At this moment, for football fans in the Bochum district of Wattenscheid, memories of days gone by will be flooding back. In the run up to Saturday, 20.08.2005, when SG Wattenscheid take on Bundesliga giants Werder Bremen, the internet homepage of the Ruhr Valley side have turned the clocks back fifteen years.
Back then on 11.08.1990, SG Wattenscheid played their first home game in the Bundesliga against no other than Saturdays opponents Werder Bremen. A certain Thorsten Fink and Senegalese goal getter Sammy Sané both scored to het the home side off to a fantastic start in their four year long Bundesliga adventure.
Promoted Sides Flying Start
Those days are long since gone and in the meantime the club had slipped into non-league non-existance but clawed their way back and gained promotion last season to the Regional-League North (third division). So far, trainer Georg Kreß' men have held their own. Following a 4:0 first day drubbing at the hands of promotion candidate VfL Lübeck, Wattenscheid scored two wins against Dusseldorf (2:0) and Oberhausen (3:1) only to lose their fourth game unluckily against Wuppertal 2:1. Six points from four games sees them in eight place in the table.
The third division side sport a number of experienced players within their ranks, among them ex-Cologne and Borussia Dortmunder Karsten Baumann (261 Bundesliga games, 9 goals), striker Abdul Iyodo (four games for Schalke) and ex-Bremen man Lars Toborg, who was trained by Thomas Schaaf in his youth team.
Enough reason for Werder to take their opponents seriously. General manager Klaus Allofs is sure: "Wattenscheid will go into the game with much enthusiasm, it's the high point of their season." 8,000 fans are expected to fill the Lohrheid Stadium, 1,000 of which Werder supporters. Allofs though has no fear of an up-set: "We are preparing for this tie with as much intensity as for any Bundesliga game. In the past we've always managed to master such hurdles."
Trainer Thomas Schaaf leaves no doubt as to what he expects from his side this weekend: "We must be highly concentrated and summon everything we've got." The coach has no intentions of "Resting" first team players before next Wednesdays vital Champions League showdown with Basel: "My best side will be on the pitch."
Baumann returns - Klose, Micoud and Zidan questionable
Doubtful for Saturdays match are Miroslav Klose, who suffered a dead leg in Wednesday international against Holland, Johan Micoud (knee ligament strain) and Mohamed Zidan (infection in big toe). On the bright side, captain Frank Baumann is expected to return to the squad after recovering from a thigh problem.
Klaus Allofs made clear that the DFB-Cup has momentarily top priority: "It's the most important because it's the next game. There will be no experiments, we intend to follow the road we've taken in recent years in the DFB-Cup." That means that the road to Berlin will start by passing through Wattenscheid.