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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Andy Brassell

Union bid farewell to Urs Fischer, the FußballGott who created dreams

Fans of Union Berlin hold banners to show their thanks to Urs Fischer, the former head coach, prior to their game against Augsburg
Fans of Union Berlin hold banners to show their thanks to Urs Fischer, the former head coach, prior to their game against Augsburg. Photograph: Boris Streubel/Getty Images

It is often trite to describe a particular goal as the turning point of a season. Especially with late goals, we have the tendency to let the emotion describe them, as if they are more important than they actually might be.

Divorcing events from emotion has never been a speciality of Union Berlin, however. This is a club and a fanbase that feels everything. The club whose supporters literally gave their own blood to raise funds to fill empty coffers, who rebuilt a crumbling stadium with their own hands – and who, on the back of a horrendous run of 12 successive defeats which turned what should have been a dream season into an unfolding nightmare, chanted not for their head coach to be sacked, but emptied their lungs with the gospel that he was still a FußballGott to them.

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