Transfer News - The Exits
By: Brian |
1 Comment
The Exits
The 07/08 Bundesliga season has been in the can for a few weeks now and Bremen transfer rumors are beginning to trickle into the Werder Offside. First up, the exits.
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Category: Team News
The Greatest Day of the Year
By: Brian | 4 Comments
Forget who we are signing, who’s starting, or who we are playing and get to the truly important stuff.
What are we wearing?
We’re big kit fetishists here at the Werder Offside and generally get way too excited when we see newly designed shirts, shorts and socks rolled out to the public. We spend way to much of our time thinking about and critiquing the good, the bad and the surreal.
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Category: Team NewsSeason in Review – Grading the Goalkeepers
By: Brian | 3 Comments
The Werder Offside will be reviewing the season position by position, bestowing a letter grade upon each player who made a senior appearance. The grade will be the result of a complex formula incorporating passes completed, balls won, cards issued and our own personal whims.
Today we feature the goalkeepers. A fairly simple venture considering the list consists of two players, one of whom played 90% of the minutes in the entire season. Apparently the message wasn’t received by Tim Wiese to pick up a rash of injuries limiting his playing time and decreasing his fitness like virtually every other squad member. Read the rest of this entry »
Category: Team NewsOf Frings, Kids and Primates
By: Brian | 2 Comments
Frings + Two Good Knees = POTM
I have yet to find anyone who dislikes Torsten Frings. He’s played for some polarizing clubs, put in his share of hard tackles and sported a variety of questionable hairstyles, but seems to have almost universal respect throughout the league – players, coaches, referees, and fans alike. Think of him as the anti-Van Bommel.
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Category: Team NewsThe Crushing of Dreams and Expectations
By: Brian | 1 Comment
Citius, Altius, Fortius? Not so much.
Werder has followed in the steps of other clubs lucky enough to have this problem and denied Diego the opportunity to represent Brazil in the Olympics. Heading to Beijing would’ve meant no real time off to speak of, a lot of travel, increased chance of injury and (most importantly) his absence for the first two matches of the next Bundesliga season. All of this for the chance to win a shiny piece of medal to hang around one’s neck.
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Category: Team NewsA Day (Well, Two) at the Beach
By: Brian | 2 Comments
Two Werder Brazilians, two beaches, two hemispheres – a virtual tale of Good vs. Bad.
The Good
Brazilians will play on any surface won’t they? Favela back alleys, schoolyard dirt patches, whatever horrible pitch they’re on tomorrow in Moscow, and of course sand. Typically, the moment the curtain falls on the last match of season, professional footballers are on their way to Maldives to begin their holiday, especially with a summer jammed full of international fixtures. Diego made it as far as the pristine, sandy beaches of a lake near exotic Essen.
Team “Diego & Friends” ended the day 4:2 winners over the German National Beach Soccer Team. The whole endeavor was a fund raiser for the Gol Amigo project that Diego has supported for a number of years now, bringing aid to disadvantaged youth in Brazil. Included in the “& Friends” portion of the squad were Werder teammates Naldo, and Owo, in addition to Bundesliga Brazilians Dede, Rafinha, and Tinga. Also quite possibly present was best bud Robinho, no doubt chatting about joining forces on a team on a slightly larger scale than a sun drenched charity kick around.
Team Brazil was coached by none other than Thomas Schaaf, who would be the last person I could imagine directing a team of dynamic, effervescent, beach footballers. Well, maybe second to last after…say…Sam Allardyce. Kudos to Diego (and his compatriots) for bringing this kind of event to their adopted homeland. Not something we see all that much nowadays.
The Bad
Meanwhile near a beach halfway around the world, Carlos Alberto, of Werder club record transfer fee fame, was officially loaned to Botafogo for the next 13 months. A training ground bust up in Bremen was followed by a training ground bust up at Sao Paulo whilst on loan there. We’ll have more to say on this matter here at the Werder Offside in the future I’m sure, but the situation really can’t get any worse from this point out. Here’s hoping he doesn’t pummel a teenager outside a Rio McDonald’s.
Category: Team NewsThe Resurrection
By: Brian | 8 Comments
Greetings from the Werder Offside. We have indeed returned.
I have recently been granted the privilege of piloting this ship into the future, taking over for its previous captain, whose whereabouts are unknown to me.
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Category: Team NewsMerry Christmas
By: Arian | 1 Comment
Merry Christmas! Frohe Weihnachten!
Category: Team NewsUEFA Cup draw: Werder - Braga
By: Arian | 1 Comment
Werder will face SC Braga in the UEFA Cup. The first game will be played at Weserstadion either Wednesday, 13.02.2008 or Thursday, 14.02.2008. The return leg will be played on Thursday, 21.02.2008.
The winner of these two will face either Rangers or Panathinaikos.
Now I don’t know much about Braga. But one thing’s for sure, they’re not Real Madrid. Though they managed to get a draw against Bayern in the group phase.
They finished second. They had 1 win, 3 draws and none loses.
1 Bayern Munich
2 Braga
3 Bolton
4 Aris Salonika
5 Crvena Zvezda
Their last five game record (both UEFA and Portuguese League) : WDWWD
As I said they’re not Real but they can get tricky.
Looking back at the draw I realize it could have been worse. But this is a decent opponent. They’re not unbeatable. And a team like Werder would have big chances of winning them.
Category: Team NewsKlasnic is back… and so am I
By: Arian | 1 Comment
Firstly I apologize for my absence. Rough month.
Werder fans had a lot of reasons to be happy.
1. As you know Werder won 5:2 against Leverkusen.
2. Klasnic is back. And when I say back, I mean back. Doing what he does best, scoring goals. Thank God.
3. Bayern’s second in a row draw. Which makes us leveled with them at the standings.
Here can also be included the fact that the Winter break has started so the team can rest. They won’t have any major game ’till 03.02.2008 when they meet Bochum at home.
Bayern are Winter champions but only because of the better goal difference
Bayern Munich 36 pts + 23
Werder Bremen 36 pts + 18
Hamburg SV 32 pts + 11
Bayer Leverkusen 30 pts + 16
Schalke 04 29 pts + 9
Also we’re out of Champions League (which was expected after 3 or 4 fixtures) and we can totally focus on winning the Bundesliga.
Category: Team News
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