1. FC Union Berlin - Capital Domination

Safc-mad-scotty said:
Can't offer too much advice but one thing I would say is not to worry too much if your finances go into the red during the season as you get a lot of prize money (more when you get promoted) and sponsorship money at the end of the season which generally pushes you back into the black.

Good luck, keep me updated on how you're getting on!
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Blitzed through the first season with 1860 and won the 2. Bundesliga. Can't believe how good a team they have, considering I've never heard of any of them! Youth teamers are pretty handy too, and they have a 50,000 capacity stadium. Pretty good setup. I've used the same tactic your Union side have, it seemed the best fit for the players available.

I was so happy with the team and their efforts in winning promotion that I decided I only needed a left winger and a centre back, and would stick with the rest. Got Gael Kakuta on a free and then ran out of both wages and transfer money. The board won't give me any more (even though there's about £10m in the bank!) due to their insistence that we develop our own players, not buy them. Nice idea, but a little bit would be handy. Then had to sell my starting DM(wanted to leave, 1 year left on his contract, got £4m), so had to promote a youngster. Never managed to get a CB.

Now 8 games into our first season in the Bundesliga and we're 3rd! Though our next three games are Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen so that won't last long, top half definitely seems achievable. Then hopefully the board'll let me spend a bit!

All in all, great little team to manage, highly recommend doing a save with them. Can't wait for your next Union update either!
 
ifanythinhehitthattoowell said:
Blitzed through the first season with 1860 and won the 2. Bundesliga. Can't believe how good a team they have, considering I've never heard of any of them! Youth teamers are pretty handy too, and they have a 50,000 capacity stadium. Pretty good setup. I've used the same tactic your Union side have, it seemed the best fit for the players available.

I was so happy with the team and their efforts in winning promotion that I decided I only needed a left winger and a centre back, and would stick with the rest. Got Gael Kakuta on a free and then ran out of both wages and transfer money. The board won't give me any more (even though there's about £10m in the bank!) due to their insistence that we develop our own players, not buy them. Nice idea, but a little bit would be handy. Then had to sell my starting DM(wanted to leave, 1 year left on his contract, got £4m), so had to promote a youngster. Never managed to get a CB.

Now 8 games into our first season in the Bundesliga and we're 3rd! Though our next three games are Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen so that won't last long, top half definitely seems achievable. Then hopefully the board'll let me spend a bit!

All in all, great little team to manage, highly recommend doing a save with them. Can't wait for your next Union update either!
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Good stuff mate. Promotion in the first season is a good achievement and seems like you've made a cracking start to your start in the Bundesliga. Certainly better than our 9-1 defeat away to Leverkusen on the opening day of our first Bundesliga season! XD

On the stadium, don't they share the Allianz Arena with Bayern? Because I'm sure the stadium lights up blue when 1860 play and obviously it lights up red when Bayern play. Will be interesting to see how long it takes before you start to match Bayern's attendances or even surpass them.
 

1. FC Union Berlin
Oktober - 2023

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Fixtures:

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Our great form to start the season continued throughout October with 2 impressive away wins in the Champions League at Man City and Feyenoord as well as a further 3 wins in the Bundesliga. We didn't quite score the goals we did in the previous month but we did keep keep 4 clean sheets out of 5. Despite the two 2-0 Champions League wins, I'd have to say the highlight of the month was the 4-2 win in the Berliner derby over Hertha as everyone loves a derby win and city dominance!

League Table/Champions League Group:

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The league title is already a two horse race as us and Bayern both stand on 28 points after 10 games, with our closest challengers Dortmund 10 points behind. We already look set to qualify from our Champions League group and with City to play at home I'm very confident that we'll win our group.

Player of the month - Antonio Volpe

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The Italian bagged himself a brace in the derby and got the opener in the all important Champions League game in Manchester.

Player Stats:

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Schroder missed a few games through injury this month but has taken his goal tally to 18 in 12. Youth academy graduate Timme is having somewhat of a breakthrough season in terms of level of performance, averaging a 7.8 rating with 3 goals and 4 assists in 6 starts and 4 sub appearances.

Other News:

1) Just thought I'd show our overall best 11 from the save so far as I don't think I've done so yet. A lot of players who are still at the club but also a few who aren't. Here is an overview of where the other are currently in the save...

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Next update will be a November update. Can we open up a lead to Bayern or will they overtake us in the battle for the Bundesliga title? If there is any screenshots anyone would like to see then just ask!​
 

1. FC Union Berlin
November - 2023

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Fixtures:

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A second successive month where we won every game that we played in, but more impressively we went the entire month without conceding a goal! A Loris Noto hatrick gave us a win in the German Cup at Heidenheim, before heading to Koln for a 3-0 league win just a few days later. We then secured our Champions League qualification with a 4-0 home win over Feyenoord, before putting Wolfsburg to the sword in the league on the weekend with a 5-0 win. The toughest game came a week later away to Borrusia Monchengladbach, however a 4th minute goal from Weber was enough to give us a tight 1-0 victory. Finally, we beat BATE in the last game this month 3-0 with a brace from Noto and a goal from Gaudino on his first start since his injury.

League Table/Champions League Group:

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Bayern dropped points away to Borussia Monchengladbach in their first league game this month despite playing the majority of the game against 10 men, which has allowed us to open up a 2 point gap to them. We need a 1 goal defeat or better on the final Champions League match day in order to top our Champions League Group.

Player of the Month - Nils Weber

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With all the clean sheets this month, the player of the month had to go to our big German centre back. Now he's met all the conditions in his transfer, the total amount we paid for him is actually a massive £55,000,000, however he's proving well worth the money as we do need to secure the top young German talent with the self imposed squad rules in place at the club.

Player Stats:

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17 year old youth academy graduate Mariko is already regarded as a leading Bundesliga player by our coaches and still with the potential to become world class. His average rating of 7.73 is very impressive considering his age, although these games have mainly been against weaker opposition so bigger tests await him. Summer signing Volpe is having a brilliant first season so far and is ensuring we don't miss club icon Fofana.

Other News:

1) We set a new German Cup record for games unbeaten in the competition with the win over Heidenheim.View attachment 236239

2) We had a very easy qualifying campaign for the 2024 Euros with France and won every game in ease, booking our place on the plane to Italy where we will look to defend the competition we won 4 years ago under the management of Jose Mourinho.

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Next update will be the December update, including a big league game away to Bayern and our final Champions League game at home to Manchester City. We'll also discover who we'll play in the 1st knockout round of the Champions League this season...​
 

1. FC Union Berlin
Dezember - 2023

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Fixtures:

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The first game of the month looked to pick up where we left off in November, as a 12th minute goal from Brandt put us 1-0 up early on against Hamburg. However, 2 red cards in the second half put us on the back foot and Nils Weber then give away a penalty in the last minute of extra time to allow them to take a point back to Hamburg. A backup team then comfortably beat FSV Frankfurt 4-0, with the highlight being a goal off the bench on debut from youth academy graduate Skraparas. The big game against Bayern followed and we fought back from 2-0 down to secure ourselves an all important point and kept us above the team. With the number of players over 30 in their team they were always going to tire and we took advantage of that and ultimately we could have even won the game late on. A Schroder hatrick and a Timme goal then helped us to a 4-1 win over Dusseldorf before we broke all sorts of records with an incredible 10-1 win over Nurnberg. Not only was it our record win, we also broke the Bundesliga record for most goals in a game which was previously set by our 9-1 loss to Leverkusen in our first ever Bundesliga game! Wooooooop! Also, Schroder broke the record for goals in a game by one player by helping himself to 5 in the match.

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League Table/Champions League Group:

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Our comeback against Bayern seemed to send them on a downward spiral as they went on to lose their next two away to Dortmund and home to Leverkusen. We topped our CL group with 18 points for a 2nd year running and have been rewarded by a 1st knockout round tie against... you guessed it Barcelona. The team who has knocked us out of the competition 4 times in the last 6 years. The team who we have never managed to beat over two legs. Surely this year will be different?

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Player of the Month - Torsten Schroder

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9 goals in total this month from our main man up top, including 5 against Nurnberg and a hatrick against Dusseldorf.

Player Stats:

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Schroder already has 30 goals as we head into the winter break, surely this is the year he hits 50 goals in all competitions? The only other player to hit double figures so far is Noto who has 10 goals, however the whole squad is chipping in and we're certainly not short of goals.

Other News:

1) We are still yet to have a winner of the Ballon d'Or or the World Golden Ball as Schroder and Muller came 2nd and 3rd respectively in both awards to Schalke's Gabriel Barbosa. We did however have a 2nd winner of the European Golden Boy in Miodrag Milosevic. We also had 4 players in the world team of the year and 2 players on the bench.

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Next update will be a January update, documenting any transfers if we choose to make any...

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Quality story! That is quite the rise of FC Union Berlin! Definitely following!
 

1. FC Union Berlin
Janjuar - 2024

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Transfers:

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As is usually the case in the January transfer window, we did not do much business. However, we did bring a young German from Nurnberg who my scouts believe to have the potential to be world class. Artur Klava has very impressive stats for a 15 year old and already stands at 195cms tall. I'm hopeful that he'll be an absolute beast when he's fully developed and will be the player to replace or maybe even partner Weber. He cost the club an initial £12,000,000, but similar to the Gertner deal at the start of the season he could cost an extra £20,000,000 or so if he makes 50 league appearances for the club and 20 international appearances. A few players also left the club on loan, the main one being Skraparas who left to Braunschweig who are currently 3rd in the 2. Bundesliga and looking for promotion.

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Fixtures:

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Just the one game this month as we returned to the scene of the crime of our first Bundesliga game, facing Leverkusen away in the league. They currently sit in 3rd in the table and in all fairness they were the better team in the first half and we're unlucky not to go into the break with the lead. However, we changed to a 442 at half time and this move seemed to pay dividends as we came into the game much more and grabbed a 50th minute winner through Leverkusen academy graduate and European Golden Boy Milosevic.

Next up will be the February update, including a trip to Barcelona in the Champions League and a German Cup quarter final tie against Bayern Munchen in Munchen.
​
 
Good luck against Barcelona mate! Fingers crossed this year can be your year in the Champions League!
 
Yeti01 said:
Good luck against Barcelona mate! Fingers crossed this year can be your year in the Champions League!
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Lippo255 said:
Yeah, gotta be your year this time mate! Good luck :)
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Cheers lads, if we actually manage to beat Barcelona in the 1st knockout round then I think we have a great chance of winning it this year but it's never that easy when we play them! Neymar, Messi and Suarez are now 32,36 and 37 respectively so hopefully they aren't able to tear me apart like they usually do...
 
Maaan, you've come to the point when you just keep pressing space hah :)

Good luck!
 

1. FC Union Berlin
Februar - 2024

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Fixtures:

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Pretty much more of the same for us in the league this month, however things did not go so well in other competitions! 5 wins from 5 Bundesliga games, scoring 19 and conceding just the one, meant that we opened up a 8 point gap to Bayern with a game in hand. However, they did get one over on us by beating us 2-1 in the German Cup quarter final, knocking us out of the competition and ending our 43 game unbeaten run in the competition since 2016! The final game of the month saw 96,000 people turn up at the Nou Camp to watch Barcelona beat us yet again the Champions League knockout rounds, however the scoreline of 3-2 away from home is no too bad as we have two away goals which could become important. Despite their advancing years, Messi bagged himself a brace and Neymar added the 3rd.

League Table:

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We're in a very good position as it stands. Hopefully we can wrap the league up as soon as possible to allow us chances to rest players for the latter stages of the Champions League (if we get through) and to give further chances to the young players in the squad.

Player of the Month - Torsten Schroder

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8 goals in 6 starts this month, it's getting pretty boring writing about Torsten to be honest!

Player Stats:

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With the form of Muller and Schroder so far this season, surely one of them has a chance of winning the ballon d'Or this year! One other player whose average rating I feel is particularly impressive is defensive midfielder Antun Trajkovic at 7.6. I normally find it the case that defensive midfielders never really get that high ratings on FM so to be averaging above a 7.5 is quite the achievement.

Youth Intake:

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The intake doesn't look that great but it's actually a very good one. The top two players both have the potential to be world class according to my assistant (just goes to show how strong our squad is as their potentials are only showing as 1 and a half star to 2 and a half star and 2 and a half to 3 and a half star). The third player has the potential to be a leading Bundesliga player, so should all 3 reach their ability they'll al make it at the club. The only downside of the intake was the fact that the two best players were a centre back and a left back, both positions where we already have strong youth players in the under 19's (including the CB we spent £12,000,000 on in January). However, there's more than enough space for them all to come through.

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Here is how my under 19's is shaping up now in terms of players who could eventually make it into the 1st team squad...

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Next update will be a March update, can we turn our Champions League tie against Barcelona around?​
 
In a great position to finally get the Barca monkey off your back! You can do it!
 

1. FC Union Berlin
Marz - 2024

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Fixtures:

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We did it, we finally managed to knock Barcelona out of the Champions League! Heading into the game with injuries to two key men in Schroder and Volpe and trailing 3-2 on aggregate, I wasn't overly confident. However, a 21st minute goal from backup striker Noto was enough to give us a 1-0 victory on the night and sent us through on the away goal ruling. In truth, we should have won by many more and if it wasn't for Ter Stegen we would have done.

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In the league we carried on where we left off and won all 5 games. Highlights included a 3-0 win over Dortmund and a 4-0 win over city rivals Hertha, both games played in front of a sold out Olympiastadion. We also managed to beat Schalke away from home with a semi rotated side courtesy of a last minute winner from Marvin Muller.

League Table:

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With just 6 games to go we look set to retain our title as we are 15 points clear of Bayern. We are also only 4 goals off breaking the record of goals scored in a Bundesliga season, a record Schalke stole off us last year! We are also only 6 games away from going unbeaten over the course of a league season for the first time.

Player of the Month - Loris Noto

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There wasn't one particular stand out player this month so I decided to pluck for Noto who bagged a derby brace and scored the all important goal vs Barcelona.

Player Stats:

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With just 6 league games to go and anywhere between 2 and 5 games left in the Champions League, it's looking unlikely that this will be the season where Schroder hits 50 goals in all comps. He is back fit though after missing a few games through injury so I won't completely rule it out.

Other News:

1) The sad news for this update is that Julian Brandt broke his foot in the Barcelona game and will therefore miss the rest of the season. He'll be a big miss for us in our Champions League push but hopefully Mladenovic can step in capably like he has throughout the season when Brandt is rested.

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2) The draw for the quarter final sees us matched up against a club icon in Seko Fofana's Arsenal. They're currently 2nd in the Premier League however they do have a few players out injured and I'm not that impressed with their squad.

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Next update will be an April update, including our Champions League Quarter Final against Arsenal and maybe the Semi Final as well if we get through...​
 
YESS!!! Well done mate for getting the Barca monkey off your back. All the way from here!!
 
Yeti01 said:
YESS!!! Well done mate for getting the Barca monkey off your back. All the way from here!!
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It's about time! I quite fancy our chances this year but Brandt will be a miss on the left. Hopefully Mladenovic can handle the big games!
 

1. FC Union Berlin
Champions League Quarter Final - 2024

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1st Leg - Union Berlin 6 - 0 Arsenal

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Heading into the first leg we got some unfortunate news in that Bernt Leno picked up a training injury meaning that 18 year old youth academy graduate Krumnow would be in goal for both legs vs Arsenal, in addition to the missing Brandt and Volpe. However, it did not seem to effect us in the first leg as a massive 72,000 crowd in Berlin saw us tear apart the Gunners in emphatic fashion. A first half brace from Muller was added to by a goal from Carrasco and an own goal from veteran midfielder Aaron Ramsey to give us a 4-0 lead to take into half time, whilst second half goals from Schroder and Milosevic meant we had a 6 goal lead to take to London. Even more importantly, Krumnow managed to keep a clean sheet. I knew buying Dresden's backup keepers last year to ensure him a full season of Bundesliga football would be a good idea!

2nd Leg - Arsenal 2 - 2 Union Berlin

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The second leg was of little importance as we were always going to go through and whilst it was slightly disappointing to throw away a 2 goal lead to draw 2-2, it ultimately didn't matter. It set up a repeat of last years semi final where PSG put us out on penalties. If we progress into our first ever final we will play either Manchester City or Benfica.

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Next update will be a Champions League semi final update, can we make it into our first ever Champions League final or will we fall at the same stage to the same opposition as last season? I'll cover the last 6 league games in one update as opposed to two months since there isn't too much left to play for domestically this year...​
 
Come on man gotta feeling you could finally do it this year!!!

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
 

1. FC Union Berlin
Champions League Semi Final - 2024

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1st Leg - Union Berlin 2 - 2 PSG

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It wouldn't be a Union Berlin Champions League run without something going wrong. We headed into the game with a full strength team outside of the missing Brandt and when Schroder gave us the lead after 10 minutes I naively thought that it was going to be the same as the home leg against Barca. Unfortunately, PSG equalized just 5 minutes later from an outstanding free kick from arguably the best centre back in world football Lucas Lucchetta. Just 5 minutes after that, the game had completely flipped on it's head as centre midfielder Richard got himself sent off for a second yellow card and we were down to 10 men. In the 31st minute it looked like we had completely fallen apart as Lucchetta got a 2nd from the penalty spot after a late challenge from ex-PSG midfielder Muller. After that however, we were the better team despite being down to 10 men and did manage to level the game in the 74th minute when Gianluca Gaudino's effort from a corner hit a fallen over Nils Weber on the back and wrongfooted the PSG keeper. We couldn't get a winner but I suppose it wasn't the worst result in the circumstances and gave us a chance in the 2nd leg.

2nd Leg - PSG 0 - 2 Union Berlin

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Champions League final here we come! We headed to the French capital knowing that we needed goals and we were obviously without the suspended Richard in the middle. The game was more even than the first leg in terms of stats but we got a key goal just before half time when Muller made up for giving away the penalty in the 1st leg by giving us a one goal lead to take into the break. A nervy second half ensued as one goal from PSG would have seen us knocked out on away goals but luckily we were the team to get the second goal just before full time through a PSG own goal and advance into our first Champions League final at the Stade Velodrome in a few weeks time against Manchester City. They beat Benfica on aggregate 4-1 in their semi and currently sit 5th in the Premier League, whilst also featuring ex Union Berlin players Niklas Sule and Joshua Kimmich and French superstar striker Cardillo.

Next update will be a domestic end of season update, can we manage to go the whole season unbeaten and break the goal scored record for the Bundesliga?
​
 
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