A certain touch of pragmatism can sometimes do no harm when tricky challenges are pending. Like now, when SV Werder Bremen went to 13th in the table. FC Augsburg is traveling (Saturday, 3.30 p.m. in the DeichStube live ticker). The southern Germans have been pretty strong at home recently, having won the last three games in front of their home crowd 1-0. So what’s the best way to crack such a team? “By scoring more goals than the last opponents and conceding one less if possible,” says Werder coach Ole Werner and smiles.
What sounds simple is logically anything but that. “In terms of intensity, Augsburg is a team that is uncomfortable, plays unpleasantly – similar to Bochum in terms of approach,” observed Ole Werner, albeit the coach of SV Werder Bremen another basic order or a higher quality in the breadth of the squad. “For us, it will be about being very attentive when running, in duels and defensively in standard situations,” demands the 34-year-old. “In addition, it’s about opening up spaces and using them in a targeted manner against a team that presses very aggressively and that tries a lot to involve you in direct duels.” And after the 0-1 defeat from the first comparison with Werner has one wish in particular for FC Augsburg: “We want to be further than in the first leg.”
At that time, the class of play was sometimes lacking, in the end a hectic and heated game developed, which culminated in a missed penalty by Marvin Ducksch and subsequent stress with FC Augsburg goalkeeper Rafal Gikiewicz. It’s all yesterday’s news if Werner has his way. “We know what kind of game awaits us. That it can get emotional. That it’s also a lot about duels. It’s no surprise at all,” emphasizes the SV Werder Bremen coach. “It’s about the next football game and we’re concentrating on the things we have to do well.”
The trainer is not interested in looking into the past. Yet he is quite remarkable. The Augsburgers might not necessarily pass as the nemesis of SV Werder Bremen, but at least it’s one of the more unpleasant kinds. In the history of the Bundesliga, Bremen have won eleven out of 25 matches against FC Augsburg and also drawn three draws – but they have also suffered eleven defeats. From the last four games, the points went completely to the Fuggerstadt three times.
“That’s why I don’t go there with a better or worse feeling than at other places in the Bundesliga,” explains Ole Werner and receives support from Clemens Fritz, Werder’s head of professional football, who draws parallels to his own playing career: “There are stadiums where you always liked to go, with which you associate something positive. That probably also has something to do with a sense of achievement,” says the 42-year-old. “But it’s not the case that there are stadiums where I don’t like going because I think: No, I don’t want to play there.”
Especially since there should again be an unmistakable Bremen component in the sold-out WWK Arena. According to the club, 3,500 fans of SV Werder Bremen are on site to drive their team. And to make sure they score at least one more goal than FC Augsburg. Very pragmatic.