Back in August when the season kicked-off, VfL Wolfsburg suffered a five match run of dissatisfying results. Three draws against Berlin, Frankfurt and Leverkusen were followed by two defeats by Hanover and Schalke...
Back in August when the season kicked-off, VfL Wolfsburg suffered a five match run of dissatisfying results. Three draws against Berlin, Frankfurt and Leverkusen were followed by two defeats by Hanover and Schalke...
Back in August when the season kicked-off, VfL Wolfsburg suffered a five match run of dissatisfying results. Three draws against Berlin, Frankfurt and Leverkusen were followed by two defeats by Hanover and Schalke before notching up their first three pointer with a 1:0 win against Bayern Munich. This coming Sunday (17.12 kick-off at 5pm), VfL pay league leaders Werder Bremen a visit and Werder intend to stay at the top over the Christmas holidays. “Wolfsburg are a team who are difficult to calculate”, explained Christian Schulz, looking back on a dodgy season for Sundays opponents. What makes VfL so difficult to reckon with is probably well summed up by the stunning results of the last five games, another three draws (Cottbus, Bielefeld and Nuremberg), followed by two defeats (Dortmund and Aachen).
This parallel is no more than an interesting statistic but Werder should be warned. In this league, and particularly with this opponent, anything is possible. Prior to the two defeats in Dortmund and Aachen, VfL had been on a seven match unbeaten run. Yet more noticeable, the current Bundesliga 12th placed side share the miserable record as having scored the least goals in the league with bottom club Mainz. On the other hand they do support the best defence in the top flight of German football. Keeper Simon Jentzsch has only had to pluck the ball out of his net fourteen times this season and has kept a clean sheet in seven of the sixteen games he has played so far. “That will definitely not be an easy task to try and find a way through their tightly packed defence. We are really going to have to put them under pressure”, commented coach Thomas Schaaf.
Sunday sees the clash of the leagues two extremes. Werder are well known for their optimistic attacking football and of course for scoring goals, which they have done decidedly more often than any other club in the league. For that reason the opponents have nothing but respect for the Green-Whites: “Bremen are the best team in the league”, remarked Wolfsburg captain Kevin Hofland and followed up by saying: “We certainly won’t allow them to hammer us off the pitch!”. Tom van der Leegte, who will have the thankless task of trying still the attacking force of Diego. “I hope I don’t have to do it alone. Just one person cannot stop Diego”, admitted the tricky number 10.
For Werders playmaker and his colleagues, Sunday is all about putting on a strong performance in the opinion of Thomas Schaaf.: “We want to finish a successful year with a successful result. We would like to take the winter championship title. We want to enjoy the Christmas and New Year break with our feet up in a comfortable position.” To achieve that, Thomas Schaaf knows that his men will have to gather their strengths and give their all one last time in 2006.
Werders strengths last season were turned into a 6:1 drubbing of VfL. Goals for Naldo, Baumann and a pair of braces for Borowski and Klose were only briefly interrupted by a strike from Diego Klimowicz. The Argentine striker managed to bump Wolfsburg best striker Mike Hanke (5 goals) out of the team last weekend. The striker will likely be back in the starting eleven to help VfL maintain their strong record against Bremen. The club from the Volkswagen city have often caused Werder problems at the Weser Stadium. In nine games, each side has won on four occasions. On the whole Wolfsburg have often frustrated Werder. In a total of eighteen meetings between the two, Werder have won eight and VfL seven. Only in the DFB Cup have Werder always managed to overcome VfL.
On the personnel front, the situation has improved for the Green-Whites. On Thursday Andreas Reinke was back on the trainings pitch have twisted an ankle in training two days previously. This week Patrick Owomoyela and Mohamed Zidan returned to full team training. “Both players have a chance of making the squad”, admitted Thomas Schaaf who will be without his captain Frank Baumann (Achilles problem) and Clemens Fritz who is suspended. There is still hope that Aaron Hunt will make the squad by Sunday.
John Muldoon
