Union Berlin has long been the German champion in understatement. But now the iron ones are also enjoying flirtatious self-confidence. “Super League now!” tweeted the Berlin Bundesliga club after the hard-earned 1-0 win at VfB Stuttgart, with which the unsurprising league lead was defended for the third time. Of course, they are not in Berlin-Köpenick for the introduction of a football money machine for the big clubs, and of course the iron ones don’t count themselves among the establishment of the continent.
But at least and almost courageously by Union standards: “Dreams are allowed,” added the social media department, as a subtitle for a video of the players jumping in front of the guest fan block in Stuttgart, from which the loud battle cry rang out: “Only the FCU becomes German champion.”
Take it easy, Urs Fischer must have thought. “For me, the table is particularly meaningful after the 34th matchday,” said the coach. Fischer was happy about the 20 points he has already achieved. At Union they are still talking about 40 points as a goal for the season because they should guarantee staying up in the league.
But the fact is after the ninth game day: First is Union Berlin, second is SC Freiburg as another surprise and only then come FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund with some distance. Freiburg also played against a Berlin team on Sunday and fought back a 2-2 draw at Hertha BSC.
“At the moment it doesn’t matter,” said defender Matthias Ginter after the seventh league game without defeat in a row about the table constellation: “We’ve had a good start, we still have a tough program ahead of us, so we need all our energy and all our grains too from the head, not that we concern ourselves with other things.”
And yet the first parallels to Leicester City, the English sensational champions from 2016, have long been drawn in the Bundesliga. After nine match days, they were only in fifth place, a respectable gap to Manchester City. The fairy tale of the provincial club from the East Midlands can be transferred just as well to Union as it is to Freiburg – the Bundesliga clubs on the north-east and south-west edge of the Bundesliga map that work so solidly and sustainably.
They are a little different in the glitter business, with a large regional fan base and coaches Fischer and Christian Streich, who are sometimes friendly and sometimes oddly bizarre – that’s what connects the clubs. It is also noted with goodwill that no club has currently held on to its trainers longer than Union and Freiburg. This may not be a panacea, but loyalty is currently paying off extremely in both clubs.
The forecasts for both were also skeptical. Union and Freiburg finished fifth and sixth last season, and SC even reached the cup final, which they lost to RB Leipzig on penalties. These have all been great successes. The double burden of the Europa League would cause problems for the underdogs, it is said, such a season can hardly be repeated for either of them. In reality the opposite is the case. Both teams have only lost one of their first nine league games, and the chances of spending the winter in European competition are good.
Freiburg can celebrate their fourth win in their fourth group game against Nantes on Thursday. Union plays against Malmö FF (9 p.m. / RTL) on the same evening and can at least qualify for the knockout phase of the Conference League with a win. And the game against the Swedes is the only thing on his mind at the moment, said coach Fischer when asked about the upcoming task in the Bundesliga. The coach said he wouldn’t say anything about her, “because otherwise I wouldn’t stay true to my line. What counts is the next game – and that means Malmö.”
And yet the upcoming Bundesliga match day shines brightly in the firmament, it is already dubbed Super Sunday. Then Union and Freiburg play against the heavyweights of the industry, who have just split 2-2 in a direct duel. The Berliners, who have already drawn 1-1 against FC Bayern, will meet Borussia Dortmund at 5.30 p.m.
Two hours later, Freiburg, who suffered their only defeat of the season so far in a 3-1 draw against BVB, are guests at FC Bayern. The troubled record champions, who have only won four of their nine games this season, are threatened with the next setback. The people from Breisgau are currently two points ahead of the industry leaders who are often at odds with each other, for Union it is even four. Even after the 10th match day, the leaders will be called Union or Freiburg.
If the streak of the two underdogs continued, the game planner would have had a golden touch when scheduling this duel. SC Freiburg and 1. FC Union meet on the 15th matchday. The game on Sunday, November 13 at 5:30 p.m. is the last Bundesliga game in 2022. The early winter break due to the World Cup in Qatar begins with the final whistle.
