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robilaz

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  1. I'm noticing a distinct lack of my boy Blair Henderson. Where's he at?! Huge win over Aberdeen! But I wouldn't hold your breath on a good turnover...
  2. "These days, it seems like every man and his dog thinks he's capable of being the next Pep Guardiola." That was the opening line from the thesis that Robaato Rasamu (ロバート ラサム) had proudly presented to the advisory board at The University of Tokyo Sports Science Initiative a few months ago. Now, in June 2023, the thesis - which analysed the evolution of soccer and questioned why popular media sources were so quick to laud over modern obsessions like "passing out from the back" - had clearly gone down an absolute storm. That's because it wasn't just the university's advisory board poring intently over Rasamu's work. In fact, the relatively small office on the Komaba I Campus was packed with representatives of sports clubs across Tokyo, from the Tokyo Yakult Swallows baseball team, Sun Rockers Shubuyta basketball side, Black Rams rugby team and NEC Blue Rockets volleyball club to the FC Tokyo, Tokyo Verdy and FC Machida Zelvia football teams. These representatives were frantically flicking through Rasamu's clearly revolutionary words, reading the thesis while throwing amazed glances in his direction as he quietly sat in the corner of the room wondering what on earth was happening. Eventually, the muttering and oohs and aahs were ended with a hushed silence. Rasamu's mentor and course leader Nagao Shizuka stood up and walked over to Rasamu with a huge beaming smile, shook his hand, and announced to the gathered attendees: "Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you the new revolutionary mind of Japanese football, Robaato Rasamu." That prompted a rapturous round of applause, and Rasamu was soon surrounded by leading voices from Tokyo's top sports organisations desperate to pick his brain. The event went on for a couple of hours and, by the end of it, Rasamu had business cards of managing directors from every sports club in Tokyo desperate for him to join their club. He could easily join these huge companies in a variety of roles, from a recruitment analyst and assistant manager to even a sporting director. But Rasamu, buoyed by confidence thanks to the adoring words of these leading individuals, had a far more grandiose and ambitious new career in mind. Introducing The Pentagon Pursuit Robaato Rasamu had grown up obsessed with all things sports-related. His father was a Brazilian who moved to Japan in 1975, met Robaatu's mother and stayed in Japan. He'd worked as an engineer in the city of Nagoya, around two hours east of Kyoto and five hours west of Tokyo, but his weekends revolved around sports, especially his beloved Nagoya Grampus Eight. So as a youngster, Robaato had religiously watched the flourishing J.League spearheaded by his idol Gary Lineker. He'd also regularly tuned in to global football, with a particular fascination for big continental trophies like Europe's Champions League and South America's Copa Libertadores. Despite this obsession and growing up playing football, baseball, tennis, golf and basketball, Rasamu knew his talents were more academic than physical. His early career had focused on several areas of research, including sports science and performance analysis, contributing to a wide range of papers before his most recent really got his name out there. But it was Japan's success at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, defeating Spain and Germany before being knocked out by Croatia, that really piqued Rasamu's fascination. Indeed, one of the most prominent people to contact him on the back of his thesis was the national coach Hajime Moriyasu, with whom he had a long conversation about footballing philosophies and the art of modern football. And that discussion had inspired Rasamu, armed with an arsenal of knowledge about the beautiful game, to bring his talents into the managerial space. And he had one hell of a mission in mind. Rasamu wasn't content with simply trying to become a Football Manager. Despite not even attending a coaching course or playing a single professional football match, Rasamu wanted to win all five of the biggest continental trophies available. His mission, as an unemployed football manager with zero qualifications, was to first find a job then manage on every continent and win: Africa’s Confederation of African Football Championship (CAF) Asia’s Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Championship Europe’s Champions League North America’s Confederation of North, Central American & Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Champions League South America’s CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores To achieve that aim, the countries available for Rasamu to manage in are: Asia: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea Africa: South Africa Europe: All 35 European countries available, but realistically England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain North America: Canada, Mexico, USA South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay Rasamu's ideal situation would be to begin his managerial career in his native Japan. That said, he was a bit of a polyglot, speaking Portuguese, English, Spanish and a little Zulu and Korean, so he was open to working abroad and honing his managerial skills elsewhere in Asia. The most difficult first step would be to convince a club to take on an unemployed manager, regardless of how intelligent they may be and how intriguing their football philosophy. But with the full version of Football Manager 2024 now playable, we started up a brand new Pentagon Pursuit career. I selected all the Asian and African leagues, added players from every continent to give us a huge database of more than 123,000 people, and created the manager profile of Robaato Rasamu. Can Robaato Rasamu find his first managerial role? And where will it be? Join us tomorrow to find out as we go on the job hunt!
  3. Yeaaa JM Zapata was my captain for like 15 years - he was a monster! Set a new record for club appearances, 550 or so!
  4. Nice! The players starting there, like Rodriguez, Diaz, Hurtado, Zapata and Betancourth, were all amazing for me Then it's luck of the draw with the youth intakes I guess!
  5. Just stumbled across this update. I did a youth-only save with Envigado on FM22 - and won Copa Libertadores 3 times. So no pressure! Haha. Seriously though, this is a great club with outrageous youth production. Good luck and I'm looking forward to playing catch-up on your updates Also, I went to see Envigado play live at home to Nacional in April, when I was in Medellín for a month. It's a funny little stadium - and I'm glad I didn't buy an Envigado kit as 99.9% of the crowd was Nacional fans!
  6. On the transfer history page, it's only showing a selection of my transfers. And the previous season's transfers are virtually all missing. I've signed about 20 players this season, but only five are showing up (and I've not filtered it as there's a mixture of free, loan and permanent signings being shown on the page). And you can see the total values of the transfers don't add up to those listed.
  7. One final update to this series! I just transformed the entire series into the 10th book in my Football Manager Stories series. So if you enjoyed reading the series, or if you want to access the entire Ruprecht Prusseit story in one place, you can pick it up now! The book is available on Amazon Kindle, and costs £2 or free through Kindle Unlimited. Here's a link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CK4W2SV8 An innocuous injury picked up in a Sunday League game in Dresden sparked Ruprecht Prusseit's dreams of launching a career as a Football Manager. Prusseit dusted himself off and led his Sunday League team to the local title and the next day headed to the German FA website to sign up for his first coaching course. That puts the wheels in motion to enter the managerial world in the sixth tier of German football. And Prusseit has one objective in mind - to become the first Football Manager to lead a club from the former East Germany to the Bundesliga title. You can also check out the entire Football Manager Stories series here: https://footballmanageraddict.com/fmbooks/
  8. It's the end of OstDeutscher Sieg and our final blog post of FM23! OstDeutscher Sieg | Part 45 | The End of OstDeutscher Sieg Ruprecht Prusseit - the first man ever to win a Bundesliga title with a team from East Germany - led Union Berlin to a fifth Bundesliga title in six years and a second Champions League crown in three years in 2043. And that marks the moment where we brought this particular FM Story to an end. It's been quite the journey from the very bottom of German football in tier six with SV Dessau 05 through to the very top with Union Berlin. In the process, Prusseit managed 924 games, of which he won 563, drew 159 and lost 202 with a 60% win percentage, with his teams scoring 1,941 goals and conceding 998. Prusseit won nine league titles, including five Bundesliga successes with Union, and won 11 cup competitions, achieving five promotions and suffering one relegation. He signed 131 players for a total outlay of £710m but sold 163 for an incoming of £835m. That included a record signing of £43m for failed full-back Amadou Diallo (who he was struggling to remember) and a record fee of £65m when striker Michael Storskov moved to Newcastle. And Prusseit's career saw him become the fourth-best German manager of all time but missed out on the all-time Hall of Fame by 300 points to Jock Stein. Ruprecht Prusseit Career Overview Prusseit began his career with SV Dessau 05 back in 2021, leading the sixth-tier side to promotion in his first season before suffering his only career relegation after two seasons in tier five. His efforts with Dessau earned him a move to Lok Stendal before moving up to fourth-tier side Hansa Rostock II, where he won his first trophy by lifting Regionalliga Nordost. He immediately jumped ship but down a division to Energie Cottbus, where he again won the league before going on to win 3. Liga the following season. That took Prusseit into the second tier of German football for the first time. However, his success at Cottbus attracted the attention of fellow second-tier club Union Berlin, who'd just been relegated from Bundesliga. He jumped at the opportunity and won the title at a canter with his new club to reach Bundesliga for the first time. A 13th-place finish followed before two 7th-place finishes then challenging Bayern for the title and finishing 2nd two years in a row. But Prusseit became the first manager ever to win Bundesliga with an East German club in 2038 then went on to win four more in the next five years. He also won a European Conference League in 2036, DFB-Pokal in 2039, two Champions Leagues in 2041 and 2043 and won the World Club Cup as Union Berlin came World Champions. Prusseit's All-Conquering Union Berlin Side There are many players who contributed great things through Prusseit's journey, including free-scoring American striker Branden Stelmak at his first club Dessau, Stendal's record-breaking striker Gisbert Zokpa, Rostock II's surprise talent Alexander Schumacher, and Cottbus striker Eric Hottmann, who'd later go on to become one of his coaches at Union. But I thought it'd be interesting to have a look at just how good the superb Union Berlin side of 2043 had become: GK - Lee Kwang-Sun: Lee signed from South Korea in 2035 for just £2.4m and quickly established himself as arguably the best goalkeeper in the world. He conceded 198 in 250 league games over eight seasons at Union. RB - Zé Serrão: A much larger fee brought Portuguese right-back Zé Serrão to the club as he joined for £38.5m from Braga in 2037. He started his career at the club slowly and went five seasons without a league goal, but finally did score in his sixth and final campaign, which was also his best with 13 assists and a 7.30 average rating. CB - Abdelkarim Belkacem: Dutchman Belkacem was originally signed as a holding midfielder but soon found his way back to the more natural centre-back. He's not much of a goalscorer, with just 13 in 279 league games over nine seasons since arriving for £13m from Feyenoord in 2035. But he is very much a rock at the heart of the Union defence. CB - Cláudio Borborema: His partner in defence is brilliant Brazilian Borborema, who arrived a year later for £13.5m from Palemeiras. Borborema is absolutely wonderful, patrolling the back four with style and grace and only dipping below a 7.00 average rating in his first season. At 6 foot he's not the biggest, but his 17 pace and acceleration helps him deal with any potential threats. LB - Rogério Poulos: Left-back has been a slight issue throughout Prusseit's time at the club, as proven by Poulos having to be converted from a right-back to get him into the team. Poulos signed for £13.5m from Flamengo in 2034 and, like Serrão, only scored his first league goal for the club in the most recent season. But these two full-backs provide the defensive qualities needed to support the ridiculous attacking talents in front of them. DM - Dylan Feraud: Also providing defensive structure is Frenchman Feraud, who became the first-choice holding midfielder in the final season. He arrived for a massive £75m from Nice in 2041 but soon proved his worth, including scoring a rare goal in the Champions League Final victory over Man City. CM - José Marco: Arguably the lynchpin to this Union team is the sole central midfielder José Marco. The Brazilian playmaker arrived from Paranaense for just £13.75m in 2039 and had a brilliant goalscoring campaign with 15 league goals in 2041. But he generally sits in midfield to dictate the tempo and adds the occasional goal and assist. RW - Miroslav Milosevic: A relatively unsung hero of this save, Milosevic is an assist machine who also chips in with goals. The Serbian arrived for just £6.25m from Red Star in 2035 and scored 33 league goals in his first two seasons. But from there he turned creator, never dropping below 10 assists in a season and creating 86 league assists and 131 in all competitions over the next six campaigns. AM - Leandro Van Dessel: The polar opposite of an unsung hero is the legendary Leandro Van Dessel. The Belgian is an absolute monster of a shadow striker, who scored 28 and assisted 25 in the most recent season. He's scored 72 and assisted 74 in 152 league games and scored 121 and assisted 97 in 232 games in all competitions since signing for £26.5m from Anderlecht in 2035. And his talents have been crowned with all sorts of personal honours, including being the reigning FIFA Best Men's Player. LW - Bruno Rodríguez: Rodríguez is consistently considered the best player at Union despite the personal honours and more eye-catching numbers of some of his more colleagues. He arrived at the club for just £4.6m in 2035 from Peñarol, scoring 46 goals and getting 84 assists in 224 league games. But his average rating is consistently outstanding and he usually delivers in the biggest of matches. ST - Claudio Sepúlveda: We've very much saved the best to last with the monstrous goal machine that is Chilean striker Sepúlveda. He's absolutely smashed Union's all-time goals records, including scoring 80 (EIGHTY!) in all competitions in the 2041/42 campaign. He arrived for just £7.5m from Colo-Colo in 2035 and only scored four in 17 league games in his first season. However, that changed very quickly as he went on to score 259 in 241 league games and 372 in 344 in all competitions, only getting 44 assists in that time! And he's scored 50 or more goals in four of the last five seasons. He's won a mass of awards in the process, being the reigning Ballon d'Or and double FIFPro Player of the Year winner. He is very much the best striker I've ever managed on Football Manager, with Bolton's Onur Kocaaslan a close second. That starting 11 is ably assisted by some stellar backups: ST - Pablo Bermudez: Given Sepúlveda's talents, recent recruit Bermudez doesn't get much of a look-in, but he absolutely has the potential to be as good as the Chilean. He only scored twice in 15 games in his first season but, had we stayed, he would likely have been converted into a top-class midfielder. GK - Adam Mihok: Very much a backup to Lee, Mihok has only started 10 league games in eight years. But he's generally reliable when needed. CB - Muck Wein: One for the future, Wein has impressed when called upon since signing for £36.5m from Hamburg in 2041. And he's already earned two caps for Germany aged 19. CM - Lucas Bastholt: Danish midfielder Bastholt is solid yet unspectacular, contributing no goals and 3 assists in his debut season since joining for £3.1m from OB. However, he has plenty of potential to become a quality midfielder. LW - Giovanni Pasini: This exciting Italian attacker would undoubtedly go on to become the star of this team and probably the best player in the world in the next few seasons. He's shown ridiculous progress since signing for £26m from Frankfurt in 2041 and, if it weren't for the supreme talents of the attacking quadruple ahead of him, he'd already be a first-choice starter. However, he hasn't started anywhere enough games as yet and only scored 11 goals as a result, but when he does become first choice he'll become incredible. And he's already got 8 caps for Italy. DM - Satoru Iida: Iida was a critical part of this team until the most recent season when he got surpassed by Feraud as a result of a few injuries. The Japanese midfielder played 323 league games for Union, which is just 12 short of the all-time record held by Andreas Schäfer, and 429 in all competitions since signing for just £1m from Niigata Unicorn in 2032. He was a solid holding midfielder, who provided protection to the back four as well as chipping in with the occasional goal. That said, he would have been sold in the coming summer before his contract expired. RB - Joey Teviotdale: This is pretty much Teviotdale's first mention in this story, but the Scotsman arrived for £11.5m from Hearts to provide backup to Serrão. But he's played 46 league games in two seasons, and got four assists and a 7.01 average rating in the final season. CB - Roberto Pacheco: Very much a backup with limited potential, Pacheco hasn't quite lived up to his promise has only played 21 league games in four seasons. AM - Moise Vlad Paul: The Romanian backup has plenty of promise and plays well when given an opportunity, with a 7.18 average rating from 31 games and just 7 starts in his first league season at the club. But he definitely has the flair, passing and technique to be a strong attacking midfielder. LB - Henrique Duarte: The Portuguese signed for £27m in the most recent summer to provide backup to both full-back roles. And he proved solid and dependable when called upon, including two Bundesliga goals. LB - Lars Bergmann: The rarity of a Union youth product is the potentially exciting left-back Bergmann. He's still only 16 and only made four appearances in all competitions as a result, but has the potential to go on and become a real star. ST - Jonathan Mascia: Mascia was considered the best support act to Sepúlveda until his countryman Bermudez came along. As a result, his progress stalled a little this season, but he still scored 5 goals in 10 games and just 5 starts and certainly has the attributes to become a top-class striker. ST - Danilo Luna: Yet another Uruguayan striker, Luna went on loan to Magdeburg and helped the East German side avoid relegation from Bundesliga. He's certainly a player with the talent to go on and become one of the best in the world. DM - Félix Costa: Given a couple more seasons, Costa would absolutely be part of this Union team. Signed for £4m from Real Madrid this season, Costa didn't play for the first team but was exceptional in a successful U19 team and would have been promoted in the summer to replace Iida. CM - Roberto Custódio: Generally considered a midfielder, Custódio looks to have more potential as a right-back. He's been on loan in Mexico for 2 years and shown massive improvement, so would have been promoted to the first team in the summer. And he's definitely someone that would have become a top-class player in this team. This has been a fantastic journey, navigating the lower reaches of German football and making our way to the very top and conquering Europe with an East German club. I hope you enjoyed reading this FM Story and stay tuned for much more to come from both FM23 and looking ahead to FM24 very shortly!
  9. OstDeutscher Sieg | Part 44 | Going Out On A High Union Berlin had made a flying start to their Bundesliga title defence, taking a seven-point lead into 2043. The onus was now on Ruprecht Prusseit to maintain his side's good form to win their fifth title and target a second Champions League success. They had a very quiet January transfer window as Prusseit had tied all his key players down to new five-year deals in October and wasn't willing to move on any of his squad players. But he did bring in one new addition as another Uruguayan striker, which takes the club to three, arrived in 18-year-old Pablo Bermudez for £3.5m from Peñarol. Bundesliga Defence Continues 2043 began with a home game against Hamburg and Bermudez, who started in place of the injured Claudio Sepúlveda, impressed his new supporters immediately by scoring twice on his debut in a 3-0 victory. Prusseit then celebrated his 900th game as a Football Manager with a 2-2 draw at Freiburg. Union kicked back into form as a hat-trick from the best player in the world Sepúlveda inspired a 6-0 hammering of Hoffenheim. But an injury-hit side dropped more points in a wild 3-3 draw at Leipzig, in which left-back Henrique Duarte's first goal for the club rescued a late point, then critically a second defeat of the season 2-1 at 2nd-place Leverkusen, who moved to within four points of Union. Champions League Progression Union's final two league phase games were potentially tricky trips to Roma and PSG. But they confirmed a top-eight place as Sepúlveda and José Marco strikes earned a 2-1 win in Italy, which allowed Prusseit to rotate for PSG and they unsurprisingly lost 5-0. But Union still finished 5th. The round of 16 served up an all-OstDeutscher clash as Union took on Leipzig. The away leg was up first and Leipzig had a player sent off after just six minutes for a shocking challenge, which allowed Union to dominate and win 3-1 with goals from Leandro Van Dessel, Sepúlveda and substitute Dylan Feraud. And a 1-0 win at home eased them through. That teed up a huge quarter-final clash with PSG. The home leg was up first and the visitors started the better only to gift Sepúlveda the opener just before half-time thanks to a goalkeeping howler. And a minute later, winger Miroslav Milosevic sent the striker through to double his tally. PSG further tipped the tie in Union's favour with a shocking own goal before Sepúlveda turned creator, sending Van Dessel through to slam home a fourth. And a 2-0 win in France earned an easy 6-0 aggregate victory. Union's semi-final opponents were the 2041 and 2042 runners-up Arsenal. The first leg was in England and Union made a flying start as Bruno Rodríguez played in his opposite winger Milosevic for the opener and Sepúlveda headed home Van Dessel's corner to make it 2-0 inside half an hour. Arsenal fought back with two goals through two identical back post headers in three minutes, but Union had the last laugh as José Marco drilled home for a narrow angle late on. Arsenal had to play a league game between the two legs while Union had a weekend off but lost Sepúlveda for two weeks with a damaged heel. Union again made a bright start thanks to some shocking defending as the Arsenal centre-back passed the ball straight to Rodríguez, who played Milosevic through for the opener after six minutes. Arsenal were back in it a few minutes later but immediately shot themselves in the foot again with an own goal before a superb Milosevic through-ball repaid the favour to Rodríguez, who coolly tucked the ball into the bottom corner on 17 minutes. On the verge of half-time, Rodríguez crossed the ball to Milosevic, who controlled it on his chest and brilliantly volleyed into the top corner to make it 4-1 on the night. And that proved to be all they needed to reach a third final in four years with a 7-3 aggregate win. Bundesliga Title Race Hots Up Union came into the final 10 league games with a four-point lead over Leverkusen and a five-point lead over Bayern, who'd suddenly climbed back into the title race. They began the run-in well as Sepúlveda bagged a hat-trick to defeat Osnabrück 4-0 then a brace and an assist for Van Dessel downed Werder Bremen 3-0. A role reversal saw Van Dessel score twice and lay on the third for Sepúlveda in a 3-1 win at Wolfsburg but the Chilean retook centre stage with both goals in a 2-0 win at Gladbach, which took him to 40 league goals for the season. Bayern also kept winning, which meant the clubs were separated by five points with six games remaining when Bayern made the trip to Berlin after the March international break. Bayern started the better but Union took the lead after half an hour as Van Dessel's free-kick was headed home by José Marco. They again had Van Dessel to thank 10 minutes after the break as he dug out a ridiculous cross from the corner flag for Sepúlveda to rise highest at the back post and head home from two yards out. And that proved enough for a probable title-winning victory. They built on that with a rotated side winning 3-1 at Wolfsburg led by a brace from young midfielder Moise Vlad Paul and a Milosevic assist hat-trick. Sepúlveda and Van Dessel goals earned a 2-0 win at home to Jahn Regensburg the day before Bayern only drew at Stuttgart, which saw Union defend their Bundesliga crown and win a fifth title in six years! Prusseit fully rotated his team and they drew 1-1 at Köln and 2-2 at home to rivals Hertha. They then went to fellow OstDeutscher side Magdeburg, who needed at least a point to avoid automatic relegation, and showed no mercy with a 5-2 victory led by Milosevic and Sepúlveda and braces. That final day win saw Union break Bayern's league record of 101 goals that had stood since 1972. That saw Union win the league by 10 points from Leverkusen, after Bayern had a poor end to the season. They finished on 86 points, scoring 103 goals and conceding 32. Sepúlveda again led the way with a ridiculous 45 goals in 31 games, which was three short of last season's record tally, with Van Dessel in third with 19 goals. Sepúlveda also topped the average rating chart with 8.26, followed by Van Dessel (8.09) and Milosevic (7.67), and the player of the match awards with 11. While Van Dessel was the top assister with 23, which smashed Milosevic's record of 18 set in 2041, followed by Milosevic (17) and Rodríguez (12). As a result, Van Dessel won German Footballer of the Year for the first time since 2039, Sepúlveda won Players' Player of the Year and Best Player in Europe, and Prusseit won Manager of the Year for the fifth time in six years and seventh time overall. Third Champions League Final Union were back in Europe's biggest club game for the third time in four seasons. After defeat to Real Madrid in 2040 and a crushing win over Arsenal in 2041, the one-time European champions were up against Eddie Howe's four-time winners and Premier League champions Manchester City, who beat Barcelona 2-1 on aggregate in the semis. 78,000 fans from England and Germany descended on Rome for what was a bit of an unknown as the two teams went head-to-head for the first time in this save (and probably ever) at Stadio Olimpico. Neither side had any injury or suspension concerns, and Prusseit went with his first XI of: Lee; Zé Serrão, Belkacem, Borborema, Poulos; Feraud; José Marcos; Milosevic, Van Dessel, Rodríguez, Sepúlveda Subs: Bermúdez, Mihok, Wein, Bastholt, Pasini, Iida, Teviotdale, Pacheco, Paul, Duarte, Bergmann, Mascia Union again got a flyer as a superb team move saw Van Dessel drift wide and play through Rodríguez, whose low cross was met by Feraud's superb drilled finish after nine minutes. City did nothing until they scored their first shot on target after 32 minutes and undeservedly went into half-time at 1-1. Very little happened after the break so Prusseit made a few little tactical tweaks to play a little wider and work ball into the box. But the breakthrough came with a delicious lofted pass by José Marco falling at the feet of Milosevic, who got in behind his man and finished cutely from a narrow angle on 77 minutes. Sepúlveda had a glorious chance to finish it off five minutes later but attempted a ridiculous chip when clean through on goal, which landed cleanly in the goalkeeper's hands. But City offered nothing and Union safely held onto their lead. Union Berlin were Champions of Europe for the second time!! Reflecting On More Union Success Prusseit had another superb season in Germany, leading his Union side to back-to-back German titles and becoming Champions of Europe for the second time in three years. Sepúlveda once again led the goalscoring charts with 59 in 46, which was well short of last season's phenomenal tally of 80 in 52. But the player of the season was arguably Van Dessel, who scored 28 and got 25 assists, followed by Milosevic with 15 goals and a club-high 27 assists. Rodríguez also impressed with 21 assists and 7 goals as did the excellent José Marco with 11 goals and 9 assists, while right-back Zé Serrão got a career-high 13 assists. Away from the first team, Union's U19s defended their UEFA Youth League and won their league for the fifth time in six years led by 36 goals in 46 games from striker Julian Fleischhauer. The End Of OstDeutscher Sieg This feels like the right time to bring this OstDeutscher Sieg to a close. We've successfully achieved our aim of winnig a first title for an East German club and established Union as the best team in Germany and arguably Europe. Also, the Union board repeatedly refuses to build a new stadium, despite the stadium being strangely limited to just 9,000 fans for European games. So it seems a bit pointless to take it any further. That said, this series has been massive amounts of fun to play, and the Prusseit journey has been one of my favourites during my time creating Football Manager Stories on this website. I hope you enjoyed it and I'd firmly recommend taking on your own OstDeutscher Sieg. We'll finish the series off with a final wrap-up post on Friday.
  10. Yep - pretty much... and that's what we did next!
  11. OstDeutscher Sieg | Part 43 | Union's First Ballon d'Or Winner World Champions Union Berlin regained their Bundesliga title in 2042 and Ruprecht Prusseit was now targeting domestic and continental success in his 20th and potentially final season as a Football Manager. The previous season's success saw Prusseit and attacking midfielder Leandro Van Dessel instilled as Union Berlin legends. Record-breaking striker Claudio Sepúlveda became the only player during this era to be considered an icon while winger Bruno Rodríguez and midfielder José Marco joined former winger Grga Picak as fans' favourites. Furthermore, Union was now the third most reputable club in the world, only behind Barcelona and Real Madrid. Prusseit used the summer transfer window to move on some of his underperforming backups, including selling Markus Ambrosius, Mohamed Ouédraogo, Ignacio Ludueña, Nuno Valadão and Hüsamettin Ayan for a total of £127m. That boosted the club balance to £628m and the transfer kitty to £308m. Prusseit invested some of that by signing two 18-year-olds in left-back Henrique Duarte for £27m from Moreirense and midfielder Lucas Bastholt for £3.1m from OB. Prusseit saw no need to change up his tried and tested tactic and stuck with the familiar first-choice 11. That said, Giovanni Pasini is showing great progress and pushing Rodríguez for his left-wing berth and Dylan Feraud is close to replacing Satoru Iida in the anchor role. Bundesliga Defence Begins Union were huge favourites to defend their title at 6/5 followed by Bayern, who appointed journeyman Mikel Arteta after spells with Arsenal, Spain, Hertha, Roma, Leipzig, Freiburg, Napoli, Dortmund and Juventus over the summer, at 3/1, Leipzig at 7/1, Leverkusen at 16/1 and Stuttgart at 20/1. The title defence began at Hamburg and a Sepúlveda brace led an easy 3-1 victory. But the season started with a mini-injury crisis that saw Rodríguez, Pasini, Iida, centre-back Abdelkarim Belkacem and right-back Zé Serrão all ruled out for several weeks. But they still thumped Freiburg 5-1 in their first home game of the campaign with Sepúlveda and Rodriguez braces then a Sepúlveda hat-trick and Rodríguez and Van Dessel doubles inspired a 7-3 away thrashing of Hoffenheim. A first OstDeutscher clash of the season looked to be ending 2-2 until full-back Rogério Poulos scored his first Union goal in his 171st league game to nick a late winner. The winning start ended with a 2-2 at Frankfurt but they bounced back by defeating Leverkusen 2-1 then a Sepúlveda hat-trick earned a 3-1 victory at a poor Dortmund side to go top of the league. They consolidated that position with a 7-1 win at Werder Bremen, with seven different scorers and José Marco bagging three assists, then Sepúlveda's hat-trick led a 6-1 hammering of Gladbach. That teed up a big clash as unbeaten leaders Union travelled to 2nd-place Bayern with an eight-point lead. But Union again tasted defeat in Munich with a disappointing 3-1 loss. However, they got back on track with late Rodríguez and Sepúlveda strikes earning a 2-0 win at home to Wolfsburg then a Sepúlveda double leading a 3-1 victory at Jahn Regensburg. 2042 concluded with two tasty local clashes. First, Union travelled to Hertha for the first Berliner Derby of the campaign and a Sepúlveda brace and a Van Dessel assist hat-trick led a dominant 4-0 victory. They then entertained fellow OstDeutscher side Magdeburg for the first time in Bundesliga and eased to a 2-0 win. That left Union with a healthy seven-point lead over Leverkusen at the halfway mark of the campaign with Bayern 13 points back in 4th. Sepúlveda again leads the way with 25 goals while Van Dessel has a league-high 12 assists plus 10 goals. Champions League League Phase Union got a relatively easy set of fixtures in the league phase, with the big challenge being a final-day trip to PSG. They began with a draw at home to Arsenal before dominating Juventus 4-0, winning 3-0 at Espanyol then Milosevic's late winner nicked a 2-1 at Porto. Van Dessel scored twice to defeat Red Star 4-0 then again in a 4-2 victory at home to Leeds, which left Union 5th going into two away games. Significant Union Award Recognition Sepúlveda's form over the last year saw the Chilean deservedly become Union Berlin's first-ever winner of the FIFA Ballon d'Or. And he was followed in second place by Van Dessel. He then became the first Union player to win the Goal 50 award, in which Van Dessel again came second, Rodríguez came 13th and Serrão was 40th. Sepúlveda also defended his FIFA FIFPro Player of the Year award but Van Dessel beat him to FIFA Best Men's Player of the Year. Could Union maintain their league form to defend their Bundesliga title? And could they push towards a 2nd Champions League success?
  12. Cheers! Yeah not easy, but we got through then fell short against Barca
  13. OstDeutscher Sieg | Part 42 | 80 Goals Sepúlveda World Champions Union Berlin headed into 2042 with a narrow lead at the top of Bundesliga as they looked to regain the title they'd previously won three times in a row. Ruprecht Prusseit didn't see too much need to add to his strong squad but he did add a couple of promising talents in striker Danilo Luna, who needs to work on his finishing, for £3m from Nacional and holding midfielder Félix Costa for £4m from Real Madrid. Maintaining Bundesliga Push The new year began with a tricky game at 2nd-place Leverkusen. But a brace by Claudio Sepúlveda, which outrageously took him to 50 goals for the season in January, earned a 2-2 draw. It also started with three league games in a week, which saw Union win 3-0 at Wolfsburg led by a brace from attacking midfielder Leandro Van Dessel then a Miroslav Milosevic penalty and Sepúlveda strike earned a 2-1 win over Fortuna Düsseldorf. A big test of Union's chances came with a trip to fellow OstDeutscher side RB Leipzig, who took the lead after half an hour. But Union rallied after the break and goals from Milosevic and Sepúlveda earned a vital victory that moved them nine points clear of Leipzig. Sepúlveda scored twice in a 4-2 win over Hamburg, which tied his club record of 62 goals in a season in 2040 and took him to 199 league goals for the club. And he became the first Union player to score 200 league goals and broke his club goalscoring record with the final strike in a 3-0 win at Dortmund that moved them seven points clear with 10 games remaining. Champions League Progression Union came into two home Champions League league phase games with a chance of making the top eight. A Van Dessel hat-trick and Sepúlveda brace inspired a 5-0 thumping of Maccabi Tel-Aviv before Sepúlveda ran riot with a five-goal haul and midfielder José Marco got four assists as they annihilated Benfica 8-1. And that was enough to wrap up 6th place with a league-high 30 goals in eight games. The round of 16 paired Union with Milan, who they'd beaten in four of their five meetings. They maintained that record as Sepúlveda scored both in a 2-0 away win and scored in a 4-1 home victory. A tougher test followed against Barcelona, who dominated the first leg in Germany but Union held on for a 1-1 draw. And their hopes of defending the Champions League ended with a 3-0 loss in Spain. Chasing A 4th Bundesliga Title Union kicked off the run-in with a big game at home to champions Bayern, who were struggling in 5th. And Union showed their dominance as Milosevic, Sepúlveda and Van Dessel sealed an easy 3-1 win that moved them 18 points clear of Bayern. Their lead stretched to 10 points as José Marco's penalty earned a 1-0 win over Köln then Sepúlveda bagged yet another hat-trick in a 4-0 win at Nürnberg, which took him past 70 goals for the season! The lead stretched to 14 points with six games remaining with a 3-0 success at home to Werder Bremen then an easy 2-0 win at home to Osnabrück made the title virtually done. And the next day, Stuttgart lost at Leipzig, so Union were Champions again! Union put their Champions League disappointment behind them with a 4-2 win led by a Sepúlveda brace. Sandhausen were relegated with a dominant 3-0 victory led a Milosevic brace then a Van Dessel hat-trick led a 4-0 hammering of Stuttgart away. Sepúlveda shockingly didn't score in either of those games... but... made up for it in style in the season-concluding Berliner Derby by scoring a new Bundesliga record SIX to down 10-man Hertha 7-0! That saw Hertha win the title by a huge 16 points from Leipzig with Bayern 20 points behind the champions in 4th. They came within one point of Bayern's all-time record of 91 points and just two goals behind Bayern's record of 101 goals. Speaking of records, Sepúlveda smashed his own Bundesliga record of 42 goals, scoring an incredible 48 in 32. He also broke his own records for highest average rating with an amazing 8.26 (beating his 7.92) and most player of the match awards with 14 (beating his 11). While Milosevic broke Joshua Kimmich's record of 17 assists set in 2024 by creating 18 goals. Celebrating A Famous Treble Union enjoyed another stellar season in which they regained their Bundesliga title and became World Champions as well as winning the European Super Cup. The star of the show was undoubtedly Sepúlveda, who scored 80 goals in 52 games in all competitions including the Club World Cup. Van Dessel scored 32 with 20 assists in 43 games and Milosevic got a club-high 31 assists and 23 goals in 45 games. Bruno Rodríguez got 22 assists but only five goals and José Marco assisted 18 but only scored four goals. Sepúlveda's ridiculous exploits also saw him become the first Union player ever to win the Best Player In Europe award. Away from the first team, Union's Under 19s won the UEFA Youth League for the first time, led 19 goals in 12 games by exciting striker Jonathan Mascias, and won their league for the third time in a row. They also finally delivered a good youth prospect in Spanish left-back/winger Lars Bergmann. OstDeutscher Sieg Next Steps An exciting development saw Union's feeder club and fellow OstDeutscher side Magdeburg gain promotion to Bundesliga for the first time in their history. While another East German side Chemnitzer were promoted from 3. Liga. That means three OstDeutscher sides are now in Bundesliga and four are in 2. Bundesliga. Prusseit had been thinking about calling it a day after regaining the German title. However, he was keen to have another stab at the Champions League after last season's disappointment and aim to defend the Bundesliga success. And he was keen to see how Magdeburg got on in their first season in Bundesliga. Could Prusseit achieve European and domestic success in 2042/43?
  14. OstDeutscher Sieg | Part 41 | First World Club Cup The supporters of Union Berlin had a summer to remember, leaving the streets of Berlin painted red and white as they celebrated the club becoming East Germany's first European champions. The success had seen Union become the 4th most reputable team in world football only behind Real Madrid, PSG and Man City. But manager Ruprecht Prusseit had a new challenge on his hands, to re-surpass Bayern as champions of Germany and lead his team into their first attempt at becoming World Champions. Prusseit didn't have much space for improvement in his squad, but he did move on 13 underperforming backups for a profit of £114m. He then strengthened with exciting holding midfielder Dylan Feraud for £40m from Nice, wonderkid winger Giovanni Pasini for £26m from Frankfurt and centre-back Muck Wein for £36.5m from Hamburg. A Shot At Becoming World Champions Union had an early start to the 2041/42 campaign as they took part in their first-ever Club World Cup in Belgium. They got a decent group draw alongside Atletico Mineiro and Okayama FC. As is standard for this silly tournament, Union came into it with an exhausted squad and some players still on international duty. But they had far too much quality for their group opponents as they beat Mineiro 3-1 then a rotated side struggled for 77 minutes before star striker Claudio Sepúlveda came on to score four in 17 minutes and inspire a 5-0 thumping of Okayama. It was lucky Prusseit had rested players as they faced Real Madrid two days later. Union dominated the game and had all the best chances but Real took an early lead and Union eventually found an equaliser after an hour thanks to Milosevic's excellent volley. It went to extra time and Union's rest worked in their favour as goals either side of the half-time break by Leandro Van Dessel and Sepúlveda nicked a 3-1 victory. Four days later the semi-final served up a repeat of last season's Champions League Final demolition as Union took on Arsenal. This time it was a much tighter affair but Bruno Rodríguez again haunted the Gunners as the winger scored the only goal on 44 minutes to send Union into the World Club Cup Final! Another English opponent awaited them as 2029 and 2033 winners Liverpool defeated Bayern 2-0. Liverpool started the better and went ahead after 14 minutes. But Union grew into the game and got level as Sepúlveda finished a lovely team move after half an hour. A half-time team talk worked wonders as winger Miroslav Milosevic stabbed them ahead four minutes after the break. Five minutes later, José Marco won a penalty that Milosevic stepped up to take and coolly panenkad the keeper. Prusseit made a few changes and Liverpool got one back but they held on for a 3-2 win. Union Berlin were World Champions!! More Silverware Up For Grabs Union had a chance to make it two more trophies before the season even began as they took part in an all-German European Super Cup against Eintracht Frankfurt. Union dominated the game and eased to a 3-0 win with goals by Van Dessel, centre-back Abdelkacir Belkacem and Milosevic. Hoping For Bundesliga Improvement Union's summer activity saw them finally instilled as favourites to win Bundesliga at 13/8 followed by Bayern (9/4), RB Leipzig (17/2), Leverkusen (16/1), Stuttgart (18/1) and Freiburg (25/1). The season began at home to Leverkusen, against whom Union were unbeaten in 13 games. And that trend continued as a brilliant Sepúlveda hat trick inspired a 5-1 thumping. The Chilean repeated the feat in a 4-1 win at Düsseldorf and remarkably made it three trebles in three games in a 3-0 win at home to Wolfsburg. However, he disappointingly only scored once in a 2-1 win at Freiburg and Van Dessel stole the headlines as he scored twice in a lethal 5-1 pummelling of Leipzig. That clearly infuriated Sepúlveda as the striker went and thumped four past Köln in another 5-1 hammering. But he picked up a knock ahead of a home game against Dortmund, which showed as they dropped points for the first time this season in a 0-0 draw. And more dropped points followed with a first defeat, 2-1 at Bayern in which Pasini scored his first goal for the club. They got back to winning ways, albeit pretty unconvincingly, as Sepúlveda and Pasini edged a 2-1 win over bottom side Nürnberg. But were much improved as Sepúlveda scored twice in the first 11 minutes and Van Dessel returned from injury to seal a 3-0 win at Werder Bremen. And they had the same deadly duo to thank again as Van Dessel bagged a brace and Sepúlveda scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 hammering of Gladbach. Sepúlveda continued banging the goals in, scoring twice in a 3-0 win at Osnabrück that took Union top then the only goal at home to Frankfurt and another in a 4-0 win at Sandhausen. Union wrapped up 2041 with two big games against fellow title challengers. First up, they entertained 3rd-place Stuttgart and eased to a 3-1 win with goals from Milosevic, Fágner and Markus Ambrosius. They then went to rivals Hertha, who'd led the league early on but fallen away a little, but stepped up to thump a poor Union team 3-0. That left Union top by two points from Leverkusen and three clear of Leipzig, with champions Bayern down in 5th. Union led the way with 49 goals of which Sepúlveda had scored an impressive 26, which was more than double any other player in the league. Champions League Defence Begins The media made Union second favourites to defend their Champions League title, with odds of 6/1 only bettered by Man City's 9/2 with Bayern third favourites at 15/2. But they got a tough set of fixtures including Barcelona, Atlético, Liverpool and Spurs. The league phase began with a narrow 1-0 defeat at Barca before a fully rotated 11, which was much needed due to tiredness and injuries, earned a 2-2 with Atlético. A first win arrived as a heavily rotated side won 4-1 at Rosenborg in which Feraud scored his first goal for the club then Supúlveda bagged a hat-trick in a 6-0 thumping of Celtic. A late equaliser saw Liverpool nick a 1-1 draw before Van Dessel's brace inspired a 4-1 win at Spurs, which left Union one point off the top eight with two home games remaining. Off the field, Union topped the Bundesliga player development list for the first time, with 26 homegrown players now at top-flight clubs. While Prusseit's continued excellence saw the Union board hand him a new five-year contract worth £50,000 per week. More exciting news saw Sepúlveda become the first Union Berlin player to win the FIFA Best Men's Player and FIFPro Player of the Year awards, after scoring an incredible 73 goals in 55 games in 2041. Van Dessel came second in both and Rodríguez joined them in the World Team of the Year. Heading into the winter break, Sepúlveda had already scored a ridiculous 48 goals in 30 appearances in all competitions. While Van Dessel had 18 goals and 12 assists in 27 games and Milosevic had 11 goals and 16 assists in 24 games. Could Prusseit maintain Union's form and lead World Champions Union Berlin to regain the Bundesliga title?
  15. Thanks a lot!! Appreciate the support and glad you've enjoyed the updates. It's been one of my favourite saves in a while, but we don't have long to go now
  16. OstDeutscher Sieg | Part 40 | The Most Perfect Hat-Trick Union Berlin's hopes of a fourth successive Bundesliga title were long-gone as Ruprecht Prusseit's exhausted squad took a winter break heading into 2041. A run of 10 league games without a win had seen Union go into the new year sitting in 7th place and 11 points back from leaders Stuttgart. As a result, they looked likely to have their work cut out to keep their best players in January with the usual suspects circling. But they managed to hold on for now as no clubs met Prusseit's high valuations, while adding a few decent youngsters to the strong under-19 squad. Looking For An Improvement In Form Union began 2041 with a trip to relegation-threatened Mainz and won 4-1 with braces by left winger Bruno Rodríguez and midfielder José Marco. They then had consecutive 5-1 wins at Nürnber, in which José Marco scored two more, and at bottom-side Schalke, in which he scored and got two assists, which showed signs that the real Union could be back. In fact, those three wins moved them to within nine points of the top of the league. But a much tougher test saw 2nd-place Leverkusen come to town and Prusseit was convinced they were well and truly back as Milosevic and attacker Markus Ambrosius earned a 2-1 win. Next up was the Berliner Derby, a draw in which Prusseit believed triggered their earlier poor form. And he was worried the same might happen again as they missed the best chances, including a penalty, and had a late goal disallowed in a 0-0 away draw. A week later, another big game followed at home to fellow OstDeutsch side RB Leipzig. Union dominated another exciting game in which the sides shared 40 shots, but it looked destined for another 0-0 until Sepúlveda struck on 83 minutes. Prusseit then celebrated his 800th match in management with the best performance of the season. The in-form José Marco was superb again, bagging a hat-trick as Union ran riot 6-1 at 5th-place Wolfsburg. Champions League Progression Union were looking good to progress in the Champions League, with a top-eight finish also possible. They did those chances the world of good as the campaign resumed with a 3-0 win at home to Red Bull Salzburg. The league phase concluded at home to Stade Brestois and goals by striker Claudio Sépulveda, attacking midfielder Leandro Van Dessel and young striker Nuno Valadão's first for the club earned a 3-1 victory. And that sealed 5th place in the league stage! The last 16 saw Union drawn against AC Milan, which could have been a lot worse considering the teams that qualified through the knockout round. A trip to Italy was up first and Union had Van Dessel to thank for a brilliant brace to inspire a 3-1 win, before Sepúlveda repeated the feat in a 4-0 home thumping to ease into the quarter-finals. Next up was Man UFC, who won every match in the league phase, but Union seized control by taking their chances in devastating fashion. Sepúlveda scored either side of half-time, Van Dessel scored in first-half injury time and Fágner and Ambrosius both scored in second-half injury time to crown a famous 5-0 victory. That allowed Prusseit to rotate and a 2-1 loss at Old Trafford sent Union into the semis for the second time. The semis saw an all-German affair as Union faced Leverkusen while Arsenal took on Barcelona. Union were at home again in the first leg and dominated the game by 24 shots to seven but only made one count as winger Miroslav Milosevic drilled home from 20 yards. But the second leg was a different story as Van Dessel scored a brace and created goals for Rodríguez and Sepúlveda to earn a 5-2 aggregate success. So Union were heading to consecutive Champions League Finals! Fighting For 2nd Place Union's uptick in form early in 2041 had lifted Union up to 3rd with 10 games remaining. Bayern were well out of reach, but Stuttgart had dropped back to 6 points away, meaning 2nd place was a possibility. The run-in began by dominating Fortuna Düsseldorf by 30 shots to one and winning 4-0 led by a Sepúlveda brace. A 1-1 at home to Frankfurt seemed to have killed their hopes of 2nd, but a week later Sepúlveda's crucial last-minute goal nicked a 2-1 win at Stuttgart. They backed that up by beating Dortmund 3-1, which moved them four points behind Stuttgart with a game in hand. And they maintained the pressure with consecutive 5-1 wins at Köln and Gladbach both led by Sepúlveda hat-tricks. But Prusseit fully rotated ahead of the Leverkusen semis at home to Werder Bremen and they fell to a 2-0 defeat. But they wrapped up the campaign with a 2-0 win at Freiburg, 2-2 at Hamburg then a final day 2-2 draw at home to new champions Bayern. That saw Union finish in a respectable 4th place, with a league-high 80 goals and 30 conceded. While 10 German teams, more than half the league, qualified for Europe this season! Sepúlveda was again Bundesliga top scorer with 28 goals in 32 games, Van Dessel had the top average rating of 7.69, topped the assists chart with 17 followed by Milosevic with 14 and got a league-high eight player of the match awards. Champions League Final Union's opponent in their second Champions League Final was Arsenal, who defeated Barcelona 3-2 in the semis and Bayern in the quarters. And fans from Germany and England descended on Kyiv's NSC Olimpiyski for the big game. Prusseit lost Ambrosius and full-back Zé Serrão to injury in training, which meant he lined up: Lee; Wada, Belkacem, Borborema, Poulos; Iida; José Marco; Milosevic, Van Dessel, Rodríguez; Sepúlveda Subs: Valadão, Reitz, Ayan, Fágner, Ouédraogo, Hernández, Diallo, Czierwinski, Johnston Having not scored in 120 minutes in last season's Final, Union put that right inside three minutes this time. A brilliant counter-attack ended up with Rodríguez, whose deflected cross looped up for Sepúlveda to head home. Their counter proved devastating again 19 minutes later as Milosevic teed up Sepúlveda for a second, only for VAR to step in. But it didn't take long to double their lead as a free-kick broke down, José Marco passed inside to Rodríguez and the winger smashed it into the bottom corner. Arsenal couldn't handle Union and three minutes later it was 3-0 as a superb flowing move again finished with Rodríguez's deflected cross being headed in by Sepúlveda. Arsenal only managed one shot on target from a free-kick and Union went into half-time 3-0 ahead. It should have been four after 70 minutes as Milosevic somehow missed from two yards out then Arsenal went down the other end and missed a similar sitter. But Union finished the game off as a Rodríguez cross was cleared straight to Sepúlveda who stabbed home for a perfect hat-trick in the Champions League Final. Prusseit rang the changes and one made an immediate impact as homegrown Fágner slammed home a superb volley. Union Berlin were Champions of Europe! And the first East German team ever to win the Champions League! Reflecting On European Glory This was another superb season for Union, despite a very iffy start to their league campaign. Union's unfancied European success saw Prusseit finally enter the German Hall of Fame in 8th place, a long, long way behind leader Julian Nagelsmann. Sepúlveda was again Union's top scorer with 53 goals and five assists in 48 games, while Van Dessel was exceptional with 27 goals and 20 assists. However, a key man this season was José Marco, who finished with 17 goals and 10 assists in 48 games, having had no assists and five goals after 24 games going into the winter break. Also impressive were Milosevic with 12 goals and a club-high 21 assists and Rodríguez with 11 goals and 16 assists, while Ambrosiys and Czerwinski chipped in with seven assists apiece. Prusseit's main aim now was to regain Union's Bundesliga crown from Bayern. If he could do that, then that might well bring this adventure to an end. But could he better Bayern to win Bundesliga in 2042?
  17. Haha yeppp Union are massive! The signings we've made are amazing though.. Sepúlveda, Van Dessel, Mitrovic, Rodríguez and Marco are all incredible players
  18. OstDeutscher Sieg | Part 38 | 60 Goals Sepúlveda A mean defence had seen Union Berlin only concede seven goals and keep 13 clean sheets in the first half of their second Bundesliga title defence. And they again enjoyed a decent gap over Bayern München, who spend nearly four times more on wages than their smaller rival. In fact, despite dishing out several big-money new contracts, Union still only have the eighth biggest wage spend in Bundesliga. While Union spend £59.2m per year, Bayern are spending an outrageous £192m, followed by Leipzig's £120m, Dortmund's £77.6m and Leverkusen's £72.9m. So Union were competing very well given their comparative lack of spending. Kicking Off The 2040s Looking ahead, two of Union's final four games were against Bayern and Leipzig. So Prusseit was keen to hit the ground running and pile on more points against struggling sides in the next few weeks. His side began the 2040s in style by hammering Arminia Bielefeld 5-0 then easing past a poor Dortmund side 2-0 away through winger Bruno Rodríguez and Claudio Sepúlveda's 20th league goal of the campaign. And Dortmund swiftly sacked Arteta after just six months. A Sepúlveda hat trick and a towering header by 6ft 6in Samuel Pereira downed Werder Bremen 4-1 away before dominating Fortuna Düsseldorf 4-0. Prusseit's 400th match in charge of Union, which meant he'd now spent more than half his career at the club, saw a trip to another bottom-half side Hamburg. But his side didn't look up for it as they laboured to a 2-2 rescued by a Sepúlveda double. Later that day, city rivals Hertha did them a favour by holding Bayern to a 2-2. A tough test followed as they welcomed 3rd place Bayer Leverkusen. Two goals in six minutes by Miroslav Milosevic and Sepúlveda had Union looking good at half-time. But Leverkusen scored twice in four minutes after the break, including a dubious penalty, to undeservedly level. However, young midfielder Oskar Czerwinski came off the bench to bag an 80th-minute winner. Union dropped points at Wolfsburg before a Sepúlveda double, which took him to 30 league goals for the season, led a 3-1 win at Nürnberg. That came on the same day as Bayern lost 2-1 at home to Leipzig, which had Union looking nailed on for a third title. And they maintained a 13-point lead as another Sepúlveda double led another 3-1 victory at Hoffenheim. Just a second defeat of the season followed, 1-0 at Stuttgart, but the perfect pick-me-up saw them annihilate City rivals Hertha 6-0 away with Leandro Van Dessel and Sepúlveda hat tricks, the latter of which took the Chilean past his own club record of 50 goals in a season. Champions League Progression Union resumed the Champions League league phase at home to Prusseit's former under 19s manager Brandon Peterson, who brought his Napoli side to Berlin. And the master had the last laugh as a Sepúlveda hat trick and Czerwinski's first goal for the club led a thumping 4-1 win. And they wrapped up with an easy 4-0 win at home to Feyenoord. That saw Union finish 11th and progress to the knockout playoff round, along with Freiburg and Bayern while Leipzig qualified automatically. They drew Midtjylland in the playoff and took control with a 3-0 away win and a fully rotated side won 3-2 at home. That took them into the round of 16, where they'd lost in the last three seasons. And, for the second successive season, they drew fellow OstDeutscher side RB Leipzig, who were fresh from beating Bayern in the league. Union dominated the home leg and got their reward as Van Dessel created goals for Rodríguez and Sepúlveda to seal a 2-0 win take to Leipzig. Prusseit took a more balanced approach and Sepúlveda settled any nerves after 15 minutes. Leipzig got one back but the Chilean scored again before a penalty by 37-year-old Ilaix Moriba. But Fossdal's late tap-in sealed a 3-2 win to book Union's first-ever Champions League quarter-final. In the quarters they got probably the worst draw possible as they took on Bayern. The home leg was up first again and Union dominated against a tired Bayern side, with Rodríguez scoring early then second-half strikes from Milosevic and subs José Marco and Markus Ambrosius wrapped up a big 4-1 win. And a relatively entertaining second leg saw a 0-0 draw progress Union into the semi-finals! Separating Union and a historic final was Juventus while Freiburg, who beat Leverkusen 5-3 in the quarters, took on Real Madrid in the other semi. This time a trip to Turin was first and proved to be an entertaining affair with the two sides sharing 38 shots. Juve went ahead through Miretti only for Milosevic to equalise a minute later before goals two minutes either side of half-time had the hosts 3-1 up. But Milosevic scored again two minutes after Juve's third and Sepúlved sealed a great comeback for a 3-3 draw. A week later, the biggest game in Stadion an der Alten Försterei and arguably East German football history saw Juve make the trip to Berlin. The stadium was bizarrely empty bar one open stand, but Union went straight on the attack as Rodríguez ran down the left and crossed for Sepúlveda to power a header home after 29 seconds! He was at it again just before the half hour as he took down a trademark Van Dessel through-ball then smashed it past the keeper. The tie was virtually over just before the hour as some awful defending gifted Van Dessel a third, but they weren't done there as another superb Van Dessel defence splitter sent Sepúlveda through for his hat-trick on the hour mark. And a brilliant performance sent them to a first-ever Final with a 7-3 aggregate thumping. Chasing Down Title 3 Union came into the final six games with a 10-point lead over Bayern, which was a little tighter than it sounded considering they still had to play both Bayern and Leipzig. They began the run-in with a Milosevic penalty and Sepúlveda earning a solid 2-0 win over Frankfurt while Bayern drew at Bielefeld. A trip to Freiburg was sandwiched by the Bayern European ties so Prusseit fully rotated and Ambrosius earned an impressive 1-1. Fresh from knocking Bayern out of Europe, Union immediately hosted them in a potential title decider. Union got a flyer as Van Dessel turned home Milosevic's low cross and Rodríguez headed home a second inside 16 minutes. A Lee Kwang-Sun howler gifted Bayern a goal back but Van Dessel's superb through-ball sent Sepúlveda through to restore the two-goal lead after 26 minutes. And it was all over before half-time as Van Dessel again laid on the Chilean's second in injury time. Bayern got a late consolation but Union won 4-2 to seal another title against Bayern. Union Berlin won 3 consecutive Bundesligas!! Lazaró had one eye on the Juventus semis and a fully changed 11 only lost 1-0 at Leipzig. But a Rodríguez double and Sepúlveda's 39th league goal earned a 3-0 win at home to Gladbach. That took the Chilean just two goals behind Lewandowski's Bundesliga record 41 goals heading into the final day at home to Schalke. As a result, he was the only first-choice player to start and unbelievably delivered with a hat-trick to thump Schalke 4-1! So he finished the Bundesliga campaign with an outrageous 42 goals in 32 games. That saw Union win Bundesliga by 11 points from Leipzig, who bumped Bayern into second and that led Bayern to sack yet another manager. Union surpassed the previous two seasons' points total of 81, this time racking up 83, scored more goals with 93, and matched last season's 22 goals conceded. Sepúlveda obviously led the way with a new record 42 goals plus a 7.92 average rating and 11 player of the match awards. Milosevic topped the assists chart with 16 followed by Van Dessel's 10, while Van Dessel pipped Milosevic to second in the average ratings with 7.62 to 7.60. And Lee led the clean sheets with 18. East Germany's Maiden Champions League Final Union's opponent in their and East Germany's first-ever Champions League Final was, unsurprisingly, 15-times winners Real Madrid, who beat Freiburg 6-0 on aggregate. But Berlin didn't have too far to travel as the game took place at Bayern's Fußball Arena München. In their two previous meetings with Madrid, now managed by Aliou Cissé, Union had lost 3-0 and 4-2. Despite that, fans and pundits gave them a 34% chance of winning compared to favourites Madrid at 38%. Prusseit had no significant injury concerns, so he lined up: Lee; Serrao, Belkacem, Borborema, Poulos; Iida, José Marco; Milosevic, Van Dessel, Rodríguez; Sepúlveda Subs: Ambrosius, Reitz, Pereira, Luduena, Júnior, Fossdal, Anani, Madzar, Ayan, Johnston Real went close early on, smashing a free-kick narrowly over the bar after 90 seconds, and Abdelkarim Belkacem headed just over a minute later. Union then had Rogério Poulos to thank for a superb goalline clearance as Real began to take control, but Union nearly nicked the lead through a defensive howler but the Madrid keeper just clawed an errant backpass off the line. And they went in at 0-0 after an entertaining first half. The second half was much quieter until Real thought they'd scored on 71 minutes only for VAR to rule it out for offside. A few minutes later a stunning Rodríguez pass gave Sepúlveda his first chance but a defender did well to get back and block the shot. And the game drifted to a 0-0. Union had the first chance in extra time as Van Dessel, who was having a rare quiet game, saw a shot well saved. But Real took their only chance of the extra period as Camavinga smashed a superb 30-yarder in off the bottom of the bar. And Union couldn't respond, so Real won their 16th European Cup. Reflecting On A Superb Season Prusseit was delighted with his team's efforts in dominating Bundesliga and coming so close to becoming champions of Europe. There's no doubting who the star man was as Sepúlveda hit a magnificent 62 goals in 51 appearances in all competitions, which was only two goals fewer than the club's next five top scorers, and a 7.79 average rating. Back in a distant second was Van Dessel with 18 goals and 18 assists, as well as Milosevic with a club-high 21 assists and 10 goals and Rodríguez with 12 goals and 16 assists. Fredrik Fossdal and José Marco also got 12 goals apiece with the latter also getting 13 assists from central midfield. OstDeutscher Sieg Update Hansa Rostock came so close to a Bundesliga return, only missing out on promotion to an extra-time defeat to Fortuna Düsseldorf in the playoff. So they remain in Bundesliga 2 with Magdeburg, Dynamo Dresden and Energie Cottbus, who were joined by playoff winners Rot-Weiß Erfurt, while Lok Leipzig are the East's sole representatives in 3. Liga. Could Prusseit lead Union to a 4th successive title in 20141? And could they go one step further and win the Champions League?
  19. OstDeutscher Sieg | Part 37 | Union's Mean Defence The supporters of Union Berlin enjoyed the best summer of their lives as they celebrated their team winning their second Bundesliga title and their first DFB-Pokal. Indeed, they were so elated that they instilled manager Ruprecht Prusseit as a bonafide Union legend. The summer of 2039 saw two of the manager's rivals depart as Bayern sacked Marcelo Gallardo for finishing 2nd and losing the DFB-Pokal Final and Dortmund sacked Mauricio Pochettino for a poor 9th-place finish. Bayern oddly hired Vincenzo Italiano from Frankfurt and Dortmund poached Mikel Arteta off Napoli, who replaced him with Prusseit's under 19s boss Brandon Petersen. Back at Union, they bid a fond farewell to 30-year-old Grga Picak, who departed after 257 league games for the club and joined Barcelona on a free transfer. They also saw plenty of interest in their star players, including Newcastle offering £169m for winger Bruno Rodríguez then a ridiculous £79m for Europe's most prolific striker Claudio Sepúlveda and Man UFC offering just £30m for goalkeeper Lee Kwang-Sun. However, there was no pressure to sell considering the club came into the new season with an outrageous bank balance of £413m and a massive transfer budget of £156m. So Prusseit made Rodríguez the highest-paid player in history on £200k per week until 2044. One player who did move on was midfielder Adolfo Ferreira, who'd done next to nothing in three seasons so Prusseit was more than happy to take Arsenal's £33.5m. That left the squad looking pretty light and Prusseit was struggling to find decent replacements. But they did eventually make a few moves, bringing in five new players on deadline day. The pick of them was winger Anton Stahre, who joined for £8.5m from Anderlecht, along with fellow winger Bernardo Simoes for £3m from Marítimo and Turkish midfielder Hüsamettin Ayan. But they weren't exactly seismic signings. With the squad bolstered, Prusseit continued with the 4-2-3-1 formation that worked successfully last season. Striker José Marco is retraining as a midfielder but that's the only change on the starting 11 of last season. Union's 2nd Title Defence Union were now fancied as 2nd favourites for Bundesliga behind Bayern, who beat them 2-1 in the Supercup. Bayern are huge favourites at 5/4, Union and Leipzig are 6/1 and Dortmund are 10/1. But Rodríguez and new club captain Leandro Van Dessel are considered the best and third-best players in the league. Union's title defence began at home to Dortmund and a Sepúlveda brace led Prusseit to a 2-0 win over new boy Arteta. First half Van Dessel and Sepúlveda strikes earned a 2-0 win at Arminia Bielefeld despite Rodríguez getting himself sent off after the break. And the Chilean striker's goal saw him become the record league goalscorer in Union history, surpassing Jordan Siebatcheu's 98 in just 116 games. The striker continued his flying start to the campaign with a hat trick inspiring a 3-0 win at home to Leipzig. He also made two in a 3-0 win over Hamburg, which was two more than he managed in the entirety of last season! A winning start ended with a 0-0 at Leverkusen but, after three games without scoring, Sepúlveda put that right with a hat-trick in a 5-0 hammering of Wolfsburg. That formed part of a very solid start to the campaign, even despite Miroslav Milosevic missing two months with broken ribs suffered on international duty. That forced Sepúlveda out to the right wing with Fredrik Fossdal taking his place up top, and the Norwegian took his chance by scoring back-to-back braces in dominant wins over Nürnberg and Hoffenheim. Sepúlveda returned up top for a Berliner Derby at home to Hertha and scored twice in a 5-1 hammering. Then a rotated side won 3-0 at home to 6th-place Freiburg led by a Fossdal hat trick. But the unbeaten start ended after 13 games with a slightly unlucky 2-1 loss to Bayern, who did nothing except being gifted two goals just before half-time by Lee. Union responded in style, putting five past Werder Bremen with a Sepúlveda brace and goals by Marco, Van Dessel and centre-back Abdelkarim Belkacem. They somehow only won 1-0 despite having 23 shots to two at nine-man Gladbach and finished the decade with a dominant 3-0 win over Stuttgart with Sepúlveda, Van Dessel and Marco all scoring again. Later that day, Bayern lost 2-0 at Leverkusen. That left Union eight points clear of Bayern, having lost once, scored 46 and conceded just seven in 17 matches. Sepúlveda leads the way with 17 goals and the best average rating of 7.79, while Lee has 13 clean sheets! More Tough Champions League Fixtures This season's Champions League fixtures looked even tougher than last season with trips to Juventus and Chelsea and hosting Man UFC, Real Madrid and Napoli. They were a little unlucky to lose 2-1 at Juve but Van Dessel did score their only shot on target. They got dominated by UFC but defended superbly and nicked two goals on the counter through Van Dessel and Sepúlveda. A 2-0 win followed in Poland before a 0-0 at Shakhtar and a 4-2 defeat at home to Madrid. But they earned a strong 0-0 at Chelsea to sit 15th with two games remaining. Could Union's mean defence continue to perform and lead them to a 3rd straight title? And could they progress with 2 home games to come in the Champions League?
  20. OstDeutscher Sieg | Part 36 | 50 Goals Sepúlveda An inspired summer signing and a superstar striker had fired Union Berlin back to the top of Bundesliga as they began their first-ever title defence in style. Manager Ruprecht Prusseit's biggest challenge now was to keep hold of his in-demand players. 2039 began with two pieces of slightly disappointing news. Firstly, winger Leandro, who failed to live up to Prusseit's expectation of being the new Endrick and had zero assists in 18 games this season, was sold to Stuttgart for £33.5m. Then stalwart midfielder Grga Picak refused to sign a new deal and agreed a move to Barcelona at the end of his contract, where he'll earn an outrageous £195k a week. The squad was a little light so Prusseit had a deadline day splurge on a few future stars in wonderkid attacker José Marco for £13.75m from Athletico Paranense, winger Pedro Murúa for £4m from River Plate and midfielders Oskar Czerwinski for £3m from Legia, who took him back on loan until the end of the season, and Cristian Hernández for £5m from Boca Juniors. Difficult Bundesliga Resumption Bundesliga resumed with three players at the Asian Cup for two tricky home games. First up, the season's star men so far Claudio Sepúlveda and Leandro Van Dessel scored in a 2-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen. They then had a huge game at home to 2nd-place Bayern, which turned out to be a classic. Union came out flying and raced into a 2-0 lead through Picak and Van Dessel. But Bayern snuck back into the game and scored just before the break then inevitably equalised just after it. And they completed a turnaround 11 minutes later. But Prusseit made several subs, pushed his team forward and got his reward as midfielder Anton Cerne won a penalty that Fredrick Fossdal converted six minutes from time to crown a thrilling 3-3 draw. The tricky fixtures continued at 4th-place Freiburg, where they escaped with a 0-0, then 6th-place Gladbach, where Sepúlveda rescued a 1-1. They again had the striker to thank for a brace in a 2-0 win at home to 9th-place Eintracht Frankfurt. The tough games didn't stop there as a trip to Dortmund, who were somehow lingering in 11th, saw another 0-0. Then they welcomed 5th-place Nürnberg and suffered a surprise 2-0 home loss but, on the same day, both Leipzig and Bayern also dropped points. Champions League Progression Union resumed the Champions League league phase with a 4-1 annihilation of Olympiakos, who scored their only shot to Union's 36 thanks to the ref awarding a nonsense penalty. They then welcomed Inter on the final day and a more conservative approach helped them nick a 2-0 win courtesy of a Miroslav Milosevic penalty and a header by centre-back Abdelkarim Belkacem. That secured 14th place and progression to the playoff round. Union drew Celtic in the playoffs and got a shock in Scotland as the home side took the lead after 21 minutes. But Prusseit lay into his side at half-time and they responded to win 3-1 with Marco scoring off the bench on his debut. Marco scored again on his full debut as Union won the home leg 2-0 to progress 5-1. An interesting last-16 draw paired Union with fellow OstDeutscher side RB Leipzig. Union were at home first and made a great start as Van Dessel scored inside five minutes. But Leipzig had the better of the game and got a deserved equaliser after the break. The two sides played out a classic at Leipzig, as Van Dessel scored late on to make it 2-2 and force extra-time. But Leipzig, who'd apparently rested players for their previous league game, edged it 4-3. Leipzig went on to defeat Barcelona 4-2 on aggregate then lost 4-3 to Man UFC in the semis. And Man UFC lost to PSG on penalties in the Final. Title Battle Heats Up Union came into the final eight games of the season on a bit of a sticky run of form with two wins in seven league games since the start of 2039. However, they still had a four-point lead over both Leipzig and Bayern. Union began at Hamburg and looked destined for yet another 1-1 draw before Marco popped up with his first league goal for a 94th-minute winner. Prusseit reached his 700th game in management at 15th-place Werder Bremen and his side celebrated in style as a Sepúlveda brace and a Bruno Rodríguez strike earned a 3-0 victory. Elsewhere, Leipzig lost 1-0 at home to Freiburg and Bayern lost 2-1 at Wolfsburg, who scored in the 92nd minute, so Union opened up a seven-point gap. Sepúlveda edged them ever closer as his hat-trick led a 5-1 thrashing of struggling Köln and a Milosevic penalty nicked a 1-0 win at home to Wolfsburg. And that teed up a huge potential title decider at Leipzig, who Union have only beaten twice in Prusseit's 15 meetings and also their last 30 meetings in total. And that trend continued as Union put in their worst performance of the season and gifted Leipzig the only goal of the game to reduce the gap to four points. Bayern had slipped six points behind Leipzig, which meant it was again a two-horse race between the two OstDeutscher sides going into the final five games of the season. But Union certainly had the more favourable fixtures. Union kicked off gameweek 30 by welcoming bottom side Jahn Regensburg, who didn't help their cause by having a player pick up his second yellow card just before the break. Milosevic immediately made them pay before Sepúlveda ran riot with four goals after half-time to seal a 5-0 thumping. And the next day, Leipzig lost 2-1 at Leverkusen. Sepúlveda was now level with Michael Storskov's club record of 41 goals in a season. While Union's first chance to retain their title came in a huge Berliner Derby at home to Hertha. They started well then conceded to Hertha's only attack of the half. Prusseit lost his head and sent water bottles flying around the dressing room, which got the desired result as Milosevic equalised and Sepúlveda swiftly added a second to break the goalscoring record. Their high press worked as Picak seized on a weak pass to create a second for Sepúlveda, who went on to wrap up yet another hat-trick and seal a 4-1 victory. Leipzig thumped Werder Bremen 4-1 then lost 1-0 at Bayern, which meant Union became champions without kicking a ball. Union Berlin retained their Bundesliga crown! Union celebrated their success by hammering Fortuna Düsseldorf 5-0 led by a Van Dessel brace. Sepúlveda did the same in a 3-0 win at St Pauli then went one better to move to 50 goals for the season in a 3-1 win over Stuttgart. That saw Union finish with exactly the same record as the previous season, winning 25, drawing six and losing three. Leipzig fell apart with their European commitments, which saw them drop below Bayern into 3rd. Union scored a league-high 82, which was 17 more than last season, and conceded just 22, which was two fewer than last season. Sepúlveda scored more than double any other player in Bundesliga, topping the charts with 41 goals in 34 games. But Van Dessel got the most assists with 13 and was the best player in the league with a 7.58 average rating, ahead of Rodríguez (7.57) and Sepúlveda (7.53). Union and Prusseit's First DFB-Pokal Final Union had struggled in DFB-Pokal through Prusseit's reign and, in fact, this entire save, never making it past the Eighth Final. But this season they defeated Neustrelitz, Eintracht Braunschweig and Düsseldorf 4-0, 2-0 and 1-0. They thumped Wolfsburg 4-0 in the quarter-final then a Marco penalty nicked a 1-0 win over Stuttgart, which took place just two days after their league win over Hertha. So they moved into the Final without conceding a goal! In the least surprising news ever, their opponent was Bayern, who defeated another OstDeutscher side Magdeburg 3-1 in the semis. Prusseit had a fully fit squad to choose from so lined up: Lee; Serrao, Belkacem, Borborema, Poulos; Pereira; Picak; Milosevic, Van Dessel, Rodríguez; Sepúlveda The match began pretty slowly with Bayern having a half chance before Union missed a few opportunities. But they eventually landed the first punch as Rodríguez flicked the ball into the path of Van Dessel, who brilliantly volleyed a screamer into the top of the net three minutes before half-time. A very quiet second half saw Sepúlveda hit the post and Bayern offer virtually nothing. And Union cruised to a relatively comfortable 1-0 victory. Union Berlin won their first-ever DFB-Pokal and wrapped up a domestic treble! Celebrating Union's Greatest Season Union backed up their first national title by swiftly adding their second Bundesliga and their first-ever German Cup victory. Prusseit was delighted with his team's progress and was very excited the club's future. Sepúlveda smashed the club's goalscoring record, finishing the season with 50 goals in 50 games but, interestingly, didn't record a single assist! That was followed by the 15 goals of Milosevic, who topped the club's assist charts with 19. While Rodríguez also impressed with 13 goals and 16 assists. But Van Dessel was arguably the club's best performer in his first season, scoring 14 and getting 14 assists with a 7.59 average rating. As a result, Van Dessel became the first Union player to win the German Football of the Year award, with Milosevic in 3rd, then the German Players' Player of the Year, ahead of Rodríguez and Sepúlveda. While Sepúlveda won the European Golden Shoe, finishing well clear of 2nd-place Endrick at Barcelona. Union's overachievement saw the board hand Prusseit a new contract with a £10k wage increase, taking him to £45k per week until 2043. While this season's success lifted Prusseit to number eight in the German Hall of Fame. Could Prusseit keep the good times rolling and win a 3rd successive Bundesliga?
  21. OstDeutscher Sieg | Part 35 | Bundesliga Title Defence Union Berlin became the first team from East Germany ever to win Bundesliga as Ruprecht Prusseit and his exciting young squad lifted the famous trophy in May 2038. That completed Prusseit's 16-year journey from a Sunday League nobody to a German title winner and one of the best managers in the world. The Union players, staff and directors spent many a night frequenting the packed-out Berlin beer halls celebrating with their jubilant fans. One such night got a little too rowdy as Prusseit filled a tour bus with Pilsners and champagne and very drunkenly led the celebrations with a megaphone in hand screaming "Sweet Sepúlveda" to the tune of Sweet Caroline. If he was honest, he couldn't remember anything about the evening, but he did have many an embarrassing reminder courtesy of round-the-clock TV coverage of his antics. After giving himself and his players a few days away to recuperate, Prusseit reset his mind for the challenge of defending Union's maiden league title. In fact, he had already secured the services of an exciting wonderkid before the title was won. Union's success and three record sales in three years had seen the club's bank balance bloom to over £360m. While Prusseit now had a £122m transfer kitty and an unused wage budget of £1.4m out of the £2.2m available to work with coming into the summer. Three additions arrived as the transfer window opened. The pick of them was Leandro Van Dessel, who joined for £26.5m from Anderlecht and looked like a superstar already at the age of 18 but didn't have a natural position that fitted into Prusseit's current formation. He was joined by left-back Fabien Camus for £28.5m from Marítimo and left-back Takayoshi Wada for £1.1m from Funabashi Bandits. A few days later, centre-back Nick Madzar arrived from Dinamo Zagreb for £10.75m. Given Van Dessel's preferred position, Prusseit decided to switch up his formation again. He moved to a 4-2-3-1 with Satoru Iida in a holding role and Van Dessel playing as a shadow striker in behind Claudio Sepúlveda. More Silverware On The Line The new formation looked very good in its first outing against Frankfurt in the DFL-Supercup. Union dominated the first half with 16 shots to one and eventually made one count as Grga Picak drilled home from 25 yards. Miroslav Milosevic converted a penalty before Sepúlveda, who improved further after playing at the World Cup in the summer, got his customary goal. Union Berlin won their first DFL-Supercup and their third major trophy overall. Union's First-Ever Title Defence Begins Union were now fancied as fourth favourites to win Bundesliga with odds of 14/1. Bayern remain favourites at 4/6 followed by Leipzig at 9/1 and Dortmund at 13/1. While new boy Van Dessel is the only Union player in the media dream 11. Union's defence began well in Leverkusen's first-ever match at the Ulf Kirsten Stadium. Milosevic and centre-back Abdelkadir Belkacem scored inside the first 15 minutes and they held on for a 2-1 win. And another good performance followed in their first home game as Iida and Sepúlveda goals earned a 2-0 win over Freiburg. A big early test saw Union face a trip to Bayern, who Prusseit still hadn't beaten in 13 attempts, in late August. The two teams shared 43 shots in an entertaining game but Union scored one of theirs through Bruno Rodríguez after nine minutes then held firm for a huge first win over Bayern. Union took confidence from that, hammering Gladbach 4-0 led by a Sepúlveda brace then the striker's 95th-minute strike earned a 1-0 win at Frankfurt. The defence proved extremely solid as striker Fredrik Fossdal scored the only goal off the bench at home to slow-starting Dortmund and a 2-0 win at Nürnberg with goals by Rodríguez and Milosevic. But they finally let one in as a Sepúlveda double downed 4th-place Hamburg 2-1. An eight-game winning start ended as they nicked a 1-1 draw at city rivals Hertha. They conceded twice at home to Köln but scored five led by Rodríguez and Sepúlveda braces before a Sepúlveda hat-trick inspired a 4-1 win at Wolfsburg. That teed up a clash of the top two as Union entertained fellow OstDeutscher side RB Leipzig in late November. Union started the better only for Leipzig to score their first shot on target. They continued to play well as both teams had their fair share of chances and eventually got their reward in bizarre fashion as a Rodríguez cross looped up in the air for Fossdal to head home. And they settled for a 1-1 draw. Union wrapped up the calendar year with a bunch of games against teams in the bottom half. They returned to winning ways by defeating Jahn Regensburg 2-1 before a Sepúlveda hat-trick downed Werder Bremen 3-0. But an exhausted team lost 2-1 at Fortuna Düsseldorf three days after a Champions League tie. They wrapped up the year by hitting seventh heaven, thumping St Pauli 7-1 led by another Sepúlveda hat-trick and a Rodríguez brace, then putting four past Stuttgart away. That took Union into the winter break having only dropped points three times and enjoying a six-point lead over Bayern and a seven-point lead over Leipzig. Sepúlveda is dominating Bundesliga, with 19 goals putting him seven clear of Freiburg striker Nelson Weiper. While Rodríguez leads the way with a 7.69 average rating followed by new boy Van Dessel's 7.55. Brutal Champions League Fixtures The ridiculous nature of the new Champions League format was portrayed by Union's outrageous fixtures, starting with games against Arsenal, Liverpool and Madrid and, predictably, they played Newcastle after selling Michael Storskov to them. Unsurprisingly, Union lost 2-0 at Arsenal, 1-0 to Liverpool, who cruelly scored a 91st-minute winner, and got thumped 3-0 at home to Madrid. But they finally got on the board as Fossdal's injury-time winner nicked a 2-1 victory at Porto and backed it up by hammering Salzburg 5-0 away. And Storskov obviously scored as Milosevic earned a deserved point at Newcastle. That left Union in 19th place going into the final two games. Union's first title defence was going very well, enjoying a decent lead over Bayern and Leipzig. However, they've been heavily reliant on Sepúlveda, who's scored 24 goals in 25 games in all competitions. Although the promising Van Dessel has hit the ground running with six goals, seven assists and a 7.53 average rating in 23 games. And that saw him win European Golden Boy, making it four years in a row that a Union player has won the award. Could Union maintain their strong start to the campaign and defend their Bundesliga title?
  22. Yeah that's true. Bayern tend to be pretty dominant! It's been a really fun save for sure
  23. Woop! It's been quite the journey, but maybe a little quicker than I expected? But once you get into Bundesliga it's pretty easy given the finances available.. There's more to come though!
  24. OstDeutscher Sieg | Part 34 | Sweet Sepúlveda Ruprecht Prusseit had led Union Berlin into a strong position, leading Bundesliga by 10 points heading into 2038. But he was keen to avoid another end-of-season slump that had handed titles back to Bayern Munich in the last two seasons. The new year began with a massive club record sale. Striker Michael Storskov was now Union's Champions League starter having been usurped by top scorer Claudio Sepúlveda, was 26 and had 18 months on his contract. So when Newcastle came in with a £65m offer he bit their hands off. And Prusseit replaced him with 17-year-old Paraskevas Goulas for £3m from Frankfurt. Maintaining A Strong Start Union began 2038 with a trip to bottom side Mainz and duly thumped them 5-1 led by a four-goal haul by top scorer Claudio Sepúlveda. Next was a huge game as leaders Union took on 2nd-place Bayern, who they'd still only beaten once in 31 meetings in this save and Prusseit had never beaten in 12 games. Bayern bossed the early stages but midfielder Samuel Pereira chose the perfect time to score his first Union goal, drilling home from 20 yards. Bayern equalised straight after the break but Prusseit's side held them off to earn a 1-1 and retain their 10-point lead. That big draw was backed up by edging a 2-1 at Gladbach then beating Stuttgart 3-2 led by a Sepúlveda hat-trick. The Chilean scored the only goal at home to St Pauli then two goals in a 2-2 at Leverkusen. That saw him move past 30 goals for the season and break Ahmed Ramadam's Union record of 28 league goals in a season. And on the same day, Dortmund beat Bayern 2-1. Claudio continued to live up to the moniker "Sweet Sepúlveda" as his brace earned a 2-0 win at 17th-place Hoffenheim then scored the only goal at home to 14th-place Nürnberg. But he was seemingly the only Union player who could score, which showed as he got injured and they drew 0-0 at Freiburg while all the other top-five sides also drew. Champions League Progression Union came into the final two games of the league phase with a three-point gap to 9th place. With Liverpool away to come, a home game against Villarreal was vital. And they delivered as a Miroslav Milosevic double sealed a 2-1 win. They also did fairly well at Liverpool, only losing 2-1. And that was enough to book their place in the top eight by one point - and five places above Bayern. That sent them straight through to the last 16, where they got one of the better draws against Villarreal. However, a few injuries struck before the away leg and they got thumped 5-2 and a 2-1 home loss saw them exit with a bit of a whimper in the round of 16. A Bayern-Less Title Battle? Union came into the final eight games of the season with an eight-point lead over Leipzig and a 13-point gap back to Dortmund, Bayern and Wolfsburg. Surely this time the title was heading to East Germany one way or another? But Union again had a tricky run of games coming. Game 1 - Köln (6th, home): Sepúlveda was still missing and they weren't looking good as Köln took the lead after half an hour. But his replacement Fredrik Fossdal headed home his first goal of the season to equal then Milosevic finished from a tight angle to nick a 2-1 win. And all the other top five sides also won. Game 2 - Hertha (6th, away): Hertha were the form team in Bundesliga heading into the Berliner Derby but had Nicolas Makhloufi sent off for a two-footed challenge after just six minutes. Winger Leandro immediately gave Union the advantage only for Hertha to equalise after half an hour. But Union took control after the break with Satoru Iida and Sepúlveda strikes before Leandro added a late fourth. Leipzig also won to keep the gap at eight points. Game 3 - Wolfsburg (5th, home): The tough run continued with another in-form side as Wolfsburg came to town. Sepúlveda scored again after half an hour but Wolfsburg dominated the second half and got a deserved equaliser just before the hour. Leipzig scored a 93rd-minute winner at Hamburg to close the gap. Game 4 - Leipzig (2nd, away): That teed up a huge potential title decider as leaders Union travelled to 2nd-place Leipzig with a six-point lead. But that became three points as Union put in a terrible performance and lost 1-0 to a goal by 35-year-old Ilaix Moriba. And they lost Sepúlveda to injury again. Game 5 - Arminia Bielefeld (15th, home): They faced another first half of frustration against a poor Bielefeld team. But Prusseit laid into the team at half-time and immediately got his reward as Bruno Rodríguez scored his first goal in five months. Leandro added a second before Rodríguez doubled his tally to seal a 3-0 victory. Later that day, Leipzig drew 0-0 at home to Dortmund, so Union grew the game back to five points with three games remaining. Game 6 - Hamburg (14th, away): Leipzig hammered Mainz 4-0 the day before Union went to Hamburg. But Union responded with Sepúlveda and Milosevic goals either side of half-time before Hamburg got a late consolation. Game 7 - Dortmund (4th, away): The toughest game of the run-in took Union to Dortmund and, yet again in a big game, they didn't come close to showing up. Dortmund got a dodgy penalty then scored their first three shots on target, dominated the second half and won 4-0. While Union offered very little despite their lofty xG. However, later that day, Leipzig went to Bayern and were equally bad, losing 3-1 with former Union player Omar Nzeyimana scoring twice, which trebled his tally for the season. So in the most unconvincing circumstances, Union Berlin were Champions of Germany!! And Union Berlin were the first-ever East German club to win Bundesliga!! Union celebrated their success in front of their jubilant fans at Stadion An Der Alten Försterei the day after Prusseit's 54th birthday. And they did so in style as Sepúlveda scored once and laid on the other two for his attacking partners Milosevic and Rodríguez in a 3-1 win over Frankfurt. That saw Union win the title by five points from Leipzig, who leapfrogged Bayern to make it an OstDeutscher one-two on the final day! Impressively, Union only conceded 24 goals all season, while 64 goals was a little on the low side compared to the 76 and 75 they managed in the previous two seasons. And the title success bagged them a cool £110m. The key man behind this success was Sepúlveda, who was the second-top scorer in Bundesliga with 34 goals in 32 games - only bettered by Hertha's Jeremy Dierickx scoring an outrageous 37 in 29! Also crucial was Lee Kwang-Sun keeping 16 clean sheets. They also had five players - Lee, Cláudio Borborema, Rogério Poulos, Rodríguez and Milosevic - in the Bundesliga Team of the Year, Prusseit won his third Manager of the Year in five years and Pereira won Rookie of the Year. East Germany's First Bundesliga Winners This was an unprecedented season in German football history as Ruprecht Prusseit became the first manager to lead an East German club to the Bundesliga title. He was a little concerned about their inability to compete with big teams away from home, but that couldn't detract from an excellent achievement with an exciting Union team. The star man this season was obviously Sepúlveda, who broke the club's league goals in a season record and finished with 38 in 40 and a 7.52 average rating in all competitions. Also impressive were his attacking colleagues Milosevic, who scored 12 and got 12 assists in 39 games, and Rodríguez, who got a club-high 15 assists plus a slightly disappointing four goals. Stalwart midfielder Grga Picak got 10 assists and four goals with a 7.28 average rating and there were solid performances by fellow midfielders Iida and 6ft 6in Pereira, who only scored one goal despite targeting set pieces at him. While goalkeeper Lee and full-back Rogério Poulos also impressed. But Prusseit was concerned about the performances of the rest of his defensive players. To add to the great season, Prusseit also got his first good youth intake in years. The pick of the bunch was winger Fágner, along with another winger Giuseppe Menozzi, striker Matteo Righini and full-back Besnik Dragusha, none of which were German... Could Union build on East Germany's first-ever Bundesliga success? And could they go further in the Champions League?
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