Directly following the final whistle on Sunday, Werders stars Klose, Naldo & Co. took to the pitch again in high spirits dressed in Santa Claus jackets and with sacks filled to the brim took on a round of honour whilst distributing presents among the Green-Whites faithful. Special scarves and “Christmas championship 2006” t-shirts (which can also be bough at the Werder Fanshop) were flung to the fans. All of Bremen in title winning mood.
Following their 2:1 win over VfL Wolfsburg on Sunday, Werder took over the league leaders position from Schalke: “A good omen!, I just heard that the top team at Christmas won the subsequent title, glowed Christian Schulz who will have the league table in touching distance throughout his well earned break. “You can always look at the table and remind yourself not to take the re-start too lightly if we want to stay at the top.”
The other Werder players can also look at the league table with an eye on the past and one on the future. Miroslav Klose, Werder’s top scorer so far with ten goals commented: “You’ve got to tip your hat to this team. We wanted to take a place at the top and we’ve done that – hopefully that will be the case in the second round too. For the coming year I can just wish the team all to stay healthy.” Scorer of Sunday’s winner Naldo said: “If I sit back now over the next few days and look back over the season so far I can see just how well we’ve done. We’ve reached almost all of our goals for the last year but I’m still looking forward and hope that that continues.”
There was no further big party for the Werder players, who officially started their Christmas holidays, on Sunday though. German international Torsten Frings made the point: “No, there’s no reason for a celebration. It’s of course nice to be top but it’s only the winter title. The title is worth as little as the title of being the team with the most points in 2006. The fact is that it was Bayern with the trophy in summer. It’s our turn this time. If we continue to perform after the break there will be no stopping us. We can prepare in peace but now I’m going home to enjoy my holiday.”
Those in charge at Werder are all in favour of seeing their players enjoy the peace and quiet they get over the festive period. Coach Thomas Schaaf mentioned: “Everyone has their break now and they all need it. It was a long but good football year for Werder.” The coach went on to comment on the need for changes to the football calendar: “We expect a lot of our players and in doing so, in the long term, are damaging our players. Our internationals have basically had a three year long continuous programme without a real break. That can’t continue. I’m saying that now that we are top of the league, so as that no-one thinks there is only complaining when we lose.” The coach was very clear though that his players need to concentrate now on regeneration: “From this moment the team are off. We will start again on January 4th and then begin with training to get back into condition for the second period of games.”
The up coming winter break is also of vital importance to manager Klaus Allofs with a view to winning the title: “At the end of the Wolfsburg game you could see that the heads were willing but the legs weren’t able anymore. It’s just as well that there are no games in the coming weeks. In January then we will altogether prepare for the second round of games. That’s the good thing about the winter break, as opposed to summer, everyone is on board for preparations from the very start.”
The Werder general manager is optimistic about a good spring period for the Green-Whites: “We are satisfied with our first round. Our championship ambitions, which we’ve always stuck to, have now been confirmed. We know it’s been tight and that we’ve got others nipping at our heels. There is no comparison to the last title winning year when we had a four point jump on the others going into the winter break. We can enjoy the table now for a few weeks and look forward to the re-start.
John Muldoon