of the season remains relegation. And as long as the target number of 40 points calculated for this is not reached, nothing will be changed. With this strategy, the Swiss will start the new year safely. Should the front runners from Köpenick win the three remaining games in the Bundesliga before the World Cup break, they would still be at the top of the table but would only have gained 35 points.
Urs Fischer is a self-confessed realist. Those who mean it badly with this type like to attribute negative characteristics to them: no big goals, self-imposed limits. This does not apply to the soccer coach. “We want to spend the winter in the Europa League,” is Fischer’s self-confident route before the last group game this Thursday at leaders Royale Union Saint-Gilloise.
For 1. FC Union there are two ways to Europe in the coming year. The coach wants the best possible. The Berliners have already secured the intermediate round of the third-rate Conference League, and third place in Group D is enough for that. But they want to prevent this relegation in Leuven. With a win, they would defend their hard-fought second place and move into the second round of the Europa League. If the Portuguese from SC Braga don’t win their home game against Malmö FF, the Berliners don’t need any points against the Belgians, who are already confirmed as group winners.
The Köpenick delegation started the trip to Flanders strengthened. “It can release forces,” said Fischer happily last Sunday. Cheering was a little louder than usual in the Alte Försterei after the 2-1 win against Borussia Mönchengladbach. Because the drama of the game caused emotions to explode after the winning goal in the seventh minute of injury time. The current table is surreal, said Rani Khedira afterwards – in the spirit of his coach. Like the midfielder, every Union player has the feeling of being at the top of the Bundesliga. On the other hand, not every outsider hears the irony in the fan chants about the German championship.
The Berliners will also experience the unreal in Belgium. At the Den Dreef stadium, where Royale Union Saint-Gilloise play their European home games, the footballers of 1. FC Union have to do without the support of their supporters. After the riots at the away game in Malmö, Uefa banned the sale of tickets to guest fans. The club accepted the penalty and is still working on the incidents together with the fans.
Dirk Zingler was one of the first to publicly criticize the images of flying flares. However, the President of the Union does not want to accept another ban. Because the mere presence of “German fans” could “disrupt public order”, there is a ban on entering the city of Leuven. “I think this measure by the Belgian authorities is disproportionate and wrong,” said Zingler on Wednesday and criticized the “collective punishment,” which once again would not hit the perpetrators, but many peaceful football fans.
Zingler also stands for the ambitions of 1. FC Union. Even before the first whistle in the Europa League, he had said that he would like to “hibernate” in this competition. He enjoys the development in the recent past. And he wants to continue »pushing the boundaries«. However, the president knows exactly how to classify the successes – and he agrees with football expert Fischer on this. “We’ll make the construction collapse!” This sentence was said after the financially weak Berliners had qualified fifth for the second most important European competition last season.
In order to actually reach the intermediate round of the Europa League in February, the latest boost from the Bundesliga cannot do any harm. Without fans in the eleventh game in a month, it will be difficult against Union Saint-Gilloise. The resilience of Berliners so far is amazing. The team also ran seven kilometers more than their opponents against Mönchengladbach. And so the previous defeat at bottom of the table Bochum was followed by a win again. Two things in particular stood out: On the one hand, the Berliners had more possession of the ball than Borussia – for the first time in their total of eight victories this season. And: Union got three points after going behind, also for the first time this season.
It is this development that prompted Urs Fischer to offer unusually effusive praise on Sunday: “Compliments to the team, that really convinced me today.” The “European learning process” that the coach attests to his players also gives hope. After the two defeats at the start, three wins followed. And then there’s the fun of it. “We enjoy being able to play every three days,” said Rani Khedira with anticipation. The reports that he should be in the extended squad of national coach Hansi Flick and on the transfer slip from FC Barcelona were just as little taken seriously as his coach was about the question of the championship.
