On Saturday, 16 October 2010 at 3:30 p.m. another surprise guest from the upper sections of the table arrive as fifth placed Freiburg come to play Werder Bremen at Weser Stadium. On the one hand, Werder head coach Thomas Schaaf’s team had a positive experience during the season preparations, winning 2-1 against Freiburg in July. "They played football, passed to one another relatively quickly and were very intensive," said Schaaf about the test match. On the other hand – and that may be more important – "they took the good form into the season" and laid the foundation to gather points. Freiburg all told have collected 12 points for their best season start of all time.

How much can they build upon the start in Bremen? "There are some parameters that indicate that we continue to development very well," said Freiburg coach Robin Dutt looking back at the recent stretch of matches as well as Freiburg’s two losses last season against Bremen – 6-0 and 4-0. Freiburg mainly want to learn from the experience after years of being a serious relegation candidate.

The national team break served as an excellent chance for Werder to return to health for important pillars such as Claudio Pizarro, Torsten Frings, Clemens Fritz, Philipp Bargfrede and Tim Borowski. But that was one of the very few positive aspects of the league break. "We would have much rather worked with the complete roster to break down certain things – that works best with everyone together on the training grounds," said Schaaf. There are enough points for the team to work on and improve. "Leverkusen was an excellent step forward," said Schaaf. But the coach hopes that the next steps follow against Freiburg, Enschede, Gladbach, Bayern and … "We have to accompany everything with results."