Football has its own era, but it has an ethereal concept called eternity. And as we know from empirical surveys, the feeling of eternity is never stronger than during a series of defeats. On Saturday you could once again ask 1. FC Union Berlin what endless stories feel like – and get some surprising answers.
Before the duel with Eintracht Frankfurt, Union had lost eleven times in a row in the league, cup and Champions League, and since Saturday there have been a dozen bankruptcies. Eintracht won 3-0 after a 2-0 half-time lead and dropped Köpenick to 16th place in the table. “It’s difficult to talk about a relegation battle at this stage of the season. But we have to do it,” said captain Christopher Trimmel.
The game had not even started before it seemed to have given birth to a winner who, as has been the case lately, ended up as a loser: Union coach Urs Fischer. The squad was just warming up when Fischer was taken to the sidelines for the obligatory interview and a chorus rose in the stands: “Urs Fischer! Urs Fischer!” Fischer smiled. He would later say that it was “great” because the support “also describes a little bit of the Union’s cohesion, which is not just told, but lived.”
It only takes two minutes before Frankfurt takes the lead
Only: It didn’t help. Because before the game was old enough to offer the Unioners a chance for security, Eintracht Frankfurt had already taken the lead. That means: after around two minutes.
The goal happened to Union in the classic ruthless manner that every team that has ever been “at the bottom,” as the saying goes, has experienced. Frankfurt’s Farès Chaibi hit a free kick from the left side to the edge of the penalty area, where Union midfielder Alex Kral rumbled the ball to the feet of captain Trimmel, who had no chance to even react. The result: Omar Khaled Marmoush had free space to shoot in from 14 meters. 0:1.
A good ten minutes later, Eintracht had shown time and time again that they suspected Berlin’s oil on the left side of the defense, which was rather poorly guarded by Robin Gosens. And then she took advantage of it. Hugo Larsson pushed through, could no longer be caught by Union central defender Diogo Leite, and Gosens was straight missing. Larsson was able to pass it across to Marmoush, and the Egyptian shot in from three meters. 0:2.
Berlin fans support coach Urs Fischer.
(Photo: Uwe Koch/Eibner/Imago)
The hit clearly hit the Union team to the core; Nevertheless, they were able to fight their way in front of the Frankfurt goal. Also because David Fofana – who was recently suspended for a week because he refused to shake hands with coach Fischer during a substitution – was trying to rehabilitate him. He dared a first shot at goal, which bounced off the chest of Eintracht goalkeeper Kevin Trapp; Then Fofana hit the bottom edge of the crossbar with a header from Trimmel’s cross (19th). And of course the ball bounced from there into the field and not behind the goal line. As if Union had used up every last nanogram of luck in the years of uninterrupted rise that has continued since 2019.
After that the game was firmly in the hands of the stoic Frankfurt team. The Unioners found it difficult to get over their own quarrels and develop a clear game idea. That only changed with the introduction of new national striker Kevin Behrens, who came on for Benedict Hollerbach in the 56th minute and had his first opportunity shortly afterwards – and thus initiated a short period of pressure for the Union team. It was Fofana again who had the most spectacular chance – with a shot from 14 meters that SGE keeper Trapp deflected around the post (58th).
Ten minutes later, Behrens shot next to the goal after a Laidouni cross – and missed one of those chances that he would have heaved into the goal three months ago. After that he no longer quarreled in the figurative sense, but in the literal sense; because of a possible foul penalty on Laidouni, which on the one hand was not compelling enough to be whistled, but on the other hand would hardly have been criticized by the video referee in retrospect if the referee had actually awarded it. In the end, however, it was a hair-raising back pass from the generally disappointing Robin Gosens that made it 0:3 – just as Fischer was preparing a final three-man substitution.
Union Berlin now has to finish 16th in the table. to Naples
Frankfurt’s Joker Nacho Ferri, a Spaniard from the youth academy, intercepted the ball and played a one-two with Mario Götze, who was also substitute; The shot on goal was just a formality for the Spaniard after the brilliant action of the 2014 World Cup goal – and Union fell into a relegation zone before the Champions League trip to Naples.
What does this mean for coach Fischer’s professional future? Despite the impressive number of twelve defeats: nothing. “He has the job, he keeps the job,” President Dirk Zingler said on TV immediately before the game. Fischer himself said he saw no reason to resign. That also applied after the game.
By the way, Zingler’s words ratified the statements that he had addressed to the visitors in a greeting in the stadium booklet. It would be a difficult path, wrote Zingler: “But what kind of Unioners would we be if we didn’t take it with conviction?” And for now that means: with Fischer, not without him.