They Eat Alot of Sausage in Germany

“They eat alot of sausage in Germany”…that is a direct quote from my room mate Chris “Balls” Westcott. He had asked me what I was doing, and I said writing a preview for Real’s game against Bremen. And he asked what Bremen was and I said it was a soccer team as well as a city in Germany. And he went to Germany over the Thanksgiving break, so he was speaking from experience of course.

Werder Bremen Team News

So Real travel to Bremen to face a Werder side who had some internal strife recently with Sanogo and Carlos Alberto. It seems to have been done and dusted. Werder sit in 2nd place, 1 place behind Bayern. So they definately are not struggling, and they won both their previous league games, 4-0 against an in form Karlsruhe and 2-0 against Cottbus. I previewed Werder before, so I do not really have to say all that much about them, Diego is their creator, Borowski and Frings their midfield pairing, and Jensen, Bauman, Vranjes and Carlos Alberto playing when tactically required. I think Thomas Schaaf, like Paul Le Guen, Luciano Spalletti and Claude Puel, is a great coach. The squad is great, its not world beater, but its a blend of different styles, attributes, and most importantly for me, youth and experience.

The youth fills out to German prospects Boenisch, Niemayer, Artmann, Kruse, Amaury Bischoff (French), Hunt, Mosquera (Columbian), Schindler, and Harnik (Austrian). And Naldo, Mertesacker, Diego and Sanogo are still young too. This means if they team stays together, they can be solid for years to come. Aaron Hunt and Kevin Schindler are the two players that stick out most, they have bright futures, while obviously Diego is in Real’s sights. Werder plays attacking football, and they have quality strikers in Hugo Almeida, Markus Rosenberg, Sanogo and Ivan Klasnic. I fully expcet them to take the game to us.

That being said, we will be looking for a better game from more then half the team. Defensively we were fine against Murcia, we dominated possession and we moved the ball well. But we lacked a final ball. We also lacked effective wide play. To stretch an opponent you must use the whole field. Sergio Ramos and Marcelo did not have good games, while Robinho was quiet. Gago needs to not give the ball up so much, and Ruud and Raul need to get the ball more often but also must make better off the ball movement to create space.

Thats all obvious stuff though, the weakness to Bremen is their offside trap, which Naldo has usually been called out on. The best way to beat them is with through balls to run on to, so Raul and Ruud, so adept at hanging on the last man, must strike fear in Werder’s defense. Neither are to fast, but the point stands. Real also needs to move the ball quicker. Since Werder attacks and they are at home, their will be instance when we can counter attack quickly, so that needs to be capitalized on. Although I do suspect possession will be fairly even and counter attacking will be more like a back and forth attack between the two teams.

I realize that was brief, but I dont really like rewriting stuff I have already given to you guys. Here is a link to the old Bremen preview: http://real.theoffside.com/game-preview/champions-league-preview.html
I will put Bremens squad up as soon as I can find it.

Real Team News

Real have lost Heinze to a bruised knee, Sneijder to damaged knee ligaments and Drenthe and Soldado to the flu. The squad list is as follows:

SQUAD LIST

Goalkeepers: Casillas, Codina & Dudek.

Defenders: Pepe, Ramos, Cannavaro, Marcelo, Metzelder & Torres.

Midfielders: Diarra, Gago, Guti, Baptista & Robben.

Forwards: Higuaín, Saviola, Robinho, Van Nistelrooy & Raúl.

Left out: Soldado, Drenthe, Sneijder, Balboa, Salgado & Heinze.

No Balboa, thats bollocks. Baptista may get a shot in midfield this weekend since Guti will be suspended against Santander. So it may be a good idea to get him in the game at some point. Other then that its straight forward. Im getting sick of predicting the same lineup, the same tactics. You all know them. We have squad depth but Schuster only uses it when he is forced to. He does not use certain players in different tactical situations, he just isnt that good a coach, so predictability is always a problem.

Here is the last game between these two:

I think Real can win this game, but seeing as how they seem to bottle up away games. So I am gonna call a 1-1 game, Ruud and Diego. Bam Bam Bam. Adios.

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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