The Werder Bremen players had to patiently wait a full eight days before they got to play their first pre-season friendly match. For some of those involved, the game against Ottersberg wasn’t just the first game ahead of the new season, it was the very first game for the Green-Whites. “It’s a good feeling to finally be pulling on the Green-White jersey,” said new signing Sebastian Prödl before setting off for Otterberg. On the day, the club from Lower Saxony was the one in green and white whilst Werder presented themselves, for the first time, in their new ‘Event’ kit.
For Prödl, the sporting issues were at the forefront. The Austrian defender, along with Marc Heider, was one of only two Werder players to play the full 90 minutes. After the final whistle he commented: “That was quite ok. Despite an energy sapping week of training we put on a good performance.” On the goal that Werder conceded, the striker commented: “The goal against us was annoying. In the championship we can’t allow things like that to happen.”
General manager Klaus Allofs noted: “It was quite a decent game, with plenty of goals. More importantly though, it was good to get close to the fans and great that so many came.” 6,000 in total – Werder last played in Ottersberg two years ago in front of just 3,000. Goal-scorer Daniel Jensen, who was one of eight players substituted at the half-way mark, used his time well, signing autographs and chatting with the fans: “We trained really hard and you could feel that after 20 minutes,” admitted the Dane with a wink of the eye. Frank Baumann stated: “That’s all part of it and is an element of every training session. It’s an important part of training because you get into the playing mode.”