“Let’s see,” replies Union’s new coach Bo Svensson (r.) when asked whether the team could bring its ideas to the pitch.
Photo: imago/Matthias Koch
This Saturday you will get a first impression of where 1. FC Union Berlin can go this season. The women welcome Hamburger SV at the start of the 2nd Bundesliga. More than 5,000 fans will be in the Alte Försterei from 1 p.m. to see whether the newcomers can live up to their reputation as favorites against an equally ambitious opponent. Shortly after the first points have been awarded, the Union men’s game in Mainz kicks off. While the female soccer players in Köpenick are expected to continue their upward trajectory, a new beginning is expected to lead the male professionals back onto the road to success.
Always first league
President Dirk Zingler formulated the club’s “demands” on June 26th: “We want to play in the top league with all teams.” It was the day when coach Bo Svensson and manager Horst Heldt formed the Bundesliga’s new sporting leadership duo. Footballer was introduced. It was easy to include women in his remarks. After all, there doesn’t seem to be much standing in the way of rapid further development. Promotion was achieved with 22 wins in 22 regional league games and two more against SV Henstedt-Ulzburg in the relegation. In the new “Oberspree Training Center,” which officially opened in mid-July, the soccer players have been benefiting from a professional infrastructure since spring, which coach Ailien Poese describes as a “giant leap.”
Poese was already happy about his initial success. Your team survived the first round of the DFB Cup. In the penalty shootout win against FSV Gütersloh on Tuesday evening, she particularly liked the “mental strength” of her players in the duel from the point. Even if “some luck” was necessary, Union’s coach emphasized that she had prevailed “against a second division team”. The upcoming opponent also gives hope for a good playing time in the new class. As a promoted team last season, HSV narrowly missed making it to the 1st Bundesliga.
Possible walkthrough
Due to the increase in the upper house from the current twelve to 14 clubs in the summer of 2025, three second division teams will be able to move up after this season. Poese smiled away the question about a possible breakthrough on Thursday. “Toughness, physicality, speed of play,” listed the 1. FC Union coach when she talked about “a completely different type of football” that her team first had to adjust to. “After the first games we’ll see where we stand and then we’ll define our goals.”
Poese reported all of this at the matchday press conference. Bo Svensson had stood at their place shortly before – and talked about the prospects of the Köpenick footballers at the start at FSV Mainz. He left a slightly less optimistic impression than his colleague from Köpenick. One reason for this may have been his team’s last appearance. His analysis after the narrow 1-0 win in the DFB Cup against fourth division club Greifswald was: “Most things didn’t go right.” Now he could at least look forward to a “good week of training” before the “difficult task.”
Insecure club
The key reason for an obvious lack of optimism is the uncertainty in the club. Last season, with mistakes on many levels, created a lot of perplexity after years of incredible rise. Only new successes can help against this. However, no one at Union wants to define what exactly that means. With the goal of “remaining in the league” always stated, the Köpenick team made it to the Champions League. At the moment, Zingler only expresses his wish to play in the top class. Even when asked by nd, the President did not allow himself to be persuaded to say anything specific.
Union footballers start with the principle of hope – and that means new beginnings. The usual media discussion to analyze the season was canceled after last season. They just wanted to look forward, they said. This happened at the end of June with the presentation of the new sporting leadership. “Just winning games on the weekend wouldn’t be enough for me,” said Svensson at the time. It is also important to him who he does it with. A certain club culture as well. The Danish coach, who previously spent 16 years as a player and coach in Mainz, seems to be a good fit for Köpenick. When it comes to the manager, you don’t know for sure: if Heldt had signed in Bochum, Hoffenheim or Wolfsburg, for example, no one would be surprised. He knows almost half the league from his time as a player and official. In order to ensure an “unencumbered new beginning,” according to Zingler, the trainer was given “people who don’t compare him.” The coaching team also changed.
Svensson still has to work with old, stressed-out staff. Has the squad from the previous season, which is largely still complete, dealt with the bad experiences? A lot will certainly happen in the transfer market. The coach finds the uncertainty about which team he will ultimately play the season with “normal”. Has the team already internalized its changes after years of playing in a familiar way? “Let’s see,” says Svensson.
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