The 5 strangest test match moments of 2012

Benjamin Trotte experienced the greatest day in his football life in the test match against his favourite club. After first making possible the match through his application for the TARGOBANK giveaway, Trotte then scored to give Berndorf the lead 1-0.
First Team
Friday, 21.12.2012 / 09:08

Twelve months fly by like nothing - highs and lows, celebrations and disappointments, departures and new faces. The year 2012 was one of major change which was signified not only by personnel changes...

Twelve months fly by like nothing - highs and lows, celebrations and disappointments, departures and new faces. The year 2012 was one of major change which was signified not only by personnel changes. It's not easy to keep track of everything. So WERDER.DE put together its Year in Review with some of the most extraordinary Green-Whites moments of the year. Today in Part one: the strangest test match moments.


5. Two penalty heroes in two days
It's almost become a tradition for Werder Bremen to celebrate in Hamburg. That was the case once again in the pre-season as Thomas Schaaf's team won the League Cup in Hamburg. The Green-Whites knocked off Bayern Munich in the semi-finals and then Borussia Dortmund in the final.

The crazy part is that both matches were decided in penalty shootouts - and both with different keepers. Against Bayern in the semis, Werder number one keeper Sebastian Mielitz stopped spot kicks by Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger. In the final, Werder backup keeper Raphael Wolf also prevented two penalties.

4. Rain chaos in Zillertal
Three weeks earlier, Werder wanted to play their first match in the training camp in Zell am Ziller, Austria against a Tyrol selection team. Due to heavy rains, the test match had to be rescheduled just hours beforehand. Werder would end up winning 6-0 against a Zillertal selection. A couple days later, heavy rains fell again just as Werder were playing a test match against Energie Cottbus. The tabloids described the match, which ended in a 1-1 draw, as "water ballet". The referee even ended the match prematurely because the rains were so strong.

3. Dim Lüneburg
Werder's strange test match history continued between the 24th and 25th match days of last season. Werder may have beaten SV Eintracht Lüneburg 7-1 but the Green-Whites could hardly find the goal for a time there because a major section of the floodlights went out. After 15 minutes, the organizers got everything under control and Werder went ahead 2-0 not even three minutes later. "I cannot remember ever seeing something like that. That was a premiere of sorts," said the Werder coach.

2. Fan brings Werder to Berndorf and scores in test match
For Benjamin Trotte, 25 August was certainly the greatest day in his football career. The hardcore Werder fan initiated the friendly match between TSV Berndorf and his favourite club by registering his team as part of a TARGOBANK giveaway.

Trotte was ecstatic when Berndorf won the prize. But when he scored in the 11th minute to give the Kreisoberliga amateur side the lead 1-0, there was no holding back the celebrations of the man who cut the Werder diamond into his hair. Trotte raced 50 meters down the pitch, reminiscent of Tim Wiese's legendary goal celebration after the derby victory in the German DFB Cup semi-final in 2009. "Secretly we hoped to maybe make it 9-1. But it was unbelievable that we went ahead 1-0 and that it was me who scored the goal!" said Trotte.

1. Never-ending Alkmaar
Werder Bremen had not won a test match as part of their annual training camp in Belek, Turkey dating back four years - until 11 January. And thanks to goals by Mehmet Ekici and Sebastian Prödl, the streak appeared to finally end as the Green-Whites led 2-1 after 90 minutes against Dutch top flight side AZ Alkmaar. But the referee let the teams play 10 minutes of extra time! "I thought that he would keep the match going until breakfast," said Thomas Schaaf about the strange situation.

Even stranger was that it came out a few days later that the referee was not Raitscho Raitschew as expected but Latschesar Ionow, who did not have a valid referee license but just took on the identity of his injured Bulgarian colleague. Werder still won the match 2-1 to end their streak!

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