The situation was relatively clear in Köpenick, on April 1, 2023. One team had won, in the usual economical style, but ultimately deserved it 3-0 against the bottom of the table, who hadn’t played that badly – but were just unfortunate in front of the goal remained vulnerable at the back and, above all, without a point. One team at the time was Union Berlin, third in the table and more or less unbeatable. The other team was VfB Stuttgart, bottom of the table and more or less always beaten.
Both sides agreed that a radical reversal of circumstances in the near future was not in the East Berlin air that day. Berliners and Stuttgarters would probably have suspected an April Fool’s joke if it had been announced to them back then what was clear six and a half months later: VfB Stuttgart is second in the table after a 3-0 win at Union Berlin, which lost for the eighth time in a row.
“It’s a complex question, there are many factors that play a role,” said Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeneß later in an interview on Sky, when asked about his team’s run, which was so unforeseen that even in Swabia they seem to be still busy coming to terms with it. A key factor is certainly Hoeneß himself, whose career was significantly influenced by VfB’s 3-0 defeat in Berlin in April: his predecessor Bruno Labbadia was fired the next day. On April 3rd, a Monday, Hoeneß took over. Since then, there has been a month-long climb, interrupted only by a summer break.
Factor number two also plays a key role in this: Striker Serhou Guirassy has now scored so many goals that in this century he can only be compared to Cristiano Ronaldo, who once scored in his first eight league games at Real Madrid in the 2014/15 season had scored more goals than the Stuttgart striker. Guirassy’s header in the 16th minute was his 14th goal of the season; it gave VfB the early lead, from which an unspectacular field superiority developed – measurable by the fact that there were only two shots on goal in the first half .
Union is stormed by a quartet that is characterized by its goallessness
Coach Hoeneß saw a “mature performance” as a result, crowned by two late goals to make it 2-0 and 3-0 from Silas and Denis Undav, the replacement for Guirassy, who went off injured. In his interview after the game, Hoeneß sounded almost exactly the same as Urs Fischer did in the previous season. Over the course of a year, the Union coach had explained to the cameras time and time again how self-confident and stable his team played, how resilient they were and, in general, how beautiful the world was from Köpenick’s perspective.
Now, after eight defeats in a row, such sentences are a thing of the past. Curiously, Hoeneß’ words also describe the situation of Berliners: The situation is just as complex, many factors play a role; they just lead down the table. A very central point is the offensive, in which no Guirassy plays, but instead a constantly rotating quartet of actually talented strikers who are linked by their goallessness. Against Stuttgart, Fischer started with Kevin Volland and Kevin Behrens, and at halftime he brought on David Fofana and Sheraldo Becker, but no matter how hard they tried, none of them managed to score.
The otherwise level-headed Union coach Urs Fischer is also slowly becoming desperate.
(Photo: Annegret Hilse/Reuters)
Union Berlin looks like a team that has lost its somewhat diffuse superpowers called “forced goals” and “stable defense” – and has strayed dangerously far from the path of past success. As usual, coach Fischer analyzed the mistakes made honestly (“We’re not doing really well when it comes to conceding goals”, “We weren’t aggressive enough against the ball”), but he doesn’t seem like a man with too many answers at the moment on the sidelines, his frustration at the loss of luck in the game was evident, as was manager Oliver Ruhnert.
Ruhnert speaks meaningful words about coach Fischer
You currently need “a lot of luck” to be able to survive in a game like this against a self-confident team, said Ruhnert, and you now have to “demand the basic elements of the football game again from the team”. There are a few things that people in Köpenick are currently thinking about, probably also about topics that would have been completely unthinkable six months ago.
“I think Urs Fischer is currently thinking the most himself,” said Ruhnert, when asked about the role of the most successful coach in the club’s history: “In our club, we talk to each other and try to find a solution together find.” The final decision also rests with Fischer, whom his sports director described as a guy who “is clearly in life (…) and knows what merits he has here.” But he also – and these meaningful words from the manager made people in Köpenick prick up their ears – “keeps saying that professional football is a results sport.”
The results currently speak for themselves and, despite all the past successes, they don’t speak for Fischer either. They are also supported by the brutal realization that the successes of the past do not necessarily help in dealing with the present: SSC Napoli is traveling on Tuesday to play a guest game at a club that is not necessarily in the mood for the premier class at the moment.