It's here again at last! On Saturday, 31.01.2004, the barren period comes to an end, when, at 3:30pm, Werder Bremen await the visit of Hertha BSC Berlin. Thomas Schaaf is happy with his teams framework for the re-start: "We are ready! Our preparations have gone very well and we are looking forward to the rest of the season, our fans and a fantastic atmosphere in the stadium."

The spectators will surely provide some high spirits in the Weser stadium on Saturday, considering that up until Thursday some 33,000 tickets had gone over the counter. "Werder have never sold so many tickets in January before and we're expecting a further 3,000 sales before the weekend", according to Werders media director Tino Polster. The Werder fans will arrive in Weser stadium with great expectations. The last meetings between these sides will still be fresh in the memory of most Werder fans. Hertha were sent home after a 6:1 drubbing from Werder in the DFB cup at the beginning of December. The corresponding fixture in Berlin also left Werder hearts warm. A brace from Ailton and another from "Le Chef" Johan Micoud launched a brilliant start to this Bundesliga season, a similar start to the second half of the season would very much please all Werder fans. "The expectations and the euphoria from the fans is naturally massive, we are going to try continue to please the fans and pick up were we left off in December", said head coach Thomas Schaaf, who's main goal still remains a qualifying position for European competition next season. "If we can repeat our performances we can achieve evn more".

Hertha also had asspirations of Champions League participation at the start of the season. General manager Dieter Hoeness has had to re-think his goal since then. A record of just two wins and seven draws from seventeen games has left Hertha with relegation worries and nothing short of 100% from the re-start can save their blushes. Werder followed by VfB Stuttgart will pose a difficult start for the 'Berliners'. A toll of seven missing players for the start of the season dosen't improve matters.

Most recently, World Champion Luizao was injured in a friendly game against Karlsruher SC and had to undergo a hernia operation. Before that, Niko Kovac pulled knee ligamants, Denis Lapaczinski is suffering from an infected achilles tendon, Torben Marx is still nursing a cruciate ligament injury and Andreas Schmidt broke an ankle. Gabor Kiraly tore muscle ligaments in training passing on the responsibility between the posts to Christian Fiedler. To add to this, Refael is sitting out a ban after a red card. "The club and the team have a problem at the moment", commented Thomas Schaaf, who also sees danger amongst Herthas' misery: "We can't afford to be over confident going into this game, Berlin have good players at their disposal who can play good football. We have to remain focused."

But, Thomas Schaaf is confident that his team is aware of this danger: "The team have worked especially commitedly over the last few days and there's a good feeling within the side. We'll be well prepared going into this game." The trainer will also be confident in the knowledge that he can probably count on a full squad of players for Saturdays game. Following their injuries Frank Baumann, Mladen Krstajic and Angelos Charisteas all took part in full team training on Thursday afternoon.

A possible threat to the game could have been snowfall but according to Sport-director Klaus Allofs. "The underground heating has been going full blast since Tuesday, even if there is a light snow covering, the pitch is in good condition." So the fans should have nothing to worry about and can make their way to the stadium.