“Urs Fischer for life”: Union Berlin defies the “press pigs” and laws

The dramatic collapse of Union Berlin continues. On Saturday they lost 3-0 to Eintracht Frankfurt, their twelfth competitive defeat in a row. Despite all the laws of football, the Köpenick team not only sticks to coach Urs Fischer, but also builds a fortress around him.

Anyone making their way from the Köpenick S-Bahn station to the stadium at the Alte Försterei will pass two musicians. They always stand there and play old hits. “Miracles happen,” they sing on this beautiful late autumn Saturday afternoon. Nena’s 1989 hit about her son’s serious illness, which was soon rewritten into a turning point classic, is supposed to bring about a turnaround here after eleven competitive defeats in a row. A miracle is also necessary. Because Union Berlin is on the ground, has been stumbling from defeat to defeat for weeks and has absolutely no idea what is happening to them.

Later, there is a group of fans on the forest side, home to the hard core of Union supporters. She knows who is also responsible for this season’s decline and who doesn’t understand the club anyway. “We don’t care what the press pigs write. Urs Fischer is a Unioner and should stay that way,” reads a banner there in the first half.

Recommendations for action are also given to the press gallery. “But don’t write against Urs Fischer. Otherwise you’ll have problems,” someone says, perhaps jokingly. “Write to me: Urs Fischer is a lifelong union.” This is done. Whenever a wagon fort needs to be formed, external threats are needed. The easiest and most permanent one is of course the press. The Köpenick fans are no different than Thomas Tuchel.

One fairy tale ends, a new one begins

The story of Union Berlin in late autumn 2023 is one that can indeed only be told through Fischer. The 57-year-old Swiss has led the club from Köpenick into unknown realms over the past five years. The rise from the depths of the second division to the Champions League was the “most surreal fairy tale” in recent Bundesliga history. This fairy tale has now been told. It’s over and now a new thing begins. It’s about how a football club, one that has always done everything differently, deals with this. The ending is still completely open, it could be disturbing.

“We would be ill-advised to send home one of the best coaches in the league,” said President Dirk Zingler before the game on Sky: “He has the job, he keeps the job. Success has many fathers and failure also has many fathers.” If the success was of fairytale proportions, failure comes to the club like the ten plagues of God to Egypt. The Köpenickers now have to endure twelve defeats in a row after this 0:3 (0:2) against Eintracht Frankfurt. They have not scored a goal in their home stadium since August 20, 2023. They scored eight of their eleven goals this season so far on the first two matchdays.

That’s why it’s no longer just about Urs Fischer, but about staying in the league and not immediately tearing down the foundations of the last few years. This has not yet gotten through to everyone and the urgency of this task is not yet clear to all those who know. President Zingler sets the tone. The situation is threatening for him. “We have to keep the club as a Bundesliga location,” he says and adds something crucial: “With Urs Fischer.”

Against Frankfurt the Wuhle goes down again

Stadium announcer Christian Arbeit takes a break before the game. He has just proclaimed Union Berlin’s football gods individually, now it’s the coach’s turn. He is silent. The stadium at the Alte Försterei rises. Applauds. Volume up. Continuiously louder. Until work finally says the name. Urs Fischer. “Football God,” he says.

“Great, it also describes the Union’s solidarity. It’s not just told, it’s also lived,” says Fischer after the game, on ARD he takes the wind out of the sails of speculation about his possible resignation. “I’m ready to fight,” he says. After an ultimately botched transfer summer in which three stars, Leonardo Bonucci, Kevin Volland and Robin Gosens, were signed in the last days of the transfer period, this is now the last chance. The trio is still a long way from arriving in Köpenick, and it remains questionable whether they will actually succeed.

The game against Frankfurt had a dynamic in the first half that was capable of flushing Fischer out of office, despite all the deeply credible expressions of loyalty. After two minutes, a free kick cross flickers back and forth in the Union penalty area before Omar Marmoush pushes it in from eleven meters, unchallenged by Alex Kral’s blocked pinball finger. Afterwards, the well-known mistakes of this season reveal themselves. The guests keep breaking through on the outside, Union stands with eight men in the penalty area and tries to push back the misfortune once again.

The ball doesn’t want to go into the goal

They do not succeed. A simple long ball to Hugo Larsson undermined Berlin’s entire defense in the 14th minute. Robin Gosens orients himself forward, Diogo Leite can only sufficiently disturb the 19-year-old Swede. In the middle, Marmoush escapes everyone and completes his double pack completely unchallenged. Just moments before the score was 2-0, Union broke into the guests’ penalty area after winning the ball deep in Frankfurt’s half. Benedict Hollerbach, however, doesn’t know where to put the ball and loses it.

It’s a helplessness that runs through Union’s season. It’s not that they don’t get into dangerous situations. They don’t play them enough. If a ball does come through, like it did this Saturday in the 19th minute from David Fofana, it hits the crossbar. Even if Fischer claims to have seen a team after the game that has identified with the new season goal of “avoiding relegation,” there is no sign of that for a long time. Only with the substitution of national player Kevin Behrens in the 56th minute did something like resistance flare up. In quick succession, first Behrens (57′), then Fofana with a shot on the move (59′) and Behrens again missed the goal after a Laidouni cross (68′). The ball doesn’t fall in. No matter what they try. Frankfurt is limited to the defense and doesn’t need any moments of relief.

The pressure is usually too low and Berlin’s ball possession is too far away from the dangerous zones. The game screams for Frankfurt to make it 3-0 and it gets it with one of the Eagles’ rare attacks. Gosen’s erratic return of the header to Robin Knoche is met by Ignacio Ferri Julia. The 19-year-old Spaniard, who had recently come on as a substitute, shows that his eight goals in eleven regional league games for the second team are hardly a coincidence. He combines with Mario Götze, who is also fresh, and pushes the ball past Frederik Rönnow into the bottom left corner (82′).

Köpenick is not about winners

As the game slowly moves towards the final whistle, the Frankfurt supporters chant “Relegated, relegated” at their hosts, who for a moment shout their defiant constant chants even louder and more fervently, like prayers, into the now dark afternoon sky. They sing about the highs and lows of their fan life. “Anyone who sees football as more than a rant about victories and millions will not even be able to come up with the idea of ​​replacing football union god Urs Fischer,” wrote the historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk recently in the “taz” in a declaration of love for his club. He told the story of those who spent their lives with the club from the deep east of the once divided city.

In the years following German reunification alone, the people of Köpenick have seen almost everything there is to see in football. This generation was there when a 0-1 loss in front of 700 spectators at Anker Wismar on May 3, 2006 put promotion from the fourth-tier NOFV-Oberliga Nord in jeopardy and they were there when almost exactly 17 years later with a 1-0 win against Werder Bremen achieved sensational qualification for the Champions League in the Alte Försterei. So your story is not that of those who have always seen football as a game for winners. They also see the dramatic crash as almost a historical moment.

Their songs and their words show the defiance and pride that they and Fischer are once again overriding the laws of football. No matter what happens in the upcoming away games in Naples and Leverkusen. It’s hard to think of an end to the incredible series. The miracle sung in front of the stadium is this: with the Swiss it went up and with him it will go down again if it has to. No matter what the “press pigs” write – and as long as Urs Fischer wants.