RB Leipzig and Union Berlin may both hail from East Germany, but their matchup is no Eastern duel

Two football clubs based in the often-still-overlooked eastern part of Germany would, you might think, have some shared sense of place and culture. That might be true of teams from the former Deutsche Demokratische Republik, but considering RB Leipzig (as previously discussed in this space) didn’t exist until 2009, when Red Bull took over a fifth-tier side, a different perception applies. They might be in the East but are most definitely not of it, many will argue. Leipzig the city was simply a convenient staging post for the business of marketing an energy drink. RB Leipzig in this sense are distinct from the smaller but historically important clubs in the area, Lokomotive and Chemie.

Union, like them or loathe them, are a club rooted in a particular community, that of Koepenick in southeast Berlin. Think again if you imagine a team synonymous with the new, shiny, rebuilt part of Berlin. Die Eisernen (The Iron Ones) are local and unpretentious in their feel with a small, atmospheric stadium underpinned by the tradition of standing, requiring a pleasant walk through a forest en route. The irony is this emphasis on localism has attracted new, international fans, who see the Union experience as something of a holy grail antidote to the most painful ills of modern football.