SV Werder Bremen is back in the Bundesliga. After a weak start to the season, the prosecutor is also coming. Then new coach Ole Werner starts the strong finale of a turbulent round. But the road to old successes is probably too far to ever be walked again.
What exactly were the thoughts of those responsible for Werder after the 15th matchday of the 2nd Bundesliga? One does not know. In any case, the leaders should not have been in a positive mood. Not much will have happened in the considerations of direct promotion back to the Bundesliga.
At the end of November, an unpleasant breeze swept through gray and wet Bremen, and not just around the Weser Stadium. Many people also shivered in the office of the Bundesliga relegated. A 1-2 defeat in Kiel, 15 games, 20 points. One point behind Karlsruher SC, two ahead of newly promoted Hansa Rostock. A goal difference of minus 1. The yield of the former top team reads as sadly as the fans looked at.
Fast forward to mid-May. And suddenly the sun shines in Bremen, the fans celebrate a big party on the streets of the city hours before and after the final whistle – and Werder Bremen climbs into the top flight after beating SSV Jahn Regensburg 2-0 (1-0). The fact that the Hanseatic League is now returning directly to the Bundesliga is like a small football miracle. They used to be familiar with that on the Weser, with miracles, but that was a long time ago. But this miracle isn’t one of lavish European Cup nights either. It’s a rather atypical one, somehow bizarrely twisted. One that still has to do with suffering and pain, with rebellion and a celebrated end.
Rehhagel record almost broken
“The way the fans supported us – you can see what the club means for the city and the region,” said coach Ole Werner after the game. “Today is something extraordinary that you might only experience once. It’s a very special moment.” Captain Ömer Toprak breathes a sigh of relief after the rollercoaster ride: “I’m just happy that we’ve made it now, despite all the circumstances and the constant stress. It was just very important to me that we manage to get the club back there where he belongs.”
This thing with the miracle of the Weser: Above all, this season is a very special phenomenon because only one offense enables promotion. Under Markus Beginning, the SVW plays as pomadig as under Florian Kohfeldt in the relegation season. The chemistry in the team doesn’t seem right. It sets a bitter derby defeat against Hamburger SV and defeats against Paderborn or Dresden. The former top club from the Hanseatic city, he used to be. The decay of the last few years threatens to continue in the second division. No, even getting worse. But the Werder coach at that time at the beginning suddenly left the ship in the vaccination card forgery scandal – and crazy, somehow, that made everything good for the green-whites.
Of course, fans, players and those responsible are shocked by the disturbing beginning scandal. Some even fear a dramatic crash after such a bang. But today many would probably like to say a few words of thanks to the former coach. Because the fact that Werder’s wild roller coaster ride is on the up again is closely linked to his successor: Under Werner, Werder put on an (almost) historic series with nine wins in ten games, suddenly greeted them from the top of the table – and, above all, finally played that one again offensive, courageous, handsome football that they love on the Weser.
Although Werner misses the starting record of Otto Rehhagel, who won the first eight games after taking over as coach in 1981, Werder now has tailwind again. The young, calm coach creates an untouchable authority in Bremen. The mostly stoic-looking Schleswig-Holsteiner manages to restore a success-oriented, harmonizing chemistry between coach, team and especially the veterans.
“I didn’t contribute too much. The team and the leading players had it in their hands,” says a down-to-earth Werner after his first five games with five wins. Well, many would contradict the 34-year-old with his surprise bag change. It is he who again formed a powerful double striker in Bremen, reminiscent of the Völlers, Rufers, Bodes, Kloses or Ailtons – although these Werder legends of course performed a league higher. Marvin Ducksch literally exploded under Werner and scored a goal in each of the new coach’s first seven games and also added five goals. Niclas Füllkrug, who scored only four goals in 14 games under start, netted 14 times in 18 games after the change of coach.
And so it is fitting that the two Bremen second-division super strikers open the can against Regensburg in the final game of the season: Shortly after Mitchel Weiser’s offside goal, Füllkrug hammered the ball completely humorlessly into the net from a good 18 meters following a submission by Ducksch. “I was someone who kept thinking about where we came from this season,” said Füllkrug after the game, acknowledging the bad start to the season.
The mood in the stands is boiling, everyone in the Weser Stadium, which is sold out with 41,000 spectators, notices: SV Werder is serious here, just don’t leave anything to chance or even leave your own fate in the hands of the competitors from Hamburg and Darmstadt. At that point, HSV was behind, the next good news for Werder. Because at the end of the season it actually looked as if the archenemy from the Elbe could wrest the promotion spot from Bremen after all. It would have suited this crazy season.
But then comes the next hour of the stoic Werner. In the half-time break, he probably gets emotional, because Werder previously allowed too many Regensburg chances. At the beginning of the second half, however, his team came out of the dressing room with fire and, after good preliminary work by Romano Schmid, scored the important 2-0 in the person of – of course, because strike partner Füllkrug has already scored – Ducksch. “No more 2nd league”, it echoes through the round. And: “The SVW is back!”
Werder victory march and space storm
Complete ecstasy followed at the final whistle and the fans’ rush to the ground, which is now almost as obligatory as it is unnecessary because it doesn’t seem ecstatic and spontaneous enough. “When there are so many people on the field, people sometimes run onto the field during the game,” Werner puts it, “that’s a situation that’s a bit uncomfortable. But nonetheless, it just shows how much people get involved look forward to.” The Bremen police later reported that 20 people were injured in the storming of the square and some had to be taken to the hospital for treatment.
Bremen’s players, coaches and officials jump in the air and pour the contents of oversized beer glasses over their heads. Bremen is upside down. A big party is going on in the fields and in the streets, there is no way for cars, buses or trams to get through. There is finally only ascent and no more roller coasters. Finally, a 90-minute Werder triumphal march with the players across the Osterdeich begins.
That wasn’t always the case this season. The Bremen team say in the summer that the goal is not direct resurgence, but a complete rebuild. But when suddenly everything looks like a return to the upper house, they don’t want to let their success on the Weser take them away. But how could it be otherwise in this turbulent season when Werder almost throws away the place in the top three. Bitter point losses against Ingolstadt or Sandhausen from the bottom of the table are followed by the embarrassment at home against Kiel, in which the Green-Whites scored four goals, including two own goals.
Enjoy premier league, no wonder
In the rollercoaster ride, it finally goes steeply up again on the last day of the game. The Bundesliga has one of its founding members back, a traditional club that is back where it belongs. But whether the young Ole Werner can also convince in the upper house after his grandiose performance in the 2nd division, whether Ducksch and Füllkrug can also assert themselves against first-class defenses; you don’t know all that. Just like you don’t know Werder’s exact thoughts after the 15th matchday in gray November.
The road back to old pride, back to European Cup nights, to the legendary wonders of the Weser is a long one. It’s probably too rocky. And he may never be gone again, given the transfer fees and salaries circulating in European football at the moment. The video greetings from former Werder legends – from Diego and Junuzović to Naldo and Mertesacker to Rosenberg and of course Ailton – don’t help much before the game.
But that’s not what this afternoon is about in the Hanseatic city. An end to the roller coaster ride. Just play in the premier league without falling apart again, without too many ups and downs, and enjoy – that’s enough for Werder. And it doesn’t have to be any more scandalous surprises like at the beginning. Although sometimes they may initiate the upswing and ultimately the rise.