The Unraveling of Union Berlin: A Fall from Grace

On Sunday we set the clocks back an hour. I’m sure: At Union Berlin they would like to turn back time a few weeks. And then we would do a lot of things differently…

After two match days, the “Irons” were at the top of the Bundesliga. In the Champions League draw they were drawn against Real Madrid. And everyone raved about the “Wunder Union”.

Reason for the Union crisis? Explosive cabin suspicion surrounding Bonucci!

Source: image October 30, 2023

Then the misery began! After two 4-1 wins, Leonardo Bonucci (36), the world star from Juventus Turin, came. European champion, 9 x Italian champion, 84 Champions League games.

They wanted to take the next step with him and national player Robin Gosens (for 13 million from Inter Milan). Get fit for the premier class. The opposite happened. There were 10 defeats in 10 competitive games.

With every step you take, you can see how uncomfortable Bonucci is. With the super stars, the power structure in the dressing room seems to have changed. The team no longer appears as a tight-knit unit. They no longer fight their opponents as passionately as they did in the days when everyone was underdogs.

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Some even say Union has lost its DNA!

In the Champions League, the move to the Olympic Stadium was probably the right thing to do economically. The Hertha stadium has 74,475 seats, the own only 22,012. But on the back straight you always see this huge poster: “We need the forestry department like we need air to live!” For the fans, it’s only a home game if it takes place in Köpenick.

And when 20-year-old David Fofana was suspended because he refused to shake the coach’s hand out of frustration over a substitution, Urs Fischer also lost his sovereignty.

This should have been solved differently.

Apparently Fischer has his fate in the cup in Stuttgart on Tuesday. Even if the bosses can’t think of anything better than to fire him afterwards, Union Berlin is just a normal club. Then the magic is gone.

Nobody talks about miracles anymore.

2023-10-31 08:55:37
#Followup #column #misery #Union #Berlin #began #Bonucci #Sports