No one will be able to say that they didn’t try until the last moment. On Wednesday morning, however, the separation was a fact: Shortly before ten o’clock, 1. FC Union Berlin sent out a message that announced a “joint decision after five successful years” and essentially read: “Urs Fischer and Union are ending their cooperation.” Fischer, 57, and his assistant coach Markus Hoffmann, 51, will be replaced “until further notice” by Union U-19 coach Marco Grote and his assistant coach Marie-Louise Eta.
The end of the Fischer era is the consequence of a series of 14 games without a win and the fall to the bottom of the Bundesliga table, which was certified on Sunday. And yet: When Unioners will one day think back to Fischer’s era that began in 2018, this horror series will seem as disturbing to them as the birthmark on Marilyn Monroe’s left cheek: like a flaw that doesn’t bother anyone. Because the story about the Swiss Fischer and Union was, all in all, almost too good to be true. Like Marilyn.
In 2019, under Fischer, Union was promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time in the club’s history, and what no one knew at the time: It was just the beginning of an almost unprecedented series of successes. After a spectacular defeat against RB Leipzig in their first ever Bundesliga game, which gave rise to every doubt about Köpenick’s suitability for the first division, 1. FC Union stayed in class. The following year, Union qualified for the Conference League, the following year for the Europa League, and last season the club reached fourth place in the table and thus received a ticket for the Champions League.
The start of the current season was promising: on the first two match days there were 4-1 wins against Mainz and in Darmstadt. But then a 3-0 draw against Leipzig initiated what seemed like an endless series of defeats, which was only broken the previous week by a 1-1 draw with the Italian champions SSC Napoli in the Champions League. But then last Sunday: disillusionment. A 0:4 at Bayer Leverkusen.
In the meantime there had been repeated expressions of loyalty, both from the fans and the club. Before Fischer’s last home game against Eintracht Frankfurt the week before last, the coach was celebrated like a savior – even though the twelfth defeat in a row was looming at the time. The leading players also rallied around their boss. At the time, President Dirk Zingler said almost verbatim what he now also formulated in the press release: that Urs Fischer is an excellent trainer and that he himself is “still absolutely convinced” of it.
Fischer thanked him on Wednesday for the trust he felt “at all times”. “Nevertheless, it feels right when a change happens now: sometimes a different face, a different way of addressing a team helps to trigger development,” explained the coach.
According to reports, the decision was actually made “jointly” on Monday, but it apparently followed Fischer’s impulse. The game in Leverkusen must have seemed like confirmation to him that he had tried everything and yet nothing was working. He was “ultimately” – to borrow a term Fischer used so often at the start of his term – at his wits’ end. After additions in recent years had an almost inexplicably positive impact, this season prominent transfers such as Robin Gosens, Leonardo Bonucci and Kevin Volland often fell short of expectations.
Union Berlin has not yet explored the coaching market
What probably remained a mystery to Fischer was that the team only tested its limits in the Champions League – but not in the league or in the cup, where Union were eliminated in the second round. In their premier class debut at Real Madrid, for example, Union held the score 0-0 until injury time, then the Bundesliga club conceded a 0-1, which had a toxic effect in two respects. Not only did the Champions League record winner lose a point that was believed to be almost certain – the defeat meant that a negative record of the Fischer era was established with a 0-2 loss in the following game (against Hoffenheim). There had never been four defeats in a row until then, and when this mark had become fixed in people’s minds, eight more bankruptcies followed. “It hurts that we haven’t been able to break the negative trend of the last few weeks,” Zingler was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
How long Grote and Eta will lead the exercises in the club was completely open on Tuesday. Union had not only proclaimed its “Urs trust” in Fischer, but also lived it. According to SZ information, the trainer market has not yet been explored; It is therefore anything but impossible that Grote and Eta will sit on the bench in the first game after the current international break (against Augsburg, November 25th). Grote, 51, played in his youth at SV Werder Bremen and then in the lower league; As a coach, he worked at VfL Osnabrück (2020/21) and the Greek first division club Apollon Smyrnis, among others, before joining Union as a youth coach in 2022. Eta, 32, achieved Bundesliga honors, a Champions League victory with Turbine Potsdam (2010) and appearances in the DFB’s youth teams. She would become the first woman in history to sit on the bench as an assistant coach at a Bundesliga club.
