Werder at the Euros – Rounds 2 and 3

By: Brian | June 17th, 2008

Is there such a thing as too much football? The proposition of two matches a day seemed like a gift from the Gods a mere month ago. Now we’re having a harder and harder time choking down the glut of beautiful games being beamed to us at home. And, to paraphrase Homer Simpson, the drudgery of work and family has us watching matches well into the wee hours of the morning.

So how are the green-whites faring as they represent their countries?

Young Hugo Almeida has seen a bit of action, about what the Werder Offside had imagined. His case has been helped by the fact that the Portuguese were the class of their group and one of the new favorites to win this thing. He saw a brief ten minutes of action in the 3-1 win over the poor Czechs, but produced nothing of real note. Made the highlights as the first person to congratulate RonRon on his lovely service to Quaresma for the stoppage time game clincher. Played the final fifteen in the throw-the-hosts-a-bone capitulation to the Swiss and…well…see the above, minus the bit about Ronaldo and the goal.

Perhaps no Bremen player is getting more out of this tournament than Martin Harnik. He has logged 247 minutes as the most dangerous attacking option for Austria, which is something akin to being the smartest blonde in a contest in which one screws in a light bulb, as the old cliché roughly goes. After spending the majority of the Croatia and Poland matches as a defacto forward, he dropped back into a more comfortable attacking midfield role for the Germany match. Essentially a microcosm of the entire Austrian effort this tournament, Martin showed a lot of grit, created a handful of decent scoring chances and didn’t finish a single one of them. The first quarter of the Poland match was especially telling, as he missed two golden chances that an older/more skilled/more experienced player would have put away. Against Germany, he contributed little on the rightside of midfield and was subbed of 23 minutes from time. He is the front runner for the prestigious “Quote of the Euro” prize, however.

The other Werder Austrian youngster, Seb Prödl, also had a solid tournament. We don’t watch a lot of Austrian club football here at Werder Offside HQ, and by “don’t watch a lot” we mean “never seen any before, ever.” Needless to say this was our first real look at Prödl and expectations are quite high for the kid’s career in Bremen. Again, the typically solid Werder scouting network and an interest in developing young players has lead us to another potentially great project. He could be very, very good. Disappointingly got himself suspended for the Germany match with the two yellows, but still got a great experience in playing two full matches at a major senior international tournament. Plus, drew the penalty that tied Poland by placing a handful of his shirt into the mitts of Marcin Wasilewski and going down.

What to say about the German trio – Fritz, Mertesacker and Frings? Two wholly disappointing matches versus Croatia and Austria (despite the win) resulted in a lot of blame across the squad. Fritz couldn’t quite reproduce the form he showed in the Poland match, but still was relatively solid versus the Croatians and Austrians. He’s got tremendous energy, he plays for his teammates and creates enough chances to prevent himself from being dropped.

Mertesacker too has had a good tournament. He hasn’t made too many mistakes, although could be held partially accountable for Croatia’s second goal. Has been his usual dominant self in the air and made quite a few timely clearances in the box.

Other than Poldi, Frings has been the best player Germany has had in this tournament. Other than the Shot Heard ‘Round Vienna, Ballack has been conspicuous by his absence. Gomez has been utterly dreadful, even before The Miss. Lehman hasn’t instilled confidence. Schweini has been a bad, bad boy. Through everything, Torsten Frings has been himself. It’s not flashy or flamboyant, but completely necessary. Now, let’s hope that rib heals up in time.

Boro was on the pitch for around 35 seconds. Even with Sweinsteiger out, he can’t get a game.

Markus Rosenberg played the entire second half in the gutting loss to Spain, coming on for the injured Ibrahimovic. He got a good number of touches, but never really seemed to find his stride in the context of the game. Plus he went down a little too easy on two or three occasions with his back to goal for our liking. Still has the penultimate match versus Russia tomorrow.

And finally, Ivan Klasnic played 74 minutes and scored the game winner versus Poland, punctuating his comeback from two kidney transplants. We may be completely gutted that he has decided to leave, but the Werder Offside would like to officially wish him the best of luck wherever he lands (Old Firm?) and tell him that we couldn’t be prouder.