On And On And On

By: Abby | April 17th, 2009

In a lot of ways, our Bundesliga season should have been Werder Bremen’s. A build-up of good results, topping the table in the second half of the season for several weeks, perhaps a collapse towards the end of things. Werder Bremen are one of the more recognizable names of the recent Bundesliga and the neutral’s favorite, thanks to an attacking philosophy and some delightful players, like Diego.

Instead, they’ve had erratic, disappointing results and currently find themselves in tenth, without much of a shot at any form of Europe. (Might I suggest the Fair Play league, guys?) For a team with that much talent, it’s fairly odd. But recently they’ve been rediscovering their form and abilities. Powerful wins over Stuttgart and Hanover showed off what they can do. And they’re also doing very well in Europe, despite almost-choking in the second leg of their quarterfinal to Udinese. But they came back to draw and advance to the semifinal (an all-German affair against Hamburg) and should be in high confidence after all that.

We, on the other hand, are three losses in three games, including last week’s to Hanover, and I doubt our confidence is in a particularly good place. Our last meeting with Bremen ended in a 5-1 tonking, but that was at the Weserstadion. The one bit of optimism is that Bremen is even worse on the road than we are. And, damn it, it’s high time we got another win. Maybe they’re tired after their exploits in Italy?

Good news is that Gojko Kacar is finally fit for the starting lineup. It feels like it’s been forever since we’ve seen the best of the young Serb. But it’s the other Serbian on our squad that all the headlines are about.

With Voronin out with a pointless suspension, it’s all down to Marko Pantelic to make it happen. Somehow, I knew it would always come to this. The fights, the recriminations, everything comes down to a moment that’s especially dramatic. We’re down to the final moments and only the one who’s been cast aside can save us. You couldn’t write this.

And if that wasn’t dramatic enough, there’s backroom issues as well. An ‘explosive’ letter attacking Dieter Hoeness has emerged, claiming that Hoeness is fighting with everyone and trying to take too much credit for the success this season of Lucien Favre. The real tension seems to be between Hoeness and president/awesome-name-haver Werner Gegenbauer- with their relationship seemingly starting to come apart, it could be a volatile situation.

Oh, and Voronin’s packing up his apartment in anticipation of a move back to Liverpool.