){kind=logo}
)
Chronicle
2011-2016
The New Old Werder
)
Over the years during which SV Werder was a regular participant in the Champions League, fans and officials became accustomed to international competition. The highlights in cup, league, and Champions League shaped the image of SV Werder—among the fans and within the club. However, in 2010, a development began that ended the era of Werder veteran and head coach Thomas Schaaf and his longtime companion Klaus Allofs as manager. With personnel changes in many other positions within the club, a new era was initiated for the Green-Whites over the following five years.
The 2010/2011 season marked the beginning of a new, less successful sporting era for the Green-Whites with new challenges and several changes both on the field and in the management. Already at the end of 2009, Klaus Allofs had taken over as chairman of the management board from the retired Jürgen L. Born. A few months later, former professional Frank Baumann was appointed assistant to Allofs. There were also changes on the pitch: true to Werder’s motto "here stars are made, not bought," Mesut Özil developed into a Bundesliga and national team player over recent seasons. At the start of the 2010/2011 season, the midfield maestro moved to the "Royals" in Madrid.
The Green-Whites qualified at the start of the 2010/11 season with two spectacular wins against Sampdoria Genoa for the Champions League group stage. However, that was the end of the road for SV Werder. After six consecutive years in the Champions League, this was to be their last appearance in the "king class" for the time being. Werder finished the league in 13th place and were eliminated in the second round of the DFB-Pokal by record cup winners FC Bayern Munich.
The season’s highlight was striker Claudio Pizarro: the Peruvian scored a historic goal on 23 October 2010 in the game at Borussia Mönchengladbach. His goal in the 75th minute, which sealed the 4-1 victory, was his 134th in the Bundesliga. With this goal, he surpassed Giovane Elber and became the highest-scoring foreign player in Bundesliga history.
)
Right on time for the start of the 2011/2012 season, the renovated Weser Stadium was reopened. From then on, SV Werder played their home games in a pure football arena. A new beginning was also meant to succeed for the Green-Whites in sporting terms—but the big breakthrough initially did not materialize. Although they improved to 9th place in the league, Werder surprisingly lost in the first round of the DFB-Pokal to 1. FC Heidenheim 1846. All this was without Werder icon Torsten Frings.
The former national player and Werder captain transferred before the season to Toronto in the American MLS, where he wound down his playing career. Additionally, Werder fans had to say goodbye to defensive pillars Petri Pasanen and Per Mertesacker.
In 2012/2013, one season later, SV Werder could not build on the great successes of previous years. The team finished 14th in the league and again was eliminated in the first round of the DFB-Pokal, this time against Preußen Münster. Nevertheless, this season went down in the green-and-white history books. The duo of Allofs and Schaaf had established Werder among the league’s top, achieving Champions League qualification six times. Their era also included the 2004 double and the 2009 cup victory. In November 2012, the successful duo finally parted ways. After 13 years, Allofs left Werder Bremen and became manager at league rival VfL Wolfsburg. Klaus Filbry took over as chairman of the management board and has since been one of Werder’s new faces. On December 27, 2012, the Green-Whites also introduced Thomas Eichin as Allofs’ successor.
And just six months later, the long and successful time of Thomas Schaaf as head coach came to an end. On May 15, 2013, shortly after his 14th anniversary as Werder Bremen’s Bundesliga coach, the parting was by mutual consent. Previously, Schaaf had secured the club’s Bundesliga survival.
The New Beginning
)
With Robin Dutt, Werder started the 2013/14 season with a new head coach for the first time in 14 years, but the season began far from encouraging. In the first round of the DFB-Pokal, Werder was eliminated for the third consecutive time by a team from the third division. Beyond that, the Green-Whites had no successful season. They suffered a 0-7 home defeat against FC Bayern, the worst in their history. Werder finished the season in 12th place.
After just nine matches in the 2014/15 season, the club parted ways with head coach Robin Dutt. Up to that point, the Green-Whites had not won a single game. U23 coach Viktor Skripnik then took over.
Two former Werder players also joined his coaching team: Torsten Frings (assistant coach) and Christian Vander (goalkeeper coach). The new coach led the team from the bottom of the table to 10th place, including a run of five consecutive wins. However, Werder was again eliminated in the cup competition by a third-division side (Arminia Bielefeld), though they at least reached the round of 16 this season.
In 2015/16, Werder was deeply involved in the relegation battle. After the first half of the season, Werder occupied the relegation playoff spot. While the team improved significantly in the second half, their rivals also collected points regularly. On the final matchday, Werder was still in the playoff spot and faced 15th placed Eintracht Frankfurt in a must-win game. The match at the Weser-Stadion was 0-0 for a long time, a score that would have meant relegation for Werder. But two minutes before the end, Chelsea loanee Papy Djilobodji scored the 1-0 winning goal, throwing the stadium into ecstasy.
In the DFB-Pokal, Werder repeatedly surprised, defeating teams such as Borussia Mönchengladbach and Bayer Leverkusen in memorable matches. Their run ended narrowly in the semifinal, when they lost 0-2 to Bayern Munich.
After the season, Werder parted with managing director Thomas Eichin. Honorary captain Frank Baumann took over his post. After three defeats in the first three matches of the 2016/17 season, coach Viktor Skripnik was dismissed. Alexander Nouri took over as head coach, supported by assistant coaches Florian Bruns and Markus Feldhoff.
Emotional Highlights, Inconsistent Yield
“We have to win the fans back,” appealed former U23 coach Alexander Nouri to his new team, which had lost some credibility with the long-suffering supporters. And things got better. Dramatic home wins against Wolfsburg, Leverkusen — where the just 19-year-old Ousman Manneh scored not only the winning goal but also the first Bundesliga goal ever by a Gambian — and Ingolstadt left emotional marks that energized the crowd. However, Werder’s point tally remained inconsistent. Four consecutive one-goal defeats at the start of the year propelled the Green-Whites back into the relegation playoff spot.
)
No sane observer would have even remotely considered at that moment that just over two and a half months later, the team—far from any existential threat—would suddenly become a serious contender for European qualification for the first time in seven years. That turnaround began with a relieving 2-0 away win in Mainz, thanks to goals from Serge Gnabry, who had meanwhile debuted successfully for the national team, and winter signing Thomas Delaney.
The highlight of all this was a 2-0 home victory on matchday 31 over direct rival Hertha BSC, enabled by Fin Bartels and Max Kruse.
Kruse alone amassed a staggering 20 goal contributions in the second half of the season (13 goals—including a four-goal haul in Ingolstadt—and seven assists), and found a congenial partner in Bartels. Alexander Nouri’s team went unbeaten for eleven consecutive matches, obtaining nine wins and a goal difference of 28:9.
A severe blow during this period was the serious injury to captain Clemens Fritz in the match against Darmstadt, where Torsten Frings meanwhile began his first season as head coach. Fritz suffered a syndesmosis ligament tear in his 331st Bundesliga match, which foreshadowed the end of the 36-year-old’s career. Fritz, shortly thereafter named the club’s eighth honorary captain, had to watch the last three crucial matches for European qualification from the sidelines, in which his teammates again delivered spectacular football. Ultimately, they fell just a mere fifteen minutes short of the big coup.
After a 3-4 loss in Cologne and a 3-5 home defeat against Hoffenheim, in front of over 80,000 spectators at Borussia Dortmund, they summoned their last reserves to displace SC Freiburg from the seventh Europa League qualifying spot. Werder led 3-2 at Dortmund before the eventual DFB-Pokal winners scored two penalties late on to win. “Today, disappointment predominates, but we can be proud of the final table result,” summarized managing director Frank Baumann about their eighth place finish—the fourth-best second-half record in the league.
Anyone hoping for an end to the wavering that has characterized Werder’s recent club history had to wait further. Although Werder confidently won their DFB-Pokal opener at third-division Würzburger Kickers (3-0), their Bundesliga season soon slid into another negative spiral.
By matchday 10, even the most patient supporters in the East Stand had lost their temper. After Augsburg’s Michael Gregoritsch easily countered the visibly dazed home team to make it 0-3 that gloomy October afternoon, piercing whistles shook the Weser Stadium, again packed with 40,500 spectators.
)
“Support from the fans only comes when you give everything for the club, which unfortunately the players did not do today. That was unworthy of SV Werder,” Frank Baumann said unambiguously in anger. Still no win, only five points, and so far only three goals scored this season, and the resulting second-to-last place caused Alexander Nouri and his assistant Markus Feldhoff to be released on the morning of October 30.
Contact
Tel +49 (0) 421 - 43 45 90
Fax +49 (0) 421 - 49 35 55
SV Werder Bremen
Service Department
Franz-Böhmert-Straße 1c
28205 Bremen