Steffen Baumgart Union is keeping his fingers crossed for Berlin today
Berlin – As much as Steffen Baumgart enjoys going to a 1. FC Union Berlin game at the An der Alten Försterei stadium during the season, he doesn’t like going there as a loser. Of course, that doesn’t change his sympathy for the Irons. But he not only keeps his fingers crossed for 1. FC Union on Wednesday evening (8.45 p.m.) in the cup semifinals in Leipzig, but also for Hertha BSC in the relegation battle, as he explains in an exclusive interview.
Because of your connection to the club, does a defeat against 1. FC Union hurt longer or does it hurt just as long as in any other game?
Baumgart: No, of course it’s not like every game. I’m happy about victories against Union, defeats also hurt. Nevertheless, it is about recognizing the achievement and accepting the defeat. But a game like that shouldn’t hurt for so long, because it’s a defeat that can be explained and that annoys me. After the game, I talked to Urs Fischer for a long time, and then everything was fine again.
Are you generally someone for whom defeats have an emotional effect a little longer?
If I say I’m angry, it doesn’t mean I walk around angry. You have to go back to everyday life and deal with it realistically. See what happened, what you did well and what not. I don’t run around like bad weather for three days, but then it’s over. There are one or two games that make you think about it again afterwards, but I’m relatively clear and relatively quick to calm down and approachable.
Telephone calls to Urs Fischer for extraordinary achievements
She’s just saying that you had a longer chat with Urs Fischer after the game. How else does the exchange and your connection with 1. FC Union express itself over the course of a season?
It looks like I’m interested in the results – not only from Union, but also from Paderborn, Hansa Rostock and Energie Cottbus. I am in contact with Urs, not regularly, but we do talk on the phone now and then. We congratulate each other on exceptional achievements, but we also talk because there is mutual sympathy. I’m just happy about what he’s doing with the club. It’s nice to see what good work can do.
Some clubs are bound to ask themselves a question: how do you manage to turn a team that just barely escaped relegation into a team that plays for Europe with just a few personnel changes?
First and foremost it’s about showing the guys who are supposedly not good that they are good. When success comes and you start believing in it, that’s a lot, of course. I found a team that was very open to things, how we do them and how we wanted to work as a coaching team. They did a good job right from the start in preparation, we had few injuries and we experienced a lot of positive situations. We never slipped down, but were always in the top third of the table, so we could work in peace, we were able to make up for defeats quickly and, for example, never lost two games in a row. Then there are also lucky circumstances with later points, but we know that. If there was a secret recipe, everyone would buy it.
Hertha is still the best team in the bottom third.
Steffen Baumgart, coach 1. FC Cologne
A club in Berlin would definitely buy it immediately…
Good, but even then the Mass has not yet been read. Everything is still there when you reach the relegation place. Because Hertha is still the best team in the bottom third and the table is tight. I don’t think Hertha is finished yet and that’s why I haven’t written them off yet. Personally, I’d be happy if they stayed in. If you saw the game against Union, you have to say that it was a great derby that Berlin needs and that makes Berlin what it is at the moment.
What makes 1. FC Union so appealing that fans flock to the stadium when the gates open, even after a pandemic?
When I was at Union, the appeal of the many, of the big, didn’t even exist. But Dirk Zingler already had a vision back then of how he wanted to set up the club in the long term, and he did it. No Unioner could have done that like he did. Much is now taken for granted that has been developed over a long period of time.
Nothing works in Cologne without the Effzeh
How is it at 1. FC Köln?
What makes FC special is that nothing works in the city without him. There is the cathedral and the carnival here, but this association stands above them. Unlike in Berlin, Munich or Hamburg, this club does not separate – here there is only one club. You also like to go to the sharks, but this club connects everything. I hardly know of a city that is so strongly connected to a club. This is where you come from, and without you even knowing it, you are a Cologne fan.
imago
In Mönchengladbach, Steffen Baumgart won the Rheinderby with 1. FC Köln on the last matchday and celebrated in front of the fans.
When you moved to Cologne, how much were you influenced by how football is lived in this club and in this city?
That’s not what you know as a coach. It was clear to me that Cologne had a huge impact. It wasn’t clear to me how big this force is. No, you don’t know that. You know what’s going on at the club, but you don’t know what kind of impact is in store for you. I’m not the only one feeling the force that everyone who works at this club feels. You experience that every day, it’s new every day, with a new surprise.
Both clubs stand for certain values. For example, how important is tradition to you?
I think that Cologne and Union are grown clubs. Union from the GDR past, where you were always the underdog and really represented the working class. There aren’t that many clubs to compare Union to in the Bundesliga.
And Cologne…
… is noticeably different. FC isn’t the oldest club either, but it has an absolute presence in the area. In the city itself there is nothing without the FC. In addition, Cologne has a different attitude to life and culture compared to other cities, you experience that every day. The happy nature, but also the black and white thinking are something else here. Cologne has one of the most beautiful stadiums, and there too the atmosphere, both positive and negative, is always accompanied with a vengeance. At Union everything is positive, there is nothing negative, you go through everything together. Noticeably different, nowhere fits better than Cologne.
The defeat at 1. FC Union, your home win against Mainz and the derby in Mönchengladbach were also festivals for the fan camp. How do choreographies, songs and Bengalos affect you?
I find it outstanding when the security aspects fit. It’s difficult when rockets fly through the block.
I think that’s kind of sad for the sport.
Steffen Baumgart, coach 1. FC Cologne
But the demands of the Hertha BSC Ultras for the jerseys of the players are surely going too far for you too?
Not only is that going too far, I wouldn’t have taken off my jersey. The task for the boys at Hertha is difficult, it’s not an easy situation for the players and for the club. What you don’t need is for people from outside to exert such personal pressure. That doesn’t help anyone, especially not the young players. After the game there were a lot of boys who had gone through school at Hertha for ten years. I find it embarrassing to mess with these guys because they can’t fight back in that moment. I think that’s kind of sad for the sport.
How do you assess what happened at Hertha BSC in the past three years after the investor got involved?
It’s not my job to judge other clubs about what they’re doing right or wrong.
In the documentary “24/7 FC” you can see yourself in corona quarantine watching the game against Freiburg in your own apartment. How did you follow the Hertha derby against 1. FC Union?
I calmly watch every football game (smiles). But that was something completely different, because it’s not a football game for me, it’s about my personal situation. I don’t watch a football game there – when my boys play, that’s work. Hertha versus Union, that’s a football game for me. With sympathy for one team and a little less for the other. I also take my time watching the Champions League without going crazy. And when Leipzig is on the road, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for Leipzig. I do that with far less emotion than watching a football game. But when my boys are on the pitch, it’s not a football game. When I was U14 coach at Köpenick-Oberspree and we were last in the district league, I had the same emotions.
Has your appreciation for Urs Fischer increased again after the derby win?
You first have to get it right at a club like Union, so four years of continuous good work. I don’t know which coach would have managed to get through that completely without a scratch. In the second year, which is usually the way down, you have reached the international competition. Now they are in the cup semi-finals and are playing in the Bundesliga again for international competition. It’s difficult to say something about Urs that he can’t. You have already seen that he can play football.
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Steffen Baumgart and Urs Fischer (from left) appreciate each other’s work and are also in contact outside of the games between 1. FC Köln and Union Berlin.
What would the cup final mean for 1. FC Union?
I can’t even remember when the club did something that wasn’t important to them. This is something for the history books again. The performance up to that point is important: now you’re in the semi-finals and you’ve actually already achieved everything that you don’t achieve every year. And in the semifinals you have a chance of reaching the final against a very good team from Leipzig. But you have to beat Union first. If they don’t make it, it was still a great cup year. If they do it, the whole town will be upside down. But it would be better for us if Leipzig come in because my chances of seventh place are better with Cologne (laughs). Personally, I would be happy if Union reached the final. But I will be there for the final, no matter who has reached it.
Steffen Baumgart’s own cup-off still hurts
If you can see the trigger, 1. FC Köln could have played against Freiburg for a place in the final. How much do you mourn this opportunity?
This is a defeat that reverberates for a long time. Still. I make no bones about it – this defeat still hurts me. We left something there.
Is it a small consolation that you and 1. FC Köln are fighting a duel with 1. FC Union for Europe?
There is no consolation. We’re having a good season and we want to keep playing. You lose in sports too. It’s nice for us to see that we still have four games left, four games where we can score. And in the end we’ll see what comes of it.
Unlike in the Bundesliga, Urs Fischer stood on the sidelines in a suit during his performances in Europe. Would entering the European competition change anything about your proven outfit?
If I’m honest, I can’t imagine standing by my side in a suit for a while (laughs). I have a lot of people who would ask me if I was broken if I stood there in a suit. Nobody would take that seriously, because a lot of people would know that I’m not. But I would like to reach the goal first and then think about it seriously.