Athletic Club - Werder Bremen

Athletic Club lost to Werder Bremen by 0-3 in the last match day round of the UEL’s Group Stage, the goals were scored by Pizarro, Naldo and Rosenberg, all three during the first half. All of which occurred in a match that won’t go down in history, against a much better rival team, and which was the only game we could afford to lose. The highlight was the début of another player from the junior ranks, Jon Aurtenetxe. Let’s put it this way, the biggest defeat in a continental competition, to date, at home in club history, but still it was the least disappointing. It’s worth mentioning that the two recent biggest defeats were, the 0-1 score against Young Boys at the end of July this year, which had opened Pandora’s Box for a team who had hardly broken out in a sweat, and recalling the ill-fated 1-2 outcome against Austria de Viena during the 2004/2005 season.

Well it’s true that Athletic and their followers have a superb antidote, which is no other than a ticket to the round of 16 final of the UEL and that means no continental headache for us, at least, until the end of February 2010. Our rival will be known during the draw to be held on Friday, 18 December as of 13:00 hours in Nyon where President Fernando García Macua will be on behalf of the club.

Our next rival will be drawn from an almost completed list, as there are still matches left to be played on Thursday, most of them with pedigree and with accredited continental experience. To start with four teams from the Champions League: Juventus, Olympique Marsella, Wolfsburg and Unirea, and the rest being the Group Stage First Place getters: Sporting de Portugal, Benfica, Roma, Galatasaray, Salzburg, Fenerbahçe, Shakhtar and PSV. There are only three rivals still to be determined, either Hamburg or Happoel, one of these teams; Valencia, Lille or Genoa (Valencia would under no circumstance be our rival in this eliminatory) and either Ajax or Anderlecht. Evaluations a plenty surrounding the rival who’ll visit San Mamés on 18 February, Osasuna are waiting for us on Saturday, which is just around the corner, a match that will draw an intense 2009 to a close.

As already mentioned, Werder Bremen’s visit won’t go down in football history or perhaps it’s better to say that the match is history. Athletic received, in a short period of time, a good dose of their own medicine and, in this sense, the German effectiveness was praiseworthy, based, that’s for sure, on a very vertical game, with constant searches from behind the defence, a lot of mobility and great class and speed when it came to most of its players and their moves. What’s more during the first twenty minutes their first two approaches (a header by Pizarro from a pass by Rosenberg and a foul kick that was finished off with a header by Naldo after having struck San José) both ended up being goals without our goalkeeper being able to come into contact with the ball, time to call it a day! We had gone from needing a 3-1 score to needing a 5-2 score something straight out of a science fiction movie.

Rosenberg had another goal-scoring opportunity in the 23rd minute and didn’t let the next one get away in the 35th minute upon gathering up a ball that had been cleared by the defence and then went on to send the ball with great class through the only possible gap. Between the second and third goal there were some signs of a red-white reaction by way of an attempted chip shot by De Cerio that was salvaged by the rival goalkeeper and even the referee could not be accused of any type of negligence, seeing that even his offside rulings were almost 100% spot on.

In any other match a 0-3 score at half-time would have brought about protests from the stands, but as there is always an exception to the rule, the many spectators at San Mamés seemed to know deep down that leaving Werder in second place was a mammoth task and that what’s done is done. Well, after having seen the way things were going, the most sensible thing to do was to save energy in light of the upcoming match against Osasuna, both on and off the field.

In spite of everything, the beginning of the second half was encouraging; Toquero had an opportunity after intercepting a pass from Susaeta, cleared by Wiese that went straight to the feet of Muniain, who couldn’t get the last pass right. On the next occasion the goalie was able to block Toquero’s shot at goal. Shortly afterwards Etxeberria and David López had stepped in for De Cerio (who was on field for the longest time to date in an Athletic Club official match) but their strength was already on the wane and the rival reply was also not worth boasting about, two shots at goal taken by Jensen and Rosenberg were caught by Iraizoz.

The Germans also made some substitutions to their line up thinking more about the Bundesliga, and while Athletic made an effort to score a consolation goal and Werder made an effort to put the match to sleep, the minutes ticked on uneventfully with the exception of an opportunity by Iñigo Pérez, who had opted for a pass to the centre despite having a clear shot at goal. In the end, a freezing night at San Mamés, we hope that this won’t be a prelude to Saturday’s match against Osasuna which we hope will be be a lot warmer. Sure it will be!