November 10, 2009: The Bundesliga and the Nationalmannschaft lost an extremely talented player. His family and friends have suffered a great loss. My thoughts are with them.

I was, of course, keeping a keen eye on the Green-Whites thanks to the Europa League match updates. The match report states that Austria Wien were the superior side for much of the match, but finally the breakthrough was had – Borowski and Almeida (welcome back, Hugo!) scored within minutes of each other with less than 10 minutes to go in the match. We apparently very much missed Pizarro leading the attack, but despite missing his presence, it is nice to see we could pull out the win against determined opposition.

I hadn’t looked at Schaaf’s squad list or even the substitutes bench, so when the update said Almeida was subbed in, I was quite excited to see that he was back. Even better, he scored a goal on his return from injury. That’s sadly more than Rosenberg has done in his sub appearances over the past couple months.

And, with the win against Austria Wien, we have qualified for the Round of 32. The three points helped us leapfrog over Athletic Bilbao, who salvaged a draw with Nacional. We have two more matches in the group stage, and then the next round begins in February.

Highlights:

In other news, Werder have drawn Hoffenheim at home in the quarterfinals of the DFB-Pokal. Most news reports I read were talking about how we have to take on “in-form Hoffenheim”. So, are we not in-form? Did we not just beat Hoffenheim a few weeks ago? Sure, it’s a Pokal match and it can go either way. But don’t start big-upping Hoffenheim just because they won this past weekend. Besides, the next round isn’t until February, so either team could crash and burn by then. I mean, Bayern’s strikers might even learn to score goals by then. It’s a long way off.

And finally, our captain Torsten Frings will be out for an unspecified amount of time after picking up an injury during the draw with Nuremberg. All Schaaf will say is that he will miss “some time”… which doesn’t exactly sound too encouraging. With Frings out, Pizarro still a doubt, and our #2 and possible #3 (Almeida and Moreno) strikers both likely still injured (and Oehrl is also definitely out), things may not look too bright for taking on Austria Wien on Thursday or Dortmund this weekend. Hopefully we can pass both tests on the strength of our goal-scoring midfielders (and maybe Rosenberg can finally find his form), and then there will be plenty of time for players to recover over the international break.

Alas, Aaron Hunt decided to step up and pulled back two goals for Werder, waiting until the last minute to snag the second and earn Werder a draw. One point which sent us top of the league on goal difference – at least until the Schalke vs. Leverkusen match was over (another one where one team led 2-0 and blew it). With Bayer emerging with a point, they go top of the Bundesliga and we shuffle down to second – still, not bad!

We were without the services of most of our strikers – Pizarro was still out, and Moreno and Oehrl joined him in treatment. Almeida has returned to training but isn’t fit to play yet. So Rosenberg started the match. As much as I would like to see him score, I’m not exactly surprised that he didn’t. I hope he at least played well.

I was not able to see the match due to a patchy internet connection, so I can’t talk about how Werder actually played. Although I am due to mention the Pokal match and how fantastic Werder’s attacking play can be. Even missing our most potent striker, Claudio Pizarro, we managed to stroll past Kaiserslautern 3-0. All headers, too. It really is a joy especially to watch Hunt, Özil and Marin pass and flick the ball between them. And we were sending some marvelous crosses into the box. And Marko takes some beautiful corner kicks. With those three running riot around the pitch, we rely a bit less on our fullbacks to provide some attacking play, which lets them focus a bit more on defense.

Moving ahead, the draw for the quarterfinal of the DFB-Pokal will be tomorrow.

Werder Bremen will be hosting Leverkusen’s slayers, Kaiserslautern, at the Weserstadion tomorrow. The second division side upset the 2009 Pokal runners-up 2-1 in the previous round. And with the massive upsets in the Pokal so far, they’ll be looking to bring down another Bundesliga side in the Green-Whites.

The really, really awful news? Pizarro is out with a bruised ankle. Oh dear. The good news? We still have plenty of attacking threat, with both Hunt and Özil (and Naldo) in good goalscoring form. Marin is creating great chances. We also have the benefit of being the home side.

So who will start in Pizarro’s place? Looks to be either Rosenberg or Moreno. On Moreno’s last run out, I thought he looked promising. Rosenberg – well, I honestly haven’t seen much from him in the sub appearances he’s made, but I would like to see what he can do working with Marko.

Let’s please keep up the good form and defend that trophy, boys. Don’t become the next victims of the rampant giant-killers.

Second, well done Werder, for being the only team in the top four to pull of a rather emphatic win. It figures that our impressive run of clean sheets would be broken by a team in the relegation zone rather than a Hoffenheim or a Leverkusen. And only thirty seconds into the match. Woe. Tim Wiese must be furious at being so close to that clean sheet record only to have Sestak rip it away from him (and indeed he was, according to the Bremen website). But losing their extended clean sheet must have been the impetus for Werder – they were so mad that they proceeded to smash four past Bochum. Hunt and young Marko in the first half, Borowski in the second, and Özil finishing Bochum off into injury time. 4-1 to the Green-Whites.

Three vital points and, considering the other top four teams only managed draws, we have snuck in above Schalke (hooray!) and sit merely one point behind joint leaders Hamburg and Leverkusen.

So, is it too soon to be asking what our title chances might be like? The Green-Whites have certainly been convincing me lately that they would be up for the fight, but I’m not going to sing it from the mountaintops just yet. Last season is always the stark reminder of how different a team can be during the autumn and into the spring. Hoffenheim were Herbstmeister, then proceeded into an absolute freefall after the mid-season break. Meanwhile, Wolfsburg seemingly came out of nowhere during the spring to demolish opponents (sadly, Werder included), rocket up the league, and claim the championship trophy.

So I doubt I will be content to argue Werder’s claim to the title, basically, until we win it. The Bundesliga is as tight as ever. I don’t think anyone will be galloping away with the title – it will be close like it was last season. And I’m very much looking forward to seeing what happens. Unless Bayern or Schalke win. Then I’ll be mad.

Werder remain at the top of Group L with 7 points, but Athletic Bilbao are hot on our heels after winning against Nacional and taking their total so far to 6 points.

So, a tale of two Werders. In the Bundesliga, Werder have managed to sort out their defense for the time being and have kept a marvelous five clean sheets in a row – and not just against bottom-of-the-table clubs. Meanwhile, in the Europa League, it’s the usual Werder performance people have come to expect of us after the past couple seasons. We can bang in the goals and look set for a convincing win, only to drop points due to defensive lapses. We got away with it against Athletic (which was a great match) and Nacional so far, but not today!

We’re still in a good position to at least qualify for the round of 32 – barring any seriously horrible mishaps in our remaining European matches. Oh dear, I hope I didn’t just jinx us.

Then, after dominating Hoffenheim, the Werder team headed to the Bremen Freimarkt folk festival for a bit of singing and presenting the new players to the crowd:

(photo taken from the Werder Bremen website)

…. you know, minus the whole shirtless, Speedo-wearing, sword-carrying, saving-the-universe thing. For some reason, his bouncing and dancing about before saving Eduardo’s penalty reminded me of He-Man. Well saved and well defended once again today, Green-Whites.

Holy crap, you guys! ANOTHER clean sheet! Have we shocked all the other Bundesliga fans yet?

Last season, this fixture ended in an epic 5-4 scoreline in favor of the Green-Whites. It was quite the Werderesque performance – knocking goals in for fun, leading Hoffenheim 4-1, then giving up three goals to give Hoffenheim the hope of emerging with a draw or perhaps stealing the win. Then our golden boy Özil struck the final goal, giving three points to the home boys. It was only one of two wins in a dismal opening couple of months in the 08/09 season.

Hoffenheim are currently only one point behind us in the Bundesliga table, so once again they can’t be taken lightly. I’m always more nervous after a long international break – hopefully everyone can fall back into the swing of things quickly, and we can once again celebrate three points at home.