On Friday, 21.07.2006, Werder Bremen will play a further friendly in preparation for the 2006/2007 Bundesliga season at 6pm (Live on Eurosport). In Schruns the team from coach Thomas Schaaf will take on Turkish first division side MK Ankaragücü. Following extremely successful friendlies against TuS Pewsum (5:0), Germania Leer (3:0), den TSV Ottersberg (10:0) and Rot-Weiss Essen (5:0) , Werder have left a good impression of how things are going.

"We're coming into the hottest phase of our pre-season preparations now which means an improvement in the quality of the opponents", remarked general manager Klaus Allofs who sees the test against the side from the Turkish capital as a worthy one. Allofs continued: "From the previous winter trainings camp we know that Turkish sides are very hard to play against. Our team will be given a real challenge."

Ankaragücü finished the last season in 13th place in their league, just three points off the drop zone but have already had to deal with losing their top striker Umut Bulut (16 goals) to Trabzonspor. For the Turks, Bremen will be their fourth friendly during their stay in Austria. They lost 1:0 against Wacker Tirol, drew 1:1 with Czech first division side FK Jablonec whilst notching up their only win when they played another Czech side Slavia Prague (2:0). Before they face the Green-Whites on Friday, they will first play Poland's Lech Poznan on Wednesday, 19.07.2006 at 7pm.

The start of trainer Hikmet Karaman's side is ex-international Ilhan Mansiz. The 30 year old played his way into the limelight during the 2002 World Cup in Japan when the Turks surprisingly finished in third place. Mansiz played in all seven of his teams ties during the tournament and scored three important goals along the way including the extra time 1:0 winner in the quarter final against Senegal. The front man got his other two goals in the third place play-off when Turkey beat South Korea 3:2. The striker was also for a year at Hertha BSC Berlin but never got a run out and during the injury plagued season last season managed only four goals.