In the 86th minute, the turnaround was completed yesterday. Union Berlin trailed Borussia Monchengladbach for most of the game, but stepped up towards the end. Substitute Kevin Burns equalized with a shot to make it 1:1, then came Christopher Trimmell, who also came on as a substitute, and scored the winning goal. The huge burst of joy was suddenly interrupted when the VAR intervened and determined that the Austrian scorer was offside, and the crowd went into shock.
Actually, it’s a bit strange that there is VAR at all in this field, which bears the special name – the stadium near the old Beit Hieran. Not only the forester’s house is old – this whole place feels very ancient, and it is not clear if modern technology is even allowed to enter here. How can cameras determine anything, if there isn’t one here yet, and there never will be an electronic scoreboard.
Instead, a guy with huge body dimensions is responsible for marking the result by switching large wooden boards. So yesterday the VAR arranged for him a particularly sad and frustrating task. He had to remove the number 2 that marked the number of goals scored by Onion, and put the number 1 back in its place.
But what do you know! Deep in injury time, the number 2 appeared again. A last-ditch lift into the box by Gladbach ended in another accurate shot, this time by the new Dutch stopper Danilio Dohi, and the host team still won 1:2 to keep their place at the top of the table, ahead of Bayern Munich. This is not a mistake – this humble and unknown group is ahead of the eternal German champions even at the end of the 12th round, and it no longer feels like a stupid joke. Somehow, Onion manages to maintain stability, and even a loss to Bochum from the bottom last week did not derail it. She is still leading the Bundesliga, and the fans are having a hard time believing what they are seeing. It would be the understatement of the decade to say they didn’t quite expect it.
Just two and a half years ago, these fans were shocked when their team was promoted to the top league for the first time in its history. They have known very difficult days, remember the traumatic relegation to the fourth division in 2005, and in general for the usual to suffer for the club that they own. In fact, it is what defines them, and they have gone above and beyond to maintain it against all odds.
When the team ran into a financial crisis that threatened its future and had to immediately pay the union 1.5 million euros, the fans went to donate blood and transferred the money they received to the union. When the stadium reached an unbearable state and began to fall apart, they renovated it with their own hands. Thousands came in the mornings before work, and also in the evenings and nights – and their pride grew stronger. Where is another club whose fans can say they built the stadium themselves?
So they always had a special character, but that character had signs of losers, and in a rather perverse way the audience was even proud of it. Although they lost, they did it together – and made sure to stand behind the management and the players and support them. How do you deal with success? The historic promotion in 2020 presented the audience with an unfamiliar issue, and some feared the loss of Onion’s identity precisely due to its joining the Bundesliga.
Suddenly, articles about their work began to be published throughout Germany and even outside of it, and they did not understand why this publication was necessary. Neutral football fans also came and were interested in the stadium near the old Beit Hieren. They wanted to buy tickets, enter and feel the special atmosphere. The true fans looked at them with distaste. They really didn’t want to share their club with strangers. It’s not a tourist destination like Camp Nou.
Well, they had to learn to deal with success, because the rise just kept going. In the debut season in the Bundesliga, Union finished in seventh place with 50 points and qualified for the Conference League, where they met, among other things, Maccabi Haifa in the group stage. Last season, they upgraded the balance to 57 points, which was enough for fifth place, only one point away from Leipzig, who received the ticket to the Champions League. And this season is already a real legend, with an unstoppable gallop at the top. At the end of 12 rounds, Union has eight wins and two draws, which puts it in first place with 26 points.
At this rate, dreams of champions are no longer seen as absurd, and the fans have changed the way they see their beloved club. They are no longer losers, but look at every opponent without feelings of inferiority, and even Bayern Munich came out of the visit to the old forest house with only 1:1 at the beginning of September – and also said thank you. “They played exactly in the style that made them what they are and brought them so much respect. I’m a Union fan now too,” he stated at the time Thomas Muller, while Manuel Neuer claimed: “We haven’t met a more powerful opponent this season.” Before that, Union managed to beat Leipzig, then dismantled Dortmund as well, and it seems that it knows how to rise in the face of the biggest challenges. She has a method that works, and she uses it well.
How were these foundations built? It started in 2017, when Oliver Rohnert, who had previously worked for a decade in Schalke’s academy and was sacked in a scandalous move, was recruited as chief scout. Soon, Ronert was promoted to the position of Union’s sporting director, and was responsible for bringing in the Swiss coach Urs Fischer in 2018 – the man who won two championships with Basel, but did not hesitate to sign with a modest team from the German second division.
“It’s an amazing brilliance, because Ores fits Union like a glove,” testified later the former idol of the stands Torsten Matuszka, and this connection is really very dreamy. Ronert and Fischer work in complete harmony, and consult each other on every move. They are used to selling quite a few top players, but maintain a certain skeleton and specialize in recruiting unknown footballers who can be improved. In the absence of an academy, this is Onion’s way of making a profit, and along the way it turned out that all the pieces of the puzzle fall in the right place.
The defined goal at the beginning of every season since promotion is to stay in the league – no more. Qualifying for Europe for two consecutive years was an unexpected bonus, and even before the current season, Fischer said he would be happy if Union survived. His ability to use the potential of his apprentices to the fullest is nothing short of amazing, and he is also helped this season by a generous dose of luck. The percentage of utilization of the opportunities of Onion is particularly high, while the rivals miss in front of it wholesale. Ronert almost apologized when Onion defeated his ex Schalke in Gassenkirchen 6:1 in August. “It was brutal for them – we kicked six times at the goal, and all the balls went in,” he said.
A similar phenomenon has also occurred in other games, and it is not easy to ignore the fact that Onion’s lead could be a kind of curiosity. Some mention the crazy case of Duisburg, the newcomer who led the Bundesliga after 22 rounds in the 1993/94 season with a negative goal difference. The comparison is really not accurate, and Union definitely shows better football with a positive goal difference, but many are waiting for their downfall. In the end, her squad fits in the middle of the table, and that’s where she should find herself at the end of the season if everything goes well – luck should balance out in the long run.
However, what if it doesn’t happen? What if we are watching a special season, in which all the stars line up exactly in Onion’s favor? What if she intends to repeat the Leicester miracle of 2016? Only a madman could have predicted that she would be ahead of Bayern after 12 rounds. Now it seems that only a madman would crown her a champion, or even send her to the Champions League, but strange things happen sometimes, and the winning goal in the 97th minute yesterday highlights that. This is a very close-knit group of very tactically disciplined players who work for each other and adore their wonderful coach. There is something unusual in the air there, and you never know when this legend will stop.
It is likely to happen even before the World Cup, but don’t rush to bet on reasonable things when it comes to the Union.