World press celebrates "football goddess" Eta

Marie-Louise Eta was even briefly the lead story in the Argentinian sports newspaper "Olé", displacing the preview of the Superclásico between Boca Juniors and River Plate from the front page. The Spanish newspaper "AS" even dedicated a video to the first female head coach in the history of the men's Bundesliga. It felt like the whole football world was watching the pioneer's historic, albeit unsuccessful, debut on the sidelines of 1. FC Union Berlin.

"The anticipation was huge and a deafening cheer shook the picturesque An der Alten Försterei stadium as Marie-Louise Eta emerged from the catacombs. Not a single lens of the photographers was not pointed at her. And it was no wonder, because they were witnessing a historic moment," wrote the Spanish newspaper "Marca" after the Köpenickers' 1:2 win against VfL Wolfsburg.

Even before kick-off, the pitch was a fun place to be as a small chase ensued. Eta rushed to the edge of the pitch for a DAZN interview, closely followed by a crowd of photographers. Shortly afterwards, the scene was repeated when the 34-year-old switched sides to answer questions from the Sky reporter. "She was the center of attention and caught everyone's eye. A real revolution," wrote "Olé".

Eta makes it clear: "It's not about me"

The fact that Eta was also unable to stop the Iron's negative streak and that the lead to relegation place 16 is now only six points only seemed to be of marginal interest, at least to the world press. The successor to Steffen Baumgart, who is only coaching the professional men's team until the end of the season, was at pains to moderate the huge media hype.

"Of course we are disappointed. It's about football, it's not about me," clarified the Dresden native. She is of course aware of the social signal effect of her promotion. "But that's not the point. It's not about enjoying something, it's about winning football matches," affirmed the Union coach, who was greeted as a "football goddess" by her supporters.

Union put in one of their best attacking performances in recent months, creating countless great chances, but only managed to tie the scores with Oliver Burke's late goal. Wolfsburg, on the other hand, regained hope in the relegation battle after dream goals from Patrick Wimmer and Dzenan Pejcinovic and reduced the gap to the barrage place to two points.

Union striker: "It doesn't matter whether it's a man or a woman"

The general tenor in the Berlin ranks: The performance was right, the result wasn't. Christopher Trimmel definitely recognized the effect of the change of coach. "There's new energy on the pitch. When you try to shoot on goal 26 times, you do a lot of things right. The manner was really good today," said the Austrian.

However, the fact that he is now being coached by a woman makes just as little difference to him as it does to his team-mate Ilyas Ansah. "Marie-Louise Eta is my coach and before that I had a coach. And I don't really care whether it's a man or a woman. That doesn't change the way I approach the game," explained the striker, who had previously missed numerous chances and was visibly unhappy with his performance.

Defender Derrick Köhn spoke of a "very good" chemistry between Eta and the team. "We found each other quickly. We feel very comfortable with her. We're now trying to prepare for Leipzig and give her gifts there."