Two friendlies in one day! It will be a friendly match double header for the Green-Whites on Saturday, 16th July. Following a game against a Neuruppin town XI at midday, Viktor Skripnik’s team will face VfB Lübeck, who won last year’s WIESENHOF Tennis Ball Challenge. The clash against the Regionalliga side will conclude Werder’s first pre-season training camp.
An intense first week of preparation is coming to a close. The friendly against the fourth division side from Schleswig-Holstein at the stadium in Lohmühle will signal the end of the first part of Werder’s long pre-season. The first match between the two teams was played on 13th November 1949. Both teams were in the Oberliga Nord and met on matchday four of the season. Bremen won 6-0 in front of their own fans and 2-0 in the return match. Lübeck were relegated into the Landesliga at the conclusion of the season. The clubs encountered each other four more times in the 1960 in the Oberliga Nord and the Green-Whites were never on the losing side, winning three and drawing one match.
VfB Lübeck finished the 2015/16 season seventh in the Reginalliga and will be coached by Rolf Landerl for the upcoming campaign. The 40-year-old played for the club between 2009 and 2011 and will be able to impart a vast amount of experience onto his team throughout the coming season. As well as captain Moritz Marheineke who has played 243 competitive matches for VfB, Stefan Richter, Jonas Toboll and new recruit Gary Zoel are the team’s most experienced players.
The clubs have met each other twice in the DFB Cup in the recent past and one of these matches sticks particularly in the mind of the Werder fans. In the Green-Whites double winning season in 2003/2004, the teams went head-to-head in the semi-final of the DFB Cup. The then second division side Lübeck managed to surprise everyone and make it to the semi-final of the cup. The match went to extra time after finishing 1-1 after 90 minutes, in which the visitors took the lead in the Weser-Stadion. Fan favourite Ailton and his South-American strike partner however turned the game in SVW’s favour and lead the team to the final. Sporting director Frank Baumann and head coach Viktor Skripnik were both a part of the Werder team that day. Reaching the final four is still the biggest success in Lübeck’s history so far however they were also relegated to the third division that season.
The sides will meet again on Saturday after a twelve year break. Fans from both sides will probably be speaking about that legendary evening in the cup from 16th March 2004. The hosts will quite possibly be looking to avenge one of the most painful defeats in Lübeck’s history in some small way and make life as difficult as possible in the final friendly of Borussia’s training camp.
