The rain came on the last day. As head coach Thomas Schaaf began the final training session Friday morning, raindrops began to fall ceaselessly. Time to go. Time for departure. The training camp in Belek has...
The rain came on the last day. As head coach Thomas Schaaf began the final training session Friday morning, raindrops began to fall ceaselessly. Time to go. Time for departure. The training camp in Belek has...
The rain came on the last day. As head coach Thomas Schaaf began the final training session Friday morning, raindrops began to fall ceaselessly. Time to go. Time for departure. The training camp in Belek has drawn to a close. After lunch, the team was transferred to the Antalya airport and left at 3:15 p.m. with destination Bremen.
Aboard the plane were a team of Werder players looking forward to the homeland after the heavy workload of the past few days. Clemens Fritz was just one player who was less than melancholy about leaving. "It's not like I absolutely have to stay here. We did have optimal conditions. But this was just a training camp."
Three training sessions nearly every day wore out just about every Werder player. But each of them knows exactly that they will benefit for their work in the coming weeks and months. "From the outside, most people will just look at the test match results. But honestly, for me, they are not that important. The focus of us players was more on the training grounds. You wanted to give your all every day for the coach," said Fritz. "Even I played three games in six days here. And in the end you lack some of the energy. But this is preparing us for the second half and not the current moment."
There will be a short break the coming days before things return to full steam on Monday. There will be a light training session this afternoon to get things back into swing after the trip. Then afterwards the players have off until Monday. But the Green-Whites don't want to take too long of a break. "We have to concentrate fully and work towards the start against Dortmund. It will be extremely important to win there," said Per Mertesacker. And Clemens Fritz added: "There is not a lot of time left until then. We really have to remain concentrated now and keep working so that we can leave the pitch against BVB as winners."
