With their victory against Stuttgart, SC Freiburg managed to avoid a complete false start to the season. In Bremen, the team now wants to show that it has successfully pressed the restart button.
After two defeats at the start of the season, Freiburg were “under a lot of pressure,” as Matthias Ginter admitted after the late victory against VfB, and are hoping for a “starting signal for the season.” Coach Julian Schuster was most impressed by the fact that the team managed to “come back” after two games without points and trailing until the 80th minute. Every athlete knows that this is very difficult. “The clock is ticking, you want to force things, but that’s often not the right advice. The team was very disciplined and waited for their moments,” he said in the press conference before the game at SV Werder Bremen. “The most important thing for me was to see passion and energy on the pitch, great unity and cohesion – I saw that, plus patience and discipline.”
This week, there was also talk of “certain parallels to last season.” Curiously, the basic course of the game against Stuttgart was the same as a year ago against the same opponent, in the first Bundesliga game of the then new Bundesliga coach Schuster. Back then, former SC striker Ermedin Demirovic had also put the Swabians in the lead, and the Sport-Club turned it around to a 3-1 victory – albeit much earlier. The equalizer came in the first half, with the other two goals coming before the 61st minute.
The Freiburg team would certainly have no objection to a parallel in the upcoming game. They won 1-0 in Bremen on the sixth matchday of the previous season. However, the goal scorer from that game is no longer on board. The goal was scored by Ritsu Doan, who celebrated his successful Champions League debut with Eintracht Frankfurt yesterday.
Bremen also has a new coach on the sidelines, and some of the players from the starting lineup at that time are no longer there because they have left the club or are injured. “But they are very strong again and can be dangerous in front of goal,” Schuster said of Werder. In addition to new signing Samuel Mbangula, he also named Jens Stage as “an exciting player who always causes trouble in the defensive line.” If they are outplayed, Bremen would “go to great lengths” to fix it.
“International derby” on Wednesday
He also expects a very confident opponent after Werder’s 4-0 win in Mönchengladbach. But that also applies to his team after their late victory against Stuttgart. “But that was just one step, nothing more,” said Schuster, “we have to keep orienting ourselves to the bar we have set for ourselves – in training and also at the weekend.” And from next week onwards, that will also apply during the week, as the busy schedule of Europa League games begins. FC Basel will visit Freiburg on Wednesday for the first “international derby” (Schuster).
