Werder players are currently experiencing in Belek, Turkey that a training camp is everything but a nice holiday with the team. Intensive, concentrated work on the training grounds is on the schedule - and that from mornings to evenings. "The weather and the ambient are wonderful, but we are not here to relax," said Werder manager Klaus Allofs a couple days ago. And looking at the daily routine for the players, he was completely correct. The Green-Whites' day begins at 7 a.m. with the first jog to follow shortly thereafter.
The first training hour begins at 10:30 a.m. on the lush green. On Friday, 7 January 2011, training took place in smaller, position-orientated groups. The defensive group, which focused mainly on header training, was made up of Mertesacker, Prödl, Fritz, Pasanen, Schmidt, Silvestre, Balogun and Schoppenhauer. Making up the midfielder group were Frings, Borowski, Hunt, Kroos, Ayik and Bargfrede. And the offensive group, focusing on coordination and quickness, included Pizarro, Avdic, Marin, Arnautovic, Wagner, Husejinovic, Testroet, Trinks and Thy. And the goalkeepers made up their own group as well.
The players returned to hotel after the session for 1 p.m. lunch. Batched around the second meal of the day, the players also had to deal with another part of their routine - media relations. Both before and after lunch, one player would be made available for journalists' questions. Today is was Sebastian Prödl and then Tim Borowski.
That was followed by the well-deserved midday break, which ended at 4:30 p.m. for the second training session. After finishing off this practice the day was just about complete. The players had dinner together before heading off for the rest of the evening. But the players also go to be early to be fully ready for the next day - clearly anything other than holiday!