Twelve months have flown by – with highs and lows, celebrations and disappointments, departures and reunions. 2009 was like no other year. It’s not easy to keep...
Twelve months have flown by – with highs and lows, celebrations and disappointments, departures and reunions. 2009 was like no other year. It’s not easy to keep...
Twelve months have flown by – with highs and lows, celebrations and disappointments, departures and reunions. 2009 was like no other year. It’s not easy to keep everything straight. That’s why WERDER.DE has put together a Green-White flashback for the end of the year. Werder 2009 from A to Z – to remember and smile. Today: Part 1 – A to D:
Away victories: From March 2005 to September 2009, the Green-Whites played 16 German Cup matches (plus the 2009 final) and only two of them at home. Last season there were only away contests in the cup but in the end there was a happy end. Whether it was Nordhorn, Aue, Dortmund, the eventual Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg or the dramatic semi-final victory over Hamburg in penalties, the Green-Whites had to travel away for all five games and each time came away winners on their way to the final in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. And then in the German Cup final, Mesut Özil’s goal in the 58th minute gave Werder the 1-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen.
"Bafana bafana": On 11 June 2010, South Africa will kick off the 19th World Cup in the opening match against Mexico. "Bafana bafana" – "the guys" – is the nickname for the South African team by their supporters, who have high hopes at the World Cup with Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira as head coach. Daniel Jensen (with Denmark), Per Mertesacker, Mesut Özil, Marko Marin, Aaron Hunt and Tim Wiese (all with Germany), Hugo Almeida (with Portugal) and Naldo (with Brazil) have also qualified for the World Cup in South Africa.
"Clos du Griffier": Recently the oldest and most expensive bottle of cognac in the world – the "Clos du Griffier (fine Champagne)" – was bought in an auction for 25,000 euro. The birth of the cognac dates back to 1788. And since then, the irreplaceable treasure has been preserved in the exquisite wine cellar of the Parisian restaurant La Tour d'Argent. The Mannheim native Thomas Schaaf has called Werder Bremen home not quite as long as that – "only" since 1972. Schaaf has been among the Bremen ranks as a young talent and professional as well as a coach (since 1999), giving the Bundesliga his distinguished style and becoming one of Germany’s top coaches. On 14 December 2009, Schaaf prematurely extended his contract with Werder for two years until 2012.
Defensive: "You can tell that the team enjoys keeping a clean sheet," Werder manager Klaus Allofs told journalists in Fall 2009. The game in Stuttgart had just finished with Werder winning 2-0 on the eighth game day of the current season. Bremen allowed just 16 goals in the entire first half of the Bundesliga season – fewer than in the entire past decade. The Green-Whites did not allow a goal in eight of their 17 Bundesliga matches. Keeper Tim Wiese also nearly broke Oliver Reck’s club record from the 1988-89 season for most minutes without giving up a goal. Wiese’s streak reached 619 minutes until Bochum’s Stanislav Sestak scored on the 29-year-old keeper – 22 minutes from setting the new club mark.
