In the catacombs of the Berlin Olympic Stadium, Union President Dirk Zingler was met by a good friend, and what then overwhelmed him cannot be adequately described with emotions. Zingler still had in mind that the Hertha fans in their curve had choreographed an imperialistic overall claim to Berlin, to which the fans of his club had responded with a simple “1. FC Union Berlin”. But that’s only marginal: What made him proud was the team itself, which had just won 4-1; and because he has been in charge of the association for almost 20 years, he can afford historically comparative judgments.
“The guys here, they’re the best we’ve ever had…” said Zingler before breaking off his explanation to hide behind a pillar for a moment. Nobody should see what his cracked voice betrayed. That he had to fight back tears of emotion and that he obviously lost this fight.
There is also a lot of praise from Hertha coach Magath
During the week, Union had rededicated the purpose of the current season after achieving the original goal for the season (“40 points plus x”). Now “Europe” should be reached, in whatever form. The way the win against Hertha was achieved catalyzed that dream. “I saw on the pitch that there was this irrepressible will to keep going,” said coach Urs Fischer.
Sheraldo Becker scored one of four goals for Union on Saturday.
(Photo: Boris Streubel/Getty)
It is not unrealistic that Union will be able to appear on the continental stage again next year. Just the fact that the goals were shared between Genki Haraguchi, Grischa Prömel, Sheraldo Becker and Sven Michel makes you sit up and take notice, because of the four players mentioned, Prömel is best known for scoring.
Timo Baumgartl’s own goal, which at least meant the interim equalizer (49th), didn’t even let Union shake and was only good for humorous comments: “In the end I go out with a goal and an assist. That’s okay too,” joked Baumgartl. “Great result, great win, great game, great crowd,” said Fischer again, enjoying the hymns of praise from his colleague Felix Magath: “You can lose against better teams.”
Magath had already spoken positively about Union before the game (“clear line”), now he ennobled Fischer’s team as a team that was superior to Hertha in terms of the entire game structure because “basically one cog works into the other”. Which is not entirely self-evident given the fact that many key players – such as Friedrich, Schlotterbeck, Andrich and Kruse – have left Union in recent months.
The next dream: to return to the Olympic Stadium for the cup final
There were actually adjustment problems due to the various advances, said captain Christopher Trimmel, but now they have become a “very, very good team”. Among other things, because “the automatisms and processes are very clear, you can feel that on the field”. This was confirmed by midfielder Rani Khedira. “We were in the flow,” he said. The result: one of those victories “that burn into your hard drive,” as Prömel put it.
Accordingly, a certain self-interest was revealed when the Union expressed the hope that Hertha would remain in the league. “Derbies like this do something to the city,” said Trimmel and, looking at the crowd of almost 75,000 spectators worthy of a cup final, added that it would be a shame if Berlin lost this city duel. “You become a footballer for games like this,” said Trimmel.
Whether it comes to that is not in the hands of the unionists. They are happy about the fact that they have obviously “released new energy” with the new goal for the season, as Fischer confessed. But that’s not the only thing they have left. They can qualify for the DFB Cup final against Leipzig on April 20, and at stake is nothing less than a return to the Olympic Stadium, where they had to play their Europa Conference League home games this season. “The goal will be to play another game here this season,” said Niko Gießelmann.