No Pushover Against English Institution

First Team
Monday, 30.07.2007 / 18:48

Just four days prior to the DFB Cup clash with Eintracht Braunschweig, on Tuesday, 31.07.2007, Werder Bremen will play the penultimate friendly of their pre-season preparations.

Just four days prior to the DFB Cup clash with Eintracht Braunschweig, on Tuesday, 31.07.2007, Werder Bremen will play the penultimate friendly of their pre-season preparations. At Goodison Park in Liverpool at 9pm (CET), the Green-Whites will take on English Premier League club FC Everton. Everton is the ‘Blue’ part of the city known best for producing ‘The Beatles’ but with a rich footballing history too. The club was grounded in 1878 and ten years later became one of the founding members of the ‘Football League’ which was the highest ranked league in England until 1992 when the Premier League began. In over one hundred years of league participation, Everton have won nine league titles, the last back in 1987. Since then the club have had their ups and downs in the league with many highs and lows. Their last trophy was the much sought after FA Cup in 1995. Ten years prior to that in Rotterdam, they beat Rapid Vienna 3:1 to claim their only European trophy, the European Cup Winner’s Cup. In reaching the final they had to overcome Bayern Munich at the semi final stage (0:0 , 3:1). The 3:1 win over the German opponents was deemed the greatest game ever played at Goodison Park.

 

Last season Everton finished sixth in the Premier League and with that qualify for the first round proper of the UEFA Cup. The head coach / manager since 2002 has been David Moyes, a Scot who wore the Everton blue during his playing career and since taking over the reigns has twice been named ‘Manager of the Year’. His current squad may not boast any star names but it does include a number of ex- and current internationals such as goalkeeper Tim Howard (USA), captain Phil Neville (England), Nuno Valente (Portugal), Andy van der Meyde (Holland) and Tim Cahill (Australia). A further international has recently arrived on loan from Borussia Dortmund in the form of South African international Steven Pienaar. In the close season the club have also signed 19 year old striker Lukasz Jutkiewicz from Swindon Town and defender Phil Jagielka from Sheffield United. The plan is to make a couple more signings prior to the league start on August 11th.

 

To get some idea of just what this team are capable of, one must take just a quick look at how they fared against much more prominent opponents during the 2006/2007 season. The Merseyside derby against local rivals FC Liverpool during the first round of games finished with a 3:0 win for the ‘Blues’ and they managed a point at Anfield Road, as they did at Arsenal and Chelsea. The ‘Gunners’ went down 1:0 at Goodison. The club carry the nickname ‘The Toffees’ after the sweets sold outside the stadium and which are thrown into the crowd before every game by the ‘Toffee Lady’.

 

Just as for Werder Bremen, Everton’s pre-season preparations haven’t exactly gone according to plan. In four games they could only manage one win (2:0 against the Northern Ireland national team). Their other games were against fourth division Bury (0:1), second division Preston (1:1) and Real Salt lake (US MLS), which finished in a 2:0 defeat. The English side are hoping to improve things against Werder and are counting on midfield engine Tim Cahill, who will make a comeback after a five month lay-off after breaking a foot.

 

Johnnie Muldoon

 

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