UEFA Cup: Ajax up against Werder Bremen in third round
15 December: It wasn't exactly
the easiest opponent in the bowl containing the names of the
eight numbers three from the Champions League group phase, but
the drive from Amsterdam could not have been shorter:
Ajax face German powerhouse and Bundesliga league
leaders SV Werder Bremen in the third round of the UEFA Cup.
This was the outcome of the draw at the UEFA headquarters in
Nyon, Switzerland. The Amsterdammers travel
to Northern Germany first (14 February 2007). The return
leg at the ArenA is one week later (22 February). A 'round
of sixteen' encounter in March with the winners of Spartak
Moscow - Celta de Vigo will be at stake.
The Club
Many of Europe's
great football clubs were founded more or less 'by accident'
and Werder Bremen is no exception: a group of 16 year-old boys
attending a high school in the port of Bremen won a soccer ball
in a competition in 1898, practiced a bit and established
the Fussballverein Werder von 1899 (normally
abbreviated as FV Werder) on 04 February of that year. The club
was named after the ground where the it's first kickabouts took
place: the Stadtwerder ground, right by the small
island in the river Weser. The word Werder means
'river island'. Werder was founded as a football club,
but the year 1920 saw the establishment
of sections for sports such as tennis, cricket, athletics,
chess and several others. The Fussballverein (FV) had
become a Sportsverein (SV), the letters that are still
in the club's name today.
Until 1963 Werder only enjoyed
moments of glory on a regional level, but in 1963 the
green and white belonged to the elite of German football clubs
to establish the Bundesliga we still know today and were in
fact one of the first clubs to clinch the German title in the
new league structure (1965), thanks to star players such as
Sepp Piontek and Horst-Dieter Höttges. However, Werder
failed to maintain their position and the top and,
eventually, tragically went down to the Second Bundesliga
in 1980, only to return to the top flight one year later, with
a manager at the helm who would become a living legend in
Bremen: König ('King') Otto Rehhagel, who was in
charge for nearly fourteen years and made Werder Bremen
one of Germany's most succesful football clubs of the 1980s and
1990s, thanks to players such as Rune Bratseth, Uli Borowka,
Dieter Eilts and famous forwards such as Karl-Heinz
Riedle, Wynton Rufer and Klaus Allofs.
Today, Werder's trophy cabinet
contains four German championship shields (1965, 1988, 1993,
2004), five German DFB Cups (1961, 1991, 1994, 1999, 2004),
three German Super Cups (1988, 1993, 1994) and two pieces
of 'European' silverware: the European Cup Winners Cup of 1992
and the Intertoto Cup of 1998.
The 'Rehhagel era' will always be
legendary, but today's SV Werder Bremen team may well be the
strongest side the club ever had. Werder play offensive,
entertaining football, score almost three goals per
Bundesliga game on average this season and were rather
unfortunate to end up in a Champions League group with Chelsea
and FC Barcelona. Werder impressed the world
and grabbed ten points... but finished third - and
continue their European safari in the UEFA Cup. Against
Ajax.
The official SV Werder Bremen website
has a comprehensive English
version, including a lengthy club
history.
The Roster
Today, SV Werder Bremen is
coached by former player Thomas Schaaf, who accepted the job in
1999 and developed a spectacularly offensive football machine,
with German international Miroslav Klose as its top goalscorer,
Portugese star Hugo Almeida as his 'sidekick' upfront, German
internationals such as Tim Borowski and Torsten Frings in
midfield and an 'old friend' at the back: Finnish defender
Petri Pasanen, formerly of Ajax, who joined Werder Bremen in
July 2004.
Another Werder player followers of
the Dutch Eredivisie might be familiar with is Danish
midfielder Daniel Jensen, who played for SC Heerenveen before
making the jump to the Bundesliga.
The Stadium
Werder Bremen still play their home
games close to the old Stadtwerder ground where the
club's founders played their first games of football. The
atmospheric Weser Stadium, named after the river, has -
according to its own official website - an official
capacity of 42,358. That number, however, includes a few
thousand standing places. For matches in UEFA competition only
the 37,512 seats may be used.
The stadium was originally
constructed in 1926, but underwent several changes over the
years and was turned into a modern-looking, 'multifunctional'
stadium for football games and arena concerts in 2004.
Ajax vs SV Werder Bremen: The
History
The Werder Bremen games in February
will be the 17th time since 1957 for Ajax to play a German side
in UEFA competition, if you count all East-German (DDR) and
West-German (BRD) sides from the years before 1989. Ajax played
14 different German clubs in total (there were three encounters
with Bayern München), but SV Werder Bremen, remarkable,
never came out of the bowl.
Ajax and Werder Bremen go
way back, nonetheless. The first ever friendly fixture
between the red and white from Amsterdam and Bremen's green and
white (with a touch of orange, these days...) was played on 11
May 1913 in Amsterdam. Ajax won: 1-0. The second (and most
recent) encounter with Werder Bremen was on German
soil, 64 years later. On 24 May 1977 the two clubs settled for
a 1-1 draw. Thirty years later, and 94 years after their
first ever friendly in Amsterdam, Ajax and Werder
Bremen meet for the third time.
For what it's worth: Ajax have a
remarkably wonderful record against German opposition in UEFA
competition. Ajax faced German opposition 16 times so far - and
advanced no less than 14 times. Bayern München are the
only German side to have knocked Ajax out of 'Europe'. That was
in 1980. Bayern also beat Ajax on aggregate in 2004, but
that was in the group phase of the Champions League. Ajax
finished third in the group and continued their journey in the
UEFA Cup.
For all other German teams Ajax were
too high a hurdle: SC Wismut (1957), 1. FC Nürnberg
(1968), Hannover '96 (1969), Carl-Zeiss Jena (1970), Dynamo
Dresden (1971), Bayern München (1973), Hertha BSC Berlin
(1975), Lokomotive Leipzig (Cup Winners Cup final 1987),
Hamburger SV (1987), Rot-Weiss Erfurt (1991), 1. FC
Kaiserslautern (1992), Bayern München (1995), Borussia
Dortmund (1996) and VfL Bochum (1997) - they all
crashed out against Ajax.
Reactions
"Out of the Champions League
cast-offs Werder Bremen are easily the strongest side. They are
a supreme candidate to lift the UEFA Cup at the end of the
season. On a good day we could cause an upset. Nothing is
impossible. However, we will have to be top in
both games. I mean: they are the league leaders in the
Bundesliga. I think it's a beautiful draw, anyway. An
encounter between a German and a Dutch side is always something
special."
- Henk ten Cate, Ajax head-coach.
"I don't need to say much about Ajax
Amsterdam. They've won many, many Dutch titles. This is a very
attractive draw. We continue to play teams from the 'Champions
League category'. Ajax were almost always there in recent
seasons. Our fans will also understand what the name of this
opponent stands for. No-one can have any doubts about the
attractivity of the UEFA Cup anymore."
- Thomas Schaaf, SV Werder Bremen
head-coach.
"We are satisfied with this opponent,
but that doesn't mean we'll take it lightly. Ajax proved
themselves in Europe countless times and they are still of
Champions League quality. However, you should look at the way
we developed in recent years. We have a lot of confidence and
we can make it to the next round."
- Klaus Allofs, SV Werder Bremen general
manager.
"Ajax are a super opponent. They're a
very big name. However, given the way we played in the
Champions League we do not need to be afraid of them."
- Torsten Frings, SV Werder Bremen
midfielder.
"Ajax are very strong, especially at
home, so we will have to get a good result in the home leg. I
look forward to these games. Ajax are a team that wants to play
football, which is an advantage to us. Five or six former
team-mates of mine are still there, but I am no longer in touch
with any of them."
- Petri Pasanen, SV Werder Bremen defender
and former Ajacied. (MP)
Sources: Ajax.nl, Werder.de,
Wikipedia
Update 28 December 2006:
SV Werder Bremen have announced that the first leg of the
UEFA Cup encounter with Ajax will be played at Bremen's
Weser Stadium on Wednesday 14 February 2007, kick-off time
20:30 CET. The return leg at the Amsterdam ArenA is eight days
later: Thursday 22 February 2007, at 21:00 CET.
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