Sebastian Mielitz will replace the suspended Tim Wiese in Werder Bremen's goal against Mainz on Saturday 5 February 2011 at 3:30 p.m. at Bruchweg Stadium, making his sixth Bundesliga appearance of his young career.
The 21-year-old has already replaced the German international gloveman three times this season, and each time with a solid performance. Mielitz has received an average game ranking of 2.00 by the German sports magazine kicker on a 1-5 scale with 1.0 being the best. That is actually the best ranking of any Werder player and head coach Thomas Schaaf is full of praise for the 1.89m keeper. "Miele works hard every day and is always concentrated," said Schaaf about the young reserve keeper.
Miele also directed play between the posts in the training game at the final training. Also in the game - and in the game squad - were Marko Arnautovic and Claudio Pizarro. Daniel Jensen (rehab after knee problems), Tim Borowski (fever) Wesley, Christian Vander (both in rehab training) as well as long-time injuries Naldo and Sebastian Boenisch were not part of the Green-Whites' squad at Bruchweg. An appearance in Mainz will also come too early for new acquisition Samuel and Dominik Schmidt, who just returned to fitness. And Sandro Wagner will play with the Green-Whites' U23 team in the third division over the weekend against Erfurt.
Schaaf: "We acted emotionally"
Schaaf looked back positively on the week of training. "We approached things objectively and acted emotionally when things did not work out so well in training," said the coach. The 2,000 Bremen fans travelling to Mainz will also likely act emotionally on Saturday and hope that they can celebrate three points on their way back home to Bremen.
These 16 players are on the squad against Mainz: Mielitz, Wiedwald - Pasanen, Mertesacker, Prödl, Silvestre, Fritz, Frings, Bargfrede, Marin, Hunt, Arnautovic, Kroos, Trinks, Pizarro, Avdic.