The sporting rubble had not yet been completely cleared away and the injured souls had not yet recovered when a report of apocalyptic proportions reached the Bremen office last November.
It was: People don’t like Werder Bremen continues to win”>SV Werder anymore.
This was the result of a polling institute that had carried out a study on the current popularity ratings of all Bundesliga soccer clubs. And there it was, black and white: Werder was bottom of the table, so even worse than in the final rankings of the previous season, which resulted in the fall into the second division. Could this really be? Ironically, the small and brave Werder, the Gallic village in the football republic, the underdog out of conviction? It is always said that people love the underdog.
Werder used to be the epitome of the rock-solid football club
At the time, Werder sporting director Frank Baumann had doubts about the significance of the study, he criticized its methodology and then in the next half-sentence made it clear that he had absolutely no idea about the methodology. That also fits into the picture that the Bremen team has given in recent years: trying hard, but also a bit inconsistent. Werder, the epitome of a rock-solid football club, the counter-model to the capricious professional milieu, had lost pretty much everything that had distinguished the club for decades: in the end even the unofficial title of “most popular second favorite club” in the country.
Markus Anfang, now banned by the DFB because of his vaccination pass lie.” class=”css-b0q7so” />Brought some unrest to Bremen: coach Markus Anfang, now blocked by the DFB because of his vaccination pass lie.
(Photo: Carmen Jaspersen/dpa)
How distant all this seems at the beginning of 2022! The former champions and European Cup winners seem to have arrived in the second division, he has made his peace with the more recent past and thought back to the more distant past. Back then, when Werder stood for creative decisions, for an offensive and courageous style.
Because currently the second division team can only be adequately described using hyphenation: Spekt-ta-ku-lär. Werder has scored an average of 3.6 goals in the past five games, all five games have been won, the traditional club has advanced to the promotion regions after a moderate start to the season – and in Bremen, of course, nobody thinks it is a coincidence that these storm and Urge period coincides exactly with the period of service of the new coach Ole Werner.
Werner fits better into the Werder family than the Rhinelander Beginning
This week, two article headlines recalled how well fate could have meant with the traditional club. Number one: “After vaccination scandal – DFB blocks ex-Werder trainer at the beginning for a year”. Number two: “Werner now grabs the Rehhagel record?” As a reminder: Werner, 33, took over the coaching job from Markus Anfang quite suddenly in November, because he had been convicted as the owner of a fake vaccination card and had lied to the club and the authorities.
From a sporting point of view, one hears from Bremen that they were always satisfied from the start, the coach integrated young players and gave the team an offensive mentality. However: The calm Werner fits into the so-called “Werder family” much better than the sometimes short-tempered Rhinelander Beginning.
As is usual at traditional locations, parallels to all sorts of club legends are already being drawn after Werner’s success weeks, the fans and regional media are just not quite sure whether the footsteps of Otto Rehhagel or Thomas Schaaf are the right comparison. Werner is only three victories away from “König Otto’s” starting record from the 1980/81 season, but Werner has little use for Rehhagel’s earlier interpretation of the “controlled offensive”.
Since the Schaaf era in the noughties, there has been a nostalgic longing for the beautiful game, for this art of lightness, which individual talents like Johan Micoud and the Brazilian Diego left as a legacy. In any case, Werners Werder tries very hard to uphold this philosophy in the rough lower house. And if the opponent also participates in the attack, the result is a gaudy entertainment program like the 4:3 win in Paderborn last weekend.
“The group works very well,” says the Werder coach
Werner said on Wednesday that one could be “very satisfied” with the latest development. Bremen had just lost their first game under the new coach, a 1-0 loss to Dutch first division side PEC Zwolle, but the friendly nature of the game and the field-colored pitch took that game out of Werner’s official standings. In any case, it was more important than the game to see the Werder reservists perform from the stands.
One of the team’s new leaders: playmaker Leonardo Bittencourt (right).
(Photo: Carmen Jaspersen/dpa)
Despite a free afternoon, the leadership circle of the Bremen team had gathered there; Defenders Ömer Toprak and Marco Friedl, playmaker Leonardo Bittencourt, strikers Niclas Füllkrug and Marvin Ducksch defied the whipping north wind. If you wanted, you could see at least a small symbolism in it. And Werner wanted: “The boys decided that themselves,” reported the coach, “and that shows that overall it’s a group that works very well.”
Werner’s rational, sober manner is also exemplary for the process of reflection that the entire club and its environment have gone through in recent months. The Bremen fans are capable of suffering, they are also used to hiding their frustration behind a wall of optimism in bad phases. When things are going well, they also like to indulge in the great moments of the club’s history.
That was the case, for example, when Bremen narrowly failed to qualify for the European Cup in the 2018/2019 season – and because there are also long-time Werder fans working at the Werder office, it was felt that the right moment had come to throw Hanseatic principles overboard and launch an attack on the international squares.
At Werder, “the lights almost went out,” according to Bremen management
Sports boss Baumann and finance boss Klaus Filbry put a lot on this card and gambled in the end because there was little to win against the economically more potent test-tube companies from Wolfsburg, Leverkusen and Leipzig. Shortly thereafter, the pandemic swept across the globe and ensured that “the lights almost went out”, as the Bremen management floor puts it today. Then came the relegation, the complete renewal of the squad, the vaccination scandal about the beginning of the trainer.
And now? There is a good chance that SV Werder’s popularity ratings have increased a little again. Only the pollsters now have to provide the ultimate proof of this.
