On Saturday, 26.11.2005, Werder Bremen must make the trip to the Veltins-Arena to face FC Schalke 04 for the fouth time in this calender year with Werder having a less than successful record there. At the beginning of the year, on the 18th match day of the last season, Werder lost 2:1 in Gelsenkirchen. In April, Werder made the journey back to the Weser again empty handed after a 6:7 penalty shoot out defeat in the DFB Cup semi final before being beaten again at the Arena AufSchalke, again 2:1, this time in the League Cup.
To add misery to the Bremen sides bad record at Schalke this year are the heaped injury worries for coach Thomas Schaaf. The much feared K&K strike force of Klose and Klasnic is out of action, as is super sub Nelson Valdez leaving the Werder coach with a distinct offensive problem after the midweek Champions League defeat by FC Barcelona: "The loss of Miro reduces our tactical and personnel possibilities even more", but added "On the other hand this gives us the opportunity to prove that we are up to the challenge."
In Gelsenkirchen, the Green-Whites will have to take on the current fourth placed side in the Bundesliga. The Ruhr Valley club have only lost one match so far this season when they were beaten 1:0 by Hamburg SV. Otherwise Schalke have won five and drawn the other seven games.
Despite having a much weakened side, the Werder coach is not overly concerned about the task ahead. "We'll be putting out a strong side to face Schalke and despite out squad limitations, stick to our philosophy of playing attacking football. Everyone has seen of late that our midfield and defence are also capable of scoring.
Contrary to Werder, the Royal-Blues go into the tie on the back of a Champions League win after sending PSV Eindhoven back to Holland with a 3:0 demolition - Thomas Schaaf though doesn't believe this result will have any baring on Saturdays tie. "I don't think that Schalkes Champions League win will have any effect on Saturdays game. As always it'll be an interesting and heavily contested match which will please the spectators."
As in Barcelona, around 5,500 Werder fans are expected to make the journey. Captain Frank Baumann is not expecting the game to be a particularly easy one: "Schalke have proven recently that they are capable of providing a top performance against the top teams and will demand a lot from us on Saturday. A win on Saturday could help us maintain or even improve our position in the table
which will be important when it comes down to securing Champions League places. Trainer Thomas Schaaf also want to pick up where his side left off against VfL Wolfsburg last week (6:1): "We want to improve our position in the table. AufSchalke, as everywhere, we want to be successful and take points."
Curiously for the meeting of the second placed and fourth placed teams in the Bundesliga - the leagues most dangerous strike force meets one of the leagues least dangerous. Schalke have scored only 16 goals so far this season - only three sides have scored less. The defence on the other hand is more positive having conceaded more goals than only HSV - a total of six goals against.
The home side can look forward to the return of goalkeeper Frank Rost who returns from injury having missed the Champions League match on Wednesday against PSV Eindhoven. Defender Christian Poulsen will have the sit out the game having picked up his fifth yellow card of the season.
Werder expect a reunion with ex colleague Fabian Ernst who was still part of the Werder side just a few months ago. Thomas Schaaf commented on the development of Ernst: "He had it tough of late but is returning to form and beginning to display the performances we know from him of old." Ernst's team-mate Levan Kobiashvili hopes to repeat the form he showed in the Champions League on Wednesday when he scored a hat-trick.
Johnnie Muldoon