The first weekend of pre-season preparations has ended now for the Werder Bremen players. Trainer Thomas Schaaf summoned his troops together, which again included some of the talented youngsters from the U23 reserve side, on Sunday morning at the training pitch. One of those to make an immediate impact was new signing Said Huseinovic: “Today it was clear to see the sort of qualities he possesses in one-on-one situations. The fact that he seeks the direct route to goal is one of his strengths. It’s a bit early yet to say too much about him but he gets involved and is determined to gain a foothold here,” summed up Schaaf.
The attacking specialist from Bosnia-Herzegovina has had no problems so far vanquishing the language barrier: “He’s been getting some translating done by Jurica Vranjes but even without him, it’s not so complicated. The gestures and signs in football are international,” explained Schaaf.
Also internationally known are the contents of a complete pre-season training schedule. Therefore, it surely came as no surprise to any of the players that the first week of pre-season training includes some pretty intensive running, such as that which was on the schedule on Saturday morning. The players had some laps of ‘Bürgerpark’ to go through: “We certainly covered all of ten kilometres and the temperature wasn’t exactly cooling,” remarked a rather exhausted goalkeeper Tim Wiese later. And the next few days won’t be any easier!