So far 8,000 fans have booked their places for Tuesday evenings DFB Cup clash at the Weser Stadium between the Werder Bremen U23 reserves and Hamburg’s cult club FC St. Pauli.
So far 8,000 fans have booked their places for Tuesday evenings DFB Cup clash at the Weser Stadium between the Werder Bremen U23 reserves and Hamburg’s cult club FC St. Pauli.
So far 8,000 fans have booked their places for Tuesday evenings DFB Cup clash at the Weser Stadium between the Werder Bremen U23 reserves and Hamburg’s cult club FC St. Pauli. Three quarters of the tickets changed hands in Hamburg but all things could change before kick-off. On Monday evening the announcement was made taht Ivan Klasnic is expected to make his return to professional football in this game and all going well, the striker could well be in the starting eleven to take the pitch at 7pm. Both Werder coach Thomas Schaaf and reserve trainer Thomas Wolter announced their plan together on Monday and it was news that many a Werder fan has been waiting many months to hear.
Klasnic completed the Monday afternoon training session with the Regionalliga side and afterwards was given the green light by those in charge. “So long as nothing changes in the meantime, he will play tomorrow. Tomorow we will continue the work we have been doing from day one. We are thinking only from day to day. We have been slowly but surely raising the intensity and work rate. We had some very positive feedback from last weeks friendly so tomorrow he will take his place in the starting eleven. I’ll watch the match too”, said Thomas Schaaf.
The striker, who has been tirelessly working on his return to the game after a kidney transplant in March, is not about to be put under pressure, despite the positive developments. The front man still has some details to discuss with his doctor: “Of course I’d be delighted to be able to play against St. Pauli but beforehand I must clear some details with my doctor concerning my eligibility to play. He will give the yeah or nay. We’ll see whether or not I can play.” The Croatian is confident that he will play on Tuesday evening. The fact that the game is against his ex-club St. Pauli doesn’t at all perturb him: “I’ve been working on making my comeback for eleven months now. St. Pauli is in my heart but I can’t change the fact that the game is against them of all teams.”
More important for Klasnic is the success of the Werder reserves: “I have been heartily welcomed into the team and don’t want to cause any trouble now with my presence. I don’t want any preferences being made. The most important thing is that we work as a unit and progress to the next round of the competition. Everyone in the team is happy for me and are supporting me in my return and I’m very thankful for that”, admitted the Croat. Team mate Sandro Stallbaum confirmed: “Ivan is a super footballer and helps alone with his presence on the pitch. He’s an important motivator.”
His first team colleagues are also watching the return of their team mate with a great deal of interest. Defender Per Mertesacker is delighted that the time has finally come: “He was fully there from the very first moment and left a good impression behind in training. Most important is that he hasn’t lost his coolness in front of goal. He made it very clear before he returned that he didn’t want to be given any special treatment in training and we all agreed to that. He is a player with vision and he knows exactly how much he needs to do before he strikes on goal. The whole team will be delighted for him if he plays tomorrow. We know it’s almost a miracle.”
There is a lot of creative work ahead for coach Thomas Wolter, who will also have Kevin Schindler and Martin Harnik as players with Bundesliga experience in his team for the cup clash: “I still have a lot of work to do but that’s a luxury problem. Clear is that Ivan will be in from the start. Why should we wait for something to happen. We want to assist him in getting back to his former strength and he can help us to go a round further in the cup.”
Wolter made the sporting importance of the game very clear: “I know that the involvement of Ivan is something of a sensation but it needs to be clear that this is a reserve team match and we want to cause the next cup up-set”, explained Wolter who expects to see quite a mixture of football fans converge on the Weser Stadium on Tuesday evening: “We will surely have at least 7,000 or 8,000 fans from Hamburg at the game. It would be very nice if the Bremen public gave us and Ivan Klasnic their support.”
Johnnie Muldoon
