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Final Countdown for Bremen

DW staff (jdk)March 31, 2005

Reigning champions Werder Bremen are on their last legs. With only eight games remaining, Thomas Schaaf's side is six points behind the leaders. This Saturday, they face nearest rivals Stuttgart.

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Ivan Klasnic and Werder Bremen must win if they want the trophyImage: AP

Thomas Schaaf was happy to see a great majority of his squad at Tuesday's practice -- healthy. Others like strikers Ivan Klasnic (Croatia), Nelson Valdez (Paraguay) and midfielder Ludovic Magnin (Switzerland) all celebrated victories with their national teams on Wednesday. When they return to Bremen, they will be thrown again into the fire.

Bundesliga Thomas Schaaf jubelt Trainer Werder Bremen - Hamburger SV 6:0
Werder coach Thomas Schaaf in a familiar pose -- last season. A victory against Stuttgart would raise the possibility of a repeatImage: AP

Bremen stand in fourth-place in the league on 47 points, six points behind Bayern Munich and Schalke 04. They continue to hope they can retain the title and will start this weekend against their nearest rival in the standings, Stuttgart who are in third on 48 points.

Matthias Sammer's side is equally hungry for the Bundesliga championship. An unimpressive win against hapless Freiburg on March 20 was not the best presupposition for a title run. Nevertheless, there is talk of it. German international defender Philipp Lahm, on loan from Bayern Munich until the end of this season, is the latest Stuttgart player to express this desire: "I want to be champion with Stuttgart; that's my goal," he told kicker magazine.

Bayern and Munich look to keep distance

Bayern Munich and Schalke 04 naturally have other ideas. Schalke 04 handed the league-lead back to Felix Magath's Munich on the 26th match-day after being at the top only one week.

Ralf Rangnick's Royal Blues suffered a humiliating 2-1 defeat against promoted side Mainz but they can depend on the services of international striker Gerald Asamoah who has recovered from a torn thigh muscle. Schalke host Nuremberg and the league's leading goal scorer, Marek Mintal. When these two sides met in the first leg, two Nuremberg players were sent off the pitch in the first 33 minutes.

Bundesliga 26. Spieltag Bayern München gegen Hansa Rostock
Bayern Munich scored the tying goal against Rostock on March 19, the Bavarians went on to win the match and ended at the top of the standings againImage: dpa

Wolfsburg (8th-place, 37 points) are Bayern Munich's opponent on Saturday -- it couldn't be more opportune for Felix Magath's team. Against no other squad have Bayern had more success. 12 wins in 15 fixtures, only one loss. The only glimmers of hope for Erik Gerets' Wolves are Bayern's weakness on the road (four points in their last four road contests) and the fact that so many Munich players were playing for their national teams in World Cup qualifiers the past ten days.

Felix Magath points out however that Bayern's toughest matches are behind them and the only thing that counts is how things look at the end of the season.

Still a hot battle for European money

The fight for the all-important fifth-place in the Bundesliga and a spot in the UEFA Cup next season is being carried out by three clubs: Hertha Berlin (44 points) , Bayer Leverkusen (43) and Hamburger SV (43). Hamburg have the easiest opponent: last-place Freiburg. Thomas Doll's first game as Hamburg coach was against Freiburg and it was a full-blown success: 4-0. Freiburg are floundering and nothing short of a wonder can save Volker Finke's club from dropping down into the second division next season.

Bayer Leverkusen travel to Bielefeld, a club that also has presented few problems for the aspirin-makers from the Rhine. Klaus Augenthaler's side hasn't lost to Bielefeld since 1997. Bielefeld have a brutal schedule at the moment, coming up against top teams (Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart) and walking away losers. They lie ten points from the relegation zone but can't relax yet as they still must face rejuvenated Kaiserslautern and Dortmund in the next two weeks.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen - Hertha BSC Berlin
Berlin's Marcelinho -- here with red hair. Might it be another color this week?Image: dpa

Berlin have the most difficult match, that at Dortmund on Sunday. Falko Götz' Berlin are playing confidently but they face an opponent whom they have not been able to overcome. At least not on the road. Berlin have beaten the Black and Yellow only once in Dortmund and that in 1972. A miserable historical statistic. Yet more recent history, the second leg, shows that Hertha are a team to contend with having lost only once in their last ten games.

Last gasps at the bottom

Bochum lie in 16th-place on 22 points but still hope reel in one more club above them. They can start on Sunday when they welcome 15th-place Mönchengladbach (28 points). Bochum tore apart a weak Wolfsburg side almost two weeks ago, 5-1. If that continues, they may stay in the top league next season.

Bochum Trainer Peter Neururer
Bochum coach Peter Neururer has been scratching his head the whole 2004/2005 seasonImage: dpa

Gladbach are still struggling. The traditional club's leaders brought in former Dutch coach Dick Advocaat last autumn to shake things up. However, he has not been the solution for a team that has overwhelmingly underperformed. Expensive acquisitions have done nothing to bring the team out of the relegation fight. A loss would put another chink in the armor of the "General", Advocaat's nickname.

Rostock are also clutching at any and every straw in their bid to stay in the top division. Jörg Berger's club has managed to win two of their last three matches but lie eight points back of a spot that would retain their status in the first league. On the Rostock Web site, midfielder Markus Lantz said that "five or six wins" are needed the last eight weeks -- that's one or two more than they've accumulated in 26 games.

Bundesliga 26. Spieltag FSV Mainz 05 gegen Schalke 04
Mainz' Fabian Gerber celebrated his goal after only 20 seconds of play and Schalke went down 2-1Image: AP

Promoted side Mainz (30 points) shocked Schalke on the 26th match day. They have collected seven points the last three matches to drag themselves away from the relegation zone. Jürgen Klopp's boys are very close to pulling off that which no one would have dreamed of in August 2004, namely a second year in the Bundesliga.

In the final match, Kaiserslautern (36 points) face Hanover (35). Neither side can hope to accomplish much the remainder of this season. Kaiserslautern could conceivably qualify for the UEFA Cup. Hanover on the other hand have been sliding downwards since the start of the second leg.