Werder Bremen 2006/2007

Hugo Almeida has been called up by Scolari to the Portuguese National team.

Scolari has called several other young talents in what seems to be the beginning of a rebuilding fase for Portugal. Almeida is IMO critical to this new batch of players including Carlos Martins, João Moutinho, Ricardo Quaresma and of course Hugo Almeida.

Luso 'Sporting' wrote:Hugo Almeida has been called up by Scolari to the Portuguese National team.

...and we Bremen fans are very happy about it.

Luso 'Sporting' wrote:Almeida is IMO critical to this new batch of players including Carlos Martins, João Moutinho, Ricardo Quaresma and of course Hugo Almeida.

Why that?

He's critical to our new squad as we need good strikers. Pauleta has finally quite and so now others that actually have talent can come in.

Step forward Hugo Almeida.

Luso 'Sporting' wrote:He's critical to our new squad as we need good strikers. Pauleta has finally quite and so now others that actually have talent can come in.

Step forward Hugo Almeida.

You don't think Hugoal is a good striker then? He has scored two times in two matches for Bremen so far...that's pretty good if you ask me and he's still so young.

Exactly the opposite mate. I do think he's a quality striker, hence him being of critical importance to the new squad.

Now that Pauleta is gone, Hugo can begin to find space for himself within the NT.

Luso 'Sporting' wrote:Exactly the opposite mate. I do think he's a quality striker, hence him being of critical importance to the new squad.

Now that Pauleta is gone, Hugo can begin to find space for himself within the NT.

Oh, I misunderstood you then, sorry. I think he has good chances to be in the starting line-up for the first time on Friday when we will beat Schalke...

No prob.

Hopefully I'll be able to catch that match. I'd like to see Hugo in action as I haven't had the chance yet.

Is the match home or away? Should be away I think.

Luso 'Sporting' wrote:No prob.

Hopefully I'll be able to catch that match. I'd like to see Hugo in action as I haven't had the chance yet.

Is the match home or away? Should be away I think.

Yep, it's away...the good thing is they have a closeable roof at Schalke, the weather is pretty bad over here these days...

Yea, Shalke's stadium is pretty impressive.

They were pretty busy buying players last year, but from what I know it didn't work out for them.

Do you think they'll have a better squad this season? What is a realistic goal for them domestically?

Playing Uefa Cup this year right?

They are playing the UEFA Cup this season, that's correct. Their goal is to win the championship, they actually believe that they will. They do have a strong squad, but CL qualification (third place) is the max. I expect them to achieve this year.

@blutgraetsche

So tomorrow is the CL draw. Any special wishes?

Hmm, no special wishes really, although I'd like us to settle the score with Lyon. CL will be very tough this year anyway, a lot of excellent sides in the competition, so it doesn't make that much of a difference who we play against. I don't want to have Barca and Chelsea in our group though.

blutgraetsche wrote:Hmm, no special wishes really, although I'd like us to settle the score with Lyon. CL will be very tough this year anyway, a lot of excellent sides in the competition, so it doesn't make that much of a difference who we play against. I don't want to have Barca and Chelsea in our group though.

Yeah, but I think one of the English teams would be nice for a change...

Yeah, English clubs definitely prefered. Imagine what will happen here if we manage to kick them out of the competition...

Lyon would be a very hard nut to crack, but I guess our guys would be extra motivated.

blutgraetsche wrote:Yeah, English clubs definitely prefered. Imagine what will happen here if we manage to kick them out of the competition...

hehe...

blutgraetsche wrote:
Lyon would be a very hard nut to crack, but I guess our guys would be extra motivated.

I would surely be nice to return that 7-3 favour, but it would be so great to play in England for a change. But however, no more Italian teams for some time, please...

2006/2007 UEFA Champions League

Group A
FC Barcelona (ESP)
Chelsea FC (ENG)
Werder Bremen (GER)
PFC Levski Sofia (BUL)

Group B
FC Internazionale Milano (ITA)
FC Bayern München (GER)
Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR)
FC Spartak Moskva (RUS)

Group C
Liverpool FC (ENG)
PSV Eindhoven (NED)
FC Girondins de Bordeaux (FRA)
Galatasaray SK (TUR)

Group D
Valencia CF (ESP)
AS Roma (ITA)
Olympiacos CFP (GRE)
FC Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)

Group E
Real Madrid CF (ESP)
Olympique Lyonnais (FRA)
FC Steaua Bucuresti (ROU)
FC Dynamo Kyiv (UKR)

Group F
Manchester United FC (ENG)
Celtic FC (SCO)
SL Benfica (POR)
FC København (DEN)

Group G
Arsenal FC (ENG)
FC Porto (POR)
PFC CSKA Moskva (RUS)
Hamburger SV (GER)

Group H
AC Milan (ITA)
LOSC Lille Métropole (FRA)
AEK Athens FC (GRE)
RSC Anderlecht (BEL)

Oh well, hopefully we can at least improve our image abroad...and we can still win the UEFA Cup...

Very very tough group for you guys , so how many points do you see yourself getting.

BilalShah wrote:Very very tough group for you guys , so how many points do you see yourself getting.

No need to count I guess, becoming first or second would be a wonder...
But I think place three is realistic, so it's UEFA Cup for us after the Group stage...at least it's propably better for collecting points for the UEFA rating.
The "funny" thing is I thought the whole time "everything but not Chelsea and Barca" and now exactly this happened...it's all my fault...

I think you need 7 points to get in the Uefa cup

chrissicross wrote:

BilalShah wrote:Very very tough group for you guys , so how many points do you see yourself getting.

No need to count I guess, becoming first or second would be a wonder...
But I think place three is realistic, so it's UEFA Cup for us after the Group stage...at least it's propably better for collecting points for the UEFA rating.
The "funny" thing is I thought the whole time "everything but not Chelsea and Barca" and now exactly this happened...it's all my fault...

You guys play terrific, and now its time to just go for the jugular, so to speak.
If you guys play YOUR game, with Klose, I can see you making EVERYONE difficult, and nipping points away from every opponent.
Who said that you won't get through!?



Right now they're just names. Nothing more, you should just make sure you score. For all their big names, both Chelsea's and Barca's defense are (at times) shaky. Chelsea's in particlur aren't exactly greased lightning on the floor. Not imposible to score against.

Anything can happen in football but Chelsea and Barca are big favourites to go through.

What's the deal with Bayern my Werder friends?

Sporting will have to work pretty hard to take them down I'm sure, but I think we could have the advantage of being underestimated.

Sporting has players of similar calibre to Diego and Hugo Almeida...they did come from FC Porto who we battle for the league pretty equally...perhaps that will help you evaluate.

Luso 'Sporting' wrote:What's the deal with Bayern my Werder friends?

Sporting will have to work pretty hard to take them down I'm sure, but I think we could have the advantage of being underestimated.

Sporting has players of similar calibre to Diego and Hugo Almeida...they did come from FC Porto who we battle for the league pretty equally...perhaps that will help you evaluate.

It's difficult to rate your chances against Bayern, because I don't know much about the Portuguese League. On paper I think Bayern should be clear favourites, but on the other side they're relatively weak at the moment imo. They lost a few players (Lizarazu, Ze Roberto), did not sign a replacement for Ballack, Deisler and Ismael are long-term injured. So they have lost depth and apart from that they are still looking for the right post Ballack formation and some of their players are still lacking fitness (Podolski). Now the problems with Hargeaves, who was/is planned to take an important role in the team now, and their recent 4-0 loss against Barca.
But then again, NEVER underestimate Bayern...in Germany we say "Bayern are best when they are really worse" (don't know if this translation is correct/makes sense ).

Don't worry about the translation, I get it

Sporting has 4 Portuguese internationals in their starting team: Ricardo, Caneira, Moutinho, Martins.

Brazilian Int.: Polga (World Cup winner)
Paraguay Int.: Paredes
Uruguay Int.: Bueno

Portugal U-21: Custodio, Nani, Djalo, Veloso etc.
Brazil U-23: Liedson

Just a few to give an idea...

Think of it this way though, you might have questioned Porto's quality and yet they had players like Diego and Hugo Almeida...sitting on the bench.

Sporting isn't the best team in Europe, but they are very compitent.

@Luso 'Sporting'

A user from the Werder forum was so kind to translate this interview in Portuguese language with Diego to German, but he did not know what "namorada" means, for example in this passage:

O meia também contou um pouco de sua vida pessoal na Alemanha. Ainda morando em um hotel, o jogador aproveita o tempo livre para ficar com a namorada – que deve voltar em breve ao Brasil – e para passear por Bremen, cidade "pequena e acolhedora". O meia diz que ainda está "apanhando" do idioma alemão, mas que em setembro começará a freqüentar aulas no idioma.

Do you perhaps know what it means?

Yup, it means "girlfriend".

Luso
Bayern will be tough to beat , they always are and its harder to beat them when they are down(like Chrissi said).

ein bißchen MUT, Jungs!!!

Tried to log on to the forum yesterday pm when I heard the news about Group A to laugh, but my computer was playing up.

Seriously though, how I laughed. Though I'm disappointed at how well Chelsea seem to be taking it... I was expecting some screams of outrage at least.

Bye bye José, AUF GEHT'S BREMEN!!!

All the very best, I really think you should be more confident. I certainly am for you.

Blut, you said you were coming to London in October – are you playing Chelsea then? Sorry, I have no idea... will you try to get tickets?

Will try and catch you tonight if I can get someone to watch the Schalke game with me. What fun...

chrissi/blut come on get your boys to do the job in the ECl i´ve backed you in the pick em tournie

Luso 'Sporting' wrote:Yup, it means "girlfriend".

Okay, thanks. I think I will enlighten him then with MY () unlimited knowledge of foreign languages...