Sunderland began their pre-season tour of Germany by drawing 1-1 with Arminia Bielefeld. Stephane Sessegnon levelled the scores, after Agyemang had scored from the spot.

For the majority of it, the game was pretty dull. Neither side took the bull by the horns and seized initiative. But after Arminia scored, it gave us a kick up the arse we needed and sparked us into life. After that the game was stretched and both sides had chances to win it.

Before the match the atmosphere inside the Schuco Arena was one of excitement, expectancy and optimism. For one, Brucey had decided to show off some of his new signings in the form of John O’Shea, David Vaughan, Seb Larsson, and Ji Dong-Won.

But more importantly, and in tradition in pre-season, it gave us an opportunity to sample some foreign beer at the local just behind the away stand. We had to drink there because there was no booze allowed in the ground amid fears of naughtiness, Darlington, take note.

Yet on a sour note, the weather was shit. But on the brightside there was a standing section, which made for an excellent atmosphere amongst the travelling faithful.

Anyway, we lined up like this:
Mignolet
O’Shea Bramble Tuner Bardsley
Larsson Cattermole [C] Vaughan Richardson
Malbranque
Dong-Won

The first twenty minutes in all truth were boring. Both teams were guilty of giving the ball away cheaply and neither of them managed to forge any real noticeable opportunities.

It took us about 25 minutes for us to pick up a head of steam. Our finest South Korean export (Dong-Won if you didn’t know) was inches away from connecting with Rico’s pass, before Titus fluffed his kick from a corner.

But it was the hosts that had the best chance. One of their lads played a teasing ball across, but Schuler couldn’t put his big German toe on the end of it.

It got worse. Thirty-three minutes into his debut O’Shea went off injured. Bugger. It looked a fairly innocuous one; he just played the ball then hit the deck. But Bruce didn’t risk him and Ferdinand came on as his replacement.

And that’s all that happened in the first 45. It was lacklustre, scrappy, disjointed and void of any imagination.

So after the re-start, Bruce brought on Sess and Wickham for Steed and Ji. We started the half brightly; Turner put a header just wide from a corner before Sess lashed a shot straight against a defender.

SB kept on ringing the changes, and introduced Colback, Gardner and Elmo into the fray. But the changes didn’t work because for the second time on the bounce we gave away another clumsy penalty. Elmo was adjudged to have pulled one of their lads whilst defending a corner and the ref pointed to the spot. Agyemang then sent the Mig the wrong way. 1-0 Arminia.

It must be said, though, their keeper was a nutcase. He first ran out to the corner flag to tackle Wickham before running out the edge of his box to header a ball. Completely mental.

About ten minutes later we were back in the game. Turner flicked on Larsson’s corner and there was Sess to drill home the equaliser. Gerrrin! 1-1. From then on the game was end-to-end, with Gardner making a great last-ditch tackle to keep the German’s at bay.

And that was that. If only the last twenty minutes replicated the first 70, we would’ve had a cracking game on our hands. Sadly, for large parts, it was a bit boring. Still, it was a good work out for the players.

Final Score: 1-1

ALS Man of the Match: For me I’m going to go with Sess – he was bright and lively when he came on, plus he scored.

Chris Glancey

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