Werder Bremen were successful in their penultimate pre-season friendly on Saturday, beating second division Hansa Rostock 2:0. Ivan Klasnic (51') and Tim Borowski (88') were on the mark to give the Green-Whites a well earned win.
Werder Bremen were successful in their penultimate pre-season friendly on Saturday, beating second division Hansa Rostock 2:0. Ivan Klasnic (51') and Tim Borowski (88') were on the mark to give the Green-Whites a well earned win.
Werder Bremen were successful in their penultimate pre-season friendly on Saturday, beating second division Hansa Rostock 2:0. Ivan Klasnic (51') and Tim Borowski (88') were on the mark to give the Green-Whites a well earned win.
The newly relegated Rostock side got off to the better start. After mere seconds Oumar Kondé got on the end of a Rydlewicz corner from the left when his marker Leon Andreasen slipped but the header never troubled Tim Wiese in the Werder goal.
Naldo makes his first start
The Green-Whites started with new signing Naldo in the back four alongside equally new boys Patrick Owomoyela, Leon Andreasen and Jelle van Damme. The Brazilian performed well in his first game in a Werder shirt and didn't appear to have any integrational problems. Tim Borowski took over the captaincy with trainer Thomas Schaaf choosing to rest club captain Frank Baumann as well as Johan Micoud, Torsten Frings and Petri Pasanen.
The first half of the game wasn't to produced that what those responsible at Werder had hoped for. While the newly formed back four had relatively little to do, a lack of ideas and drive in the midfield meant that Nelson Valdez and Mohamed Zidan were left with little chance to impress in attack.
The first effective movement forwards took until the 32nd minute thanks to Mohamed Zidan. Tim Borowski sent a long ball from the midfield toward Leon Andreasen who was brought down outside the box by Hansa keeper Mathias Schober. Referee Thorsten Schriever had no choice but to issue the keeper his marching orders. Rostocks subsequent angry protests were never going to change the decision and luckily for Hansa the resulting free-kick also failed to change the situation, Jelle van Damme blasting just wide of the mark.
Misery for Wiese, another cruciate tear?
At the other end, seven minutes later Werder were to have bigger problems and especially for Tim Wiese. The keeper came to punch a free-kick cross from Tim Sebastian clear, although the danger wasn't completely dealt with, René Rydlewicz' snap shot flew well clear of the Werder crossbar. To add to Wieses misery, the 23 year old keeper went down heavily on his knee in the goal mouth scramble and had to substituted with a possible second cruciate ligament tear.
Wiese was replaced by Andi Reinke who had nothing else to do in the first half. Thomas Schaaf made two more changes at half time bringing Ivan klasnic for Nelson Valdez and Frank Fahrenhorst for Leon Andreasen. Klasnic proved effective coming off the bench to score five mimnutes after his introduction when he foxed Kondé and fired with his left from 16 meters past Toreck in the Rostock goal - 1:0 for Werder.
It was definately a game that needed a goal with both sides stepping up a gear, Werder combining well and Rostock also playing more effectively. Two minutes after Werder took the lead, Rostocker Enrico Gaede should have equalised after a corner from Thomas Rasmussen was nodded on by Oumar Kondé but Aaron Hunt was on hand to clear off the line (53'). Werder had a number of half chances to increase their lead through Klasnic (63', 81') and Zidan (64') but nothing concrete. Andi Reinke was only called into action once when he saved well from Rade Prica after a cross from Thomas Rasmussen.
Werder finally managed to seal the tie two minutes from time when Tim Borowski played a clever one-two with Ivan Klasnic and slotted home from a tight angle to make the final score 2:0 for the Bundesliga hopefuls.
Johnnie Muldoon
FC Hansa Rostock: Schober - Lapazcinski (46' Stein), Kondé, Madsen (85' Pohl), Maul (63' Löw) - Rydlewicz (D. Rasmussen), Gaede (87' Shapourzadeh), Sebastian, T. Rasmussen (80' Arviddson) - Di Salvo (35' Keller), Schied (46' Prica)
Werder Bremen: Wiese (42' Reinke) - Owomoyela, Andreasen (46' Fahrenhorst), Naldo, van Damme - Lagerblom, Vranjes - Hunt, Borowski - Valdez (46' Klasnic), Zidan