BERLIN (AP) — Marie-Louise Eta was in little mood for celebrating after making her debut as the first female coach in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Eta was feted by the Union Berlin fans before the game, but the team was unable to live up to the sense of occasion as it slumped to a 2-1 defeat at home to Wolfsburg, which was previously winless in 12 games.
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New head coach of German Bundesliga soccer club 1. FC Union Berlin Marie-Louise Eta reacts during the German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Union Berlin and Wolfsburg in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
New head coach of German Bundesliga soccer club 1. FC Union Berlin Marie-Louise Eta looks on during the warm up prior to the German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Union Berlin and Wolfsburg in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
New head coach of German Bundesliga soccer club 1. FC Union Berlin Marie-Louise Eta reacts during the German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Union Berlin and Wolfsburg in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
New head coach of German Bundesliga soccer club 1. FC Union Berlin Marie-Louise Eta looks on during the warm up prior to the German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Union Berlin and Wolfsburg in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
New head coach of German Bundesliga soccer club 1. FC Union Berlin Marie-Louise Eta looks on during the warm up prior to the German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Union Berlin and Wolfsburg in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Eta had spoken before the match of just wanting to get on with the job, deflecting attention from her own barrier-breaking achievements, and focusing instead on her task of securing Bundesliga survival for Union.
She was appointed as interim coach with five games to go before the end of the season. Now it’s four, and Union is a point closer to the relegation zone, just six points away, despite dominating toward the end against Wolfsburg.
“First of all, of course I’m disappointed that we lost this game. But I’m very happy with how we approached it today, with the lads’ performance," Eta said. "We talked about a lot of things this week. We also saw the lads training with good energy, with great conviction, and we implemented the plan we’d developed over the past few days very well today.”
Her team missed a host of good chances, with Wolfsburg goalkeeper Kamil Grabara proving to be the decisive figure, while lapses at the back allowed Patrick Wimmer and Dženan Pejčinović to score early in each half for the visitors.
“Today it was simply about focusing on the essentials. In the end, it was about football, and I was really looking forward to playing this Bundesliga match here," Eta said. "Ultimately, it’s bitter and disappointing that we’re leaving here without any points.”
The 34-year-old Eta became the first female coach across the top divisions of the “big five” European leagues in men’s soccer, but she didn’t dwell at all on her achievement.
Before the game, Union fans greeted each player’s name during the lineup announcement with a roar of “Fussballgott!” (football-god), and there were cheers and applause when it came to announcing the coach’s name.
“Fussballgottin!” the fans roared — football-goddess.
Eta previously became the first female assistant coach in the men’s Bundesliga in 2023, also at Union, and had been coaching the under-19 men’s team at the club, where she’s affectionately known as Louie.
She made four changes to the team that lost at bottom side Heidenheim the weekend before, bringing back Union veteran Christopher Trimmel.
“For Louie, of course it’s difficult to impose all the new things in just three or four days so everything can be implemented immediately. That’s perfectly understandable. It would have been difficult for any coach, and yet we still managed to execute a solid match plan well. A lot of things worked out,” Trimmel said. “I’m staying positive.”
Union next faces Champions League-chasing Leipzig away, then relegation-rival Cologne at home. It will face former coach Urs Fischer – who led the team to promotion in 2019 – at Mainz, before ending the season at home against Augsburg on May 16.
“We clicked quickly,” Union defender Derrick Köhn of Eta’s impact as head coach. “She shared her game plan with us, and we implemented what she gave us. There’s not too much new, so we feel very, very comfortable with her. We tried, especially today, to give her the win as a present, but unfortunately, we didn’t succeed. As I said, we’ll move on. We’ll try to analyze this and then prepare for Leipzig and try to give her her present there.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
New head coach of German Bundesliga soccer club 1. FC Union Berlin Marie-Louise Eta reacts during the German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Union Berlin and Wolfsburg in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
New head coach of German Bundesliga soccer club 1. FC Union Berlin Marie-Louise Eta looks on during the warm up prior to the German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Union Berlin and Wolfsburg in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
New head coach of German Bundesliga soccer club 1. FC Union Berlin Marie-Louise Eta reacts during the German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Union Berlin and Wolfsburg in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
New head coach of German Bundesliga soccer club 1. FC Union Berlin Marie-Louise Eta looks on during the warm up prior to the German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Union Berlin and Wolfsburg in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
New head coach of German Bundesliga soccer club 1. FC Union Berlin Marie-Louise Eta looks on during the warm up prior to the German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Union Berlin and Wolfsburg in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Progressive leaders from around the globe gathered in Barcelona on Saturday to try and galvanize their forces and defend the multilateral rules-based order in a world turning to the right and violently torn by superpowers.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, an outspoken critic of U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, hosted two overlapping events about democracy and progressive politics in Spain’s second-largest city.
Democrats U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz were both present alongside the leaders of Brazil, South Africa and high-ranking officials from other left-leaning governments.
While no foreign leader criticized Trump by name in public, the staunchly unilateral position of the American president that breaks with decades of U.S. foreign policy, including his derision of NATO and the United Nations, hung over the meetings.
“We all see the attacks against the multilateral system, the repeated attempts to undermine international law and the dangerous normalization of the use of force,” Sánchez said.
Trump again lashed out on Saturday on social media at Sánchez, who has faced Trump’s scorn for not allowing the U.S. to use jointly operated military bases in Spain for operations related to the Iran war and for refusing to raise military spending from 2% to 5% of GDP.
“Has anybody looked at how badly the country of Spain is doing. Their financial numbers, despite contributing almost nothing to NATO and their military defense, are absolutely horrendous. Sad to watch!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Spain, like the U.S. and other developed countries, is in debt, but it has one of the world’s leading economies under Sánchez.
Sánchez told the rally of progressive politicians and party members held later on Saturday that the populist right “screams and shouts not because they are winning but because they know their time is running out.
“They know their vision of how the world should be ordered is falling apart due to the tariffs and wars,” he said. “Their embrace of climate change denial, of xenophobia, or sexism is their greatest error.
“They have tried again and again to make us embarrassed of our beliefs. That ends now. From now on they can be the ones who feel ashamed.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and other leaders and officials, including Cabinet members from the United Kingdom and Germany, were in attendance at the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy that kicked off Saturday's double-header of political events at the Barcelona convention center.
Later in the day, Sánchez, Lula and Ramaphosa stayed put to attend the inaugural Global Progressive Mobilization, where some 6,000 left-leaning elected officials, policy analysts and activists exchanged ideas.
“The far right is international, so we must be too,” German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told a crowd of activists.
Sen. Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, spoke at the progressive rally and he didn’t shy away from blasting Trump while celebrating the loss of power of Trump's ally Viktor Orbán in elections in Hungary last week.
“Donald Trump is out to end our democracy,” Murphy said. “We are not on the verge of a totalitarian takeover, we are in the middle of it.”
But, he said, “Americans are watching what is happening across the world, and the victory in Hungary just one week ago lifted our sails.”
Walz, Kamala Harris' vice presidential candidate who has faced a violent ICE migration crackdown in Minnesota, threw barbs at U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who campaigned for Orbán and has backed far-right parties in Europe.
“Unlike our current vice president, I’m not here to arrogantly lecture or scold you, I am not here to pick a fight with the Pope or host a rally for any local wannabe authoritarians,” Walz said.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders all sent video messages played at the rally.
Among concrete proposals to come from the events, Ramaphosa said South Africa will present a draft resolution to establish an International Panel on Inequality, aiming to tackle the growing wealth gap both within and between nations, to the U.N. General Assembly in September.
Sheinbaum plugged her idea that governments commit to spending the equivalent of 10% of their military budgets on reforestation projects.
“Each year, instead of planting the seeds of war, we will plant the seeds of life,” she said.
Sánchez argued for the importance of regulating social media to stop the spread of hate speech and disinformation. His government also said that it is working with Lula's Brazil on a tax for the ultrarich.
Lula, who met with Sánchez in a bilateral summit on Friday in Barcelona, kept the focus on how to invigorate the progressive moment. He avoided naming Trump except when he called for U.N. Security Council members to “fulfill their obligation and guarantee peace.”
“Stop this madness of war because the world cannot bear any more wars,” Lula said.
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, left, reacts next to Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the end of the Global Progressive Mobilisation summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., delivers a speech at the Global Progressive Mobilisation summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, center, applauds as he poses with attendees at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit, in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, center, poses with attendees, at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, center, poses for a photo next to Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, and his wife wife Rosangela Lula da Silva, at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit, in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, right, greets Colombia's President Gustavo Petro at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, right, greets Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, center, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, center left, Colombia's President Gustavo Petro, second right, Uruguay's President Yamandu Orsi, left, and Chile's former President Gabriel Boric, right, attend the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
