Werder at the Euros – Round One

By: Brian | June 11th, 2008

There are more players in this tournament plying their trade in the Bundesliga than any other league. And Werder are supplying a large number of those, eight or nine, depending on whom you ask.

Portugal v. Turkey

Hugo Almeida had a wonderful view of this one, planted firmly to the Portuguese bench for the full 90. We’ll see him at some point during Austwitzerlandia as a change of pace forward, but not yet. Doesn’t help that Portugal play but one striker and he is typically utilized less than any other team in Europe. San Marino excluded.

Austria v. Croatia

This match up included three Werder players, one who is joining next season and one who is leaving. Although we did not see soon to be ex-player Ivan Klasnic, as he did not feature for Croatia, both Martin Harnik and Sebastian Prödl went the full 90 for European Giants Austria.

Harnik, firmly planted to the bench in Bremen showed well, especially as the match wore on. The early going was rough for Austria and Harnik saw little of the ball. There was just no offensive rhythm and service to the forwards was virtually non-existent. When he did get the ball at his feet, he showed a willingness to go at defenders, bit more often than not was easily dispossessed, looking short of ideas and unsure of what the plan was. A little casual. Despite being penciled into the lineup sheet as a forward, Harnik spent the majority of the match in the midfield, dropping back to pick up passes, turning and going at the defense. During the majority of the second half, he became virtually the entire offensive strategy for the Austrians, providing cross after cross from the deep corner. Many of these were quite dangerous and they resulted in exactly zero goals. Still our favorite Werder Austrian since Andreas Herzog.

Prödl was our Austrian Man of the Match for what it’s worth, which is exactly nothing. The big, athletic right back played well defensively, finding himself in proper position most of the time and doing well against the Croatian strikers. Especially important when playing with just a three man backline, and especially, especially important when one of the other three is Emanuel Pogatetz (side note – if there is a worse starter in this tournament we’ll be shocked. Shocked).

But where Prödl shined was in the offensive end of the pitch. He was often the target on set pieces and just missed on a header midway through the first half. He even threw in an ambitious forty yard shot to mix it up a bit. Prödl got up field again and again, repeatedly getting involved in the offensive third. He occasionally got a little too involved however and had a hard time finding his way back into the backline. In other words, the perfect Werder defender. Even the brilliant and insightful Tommy Smyth suggested that he “does get caught up field, it takes him a while to get back.” Can’t wait to have him at the Weser.

Germany v. Poland

Revelation of this match was the inspired start of Clemens Fritz on the right side of midfield. Midfield! And frankly he was mostly great. Hopefully Thomas Schaaf was watching and thinking about the possibilities. Set free of those pesky defensive responsibilities, Fritz was up and down the flank with abandon. He looked like he was having fun. Honestly, the deep positions he found himself in and the crosses he put into the box were really no different than what he does for Bremen, but he was able to do so with much greater frequency. He’s one of the best crossers in Germany, and he really should do it more often. He even cut inside a few times and provided cover to Lahm on his occasional runs. Getting subbed off at 55 minutes was a mistake, as Schweini was mush less effective when brought on.

Frings was his usual Teutonically effective self. Patrolled the midfield, cleaned up messes, played a ton of square balls and a few exploratory ones, took nice dead balls, linked up well with Ballack, and screamed at Klose and Schweini when they executed poorly and made a bad decision respectively.

Mertesacker was virtually invisible, which is exactly what you want out of your center back. Showed nice mobility, and other than some early communication issues with Lehman and Metzelder, had a solid outing.

Sweden v. Greece

Markus Rosenberg was rather surprisingly brought on in the 78th minute for the injured midfielder Wilhelmsson. Considering the Swedes had the lead at that point and Markus is buried on the depth chart, his inclusion was unexecpted. He linked up well with his teammates, but really didn’t have too much of a chance to get into the match. A horribly, horribly dull, life sucking match. The sooner the Greeks are out of this tournament, the better.

On to Round Two.