VfB Stuttgart 07/08 Thread [R]

[footyfan1]

Btw, I didn't mean to say that Schalke didn't deserve the point. It's just that Stuttgart was too stupid to hold on to the lead while being the better side.

It was a great game to watch though. I hope that the international audience had the patience to sit through the first half, because the second half was a great promotion for the Bundesliga.


I certainly agree with that entire post!

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Finally found some internet - my thoughts on the game:

We clearly started off better than Schalke and were the much better team for the first half an hour, but then the whole gameplan turned around when Schalke hit that very lucky(and for Hilbert, unfortunate) goal out of nowhere. After this i became a bit nervous since Schalke was defending very well and we were having trouble creating chances. In the second half they were the more dangerous side early on with some very good counters and Schaefer kept us in the game with one fantastic block. Finally, after over an hour, we got a great chance with that through ball to Khedira, who was then able to take advantage of it and equalize. 4 minutes later, Cacau had a brilliant shot saved by Neuer but Marica showed good speed to get to the ball before neuer and then fall for the penalty (it was a 100% penalty in my opinion, we were not lucky there). Pardo then shot it perfectly to give us the lead.

i was of course thrilled, we had turned around a game just like last season. Really at this point, with 20 minutes remaining, we should have held on. We had consistently been the better side during the game, and now that we had the lead for the first time it should have allowed us to play our strong counter attacking football and we should have been able to hold on to or even strengthen our advantage. We failed, and this was the only dissapointment of the night. Our defense fell asleep after our 2-1, and Rakitic, who i believe will become a top BL player quite soon, did perfectly to outsmart the defender and score. 2-2.

I think we could have and perhaps should have won the game, but since we were 1-0 down at halftime, and this was Schalke after all, i can live with this score. Ultimately the most important thing on the 1. Spieltag is to see how the team plays, where their form is at, and to me it seems VfB is right where it left off last season, which is very positive and encouraging, so on the whole i am satisfied witht he team, though not entirely witht he result - hopefully we ll be able to get our first 3 points 5 days from now! :)

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

My player ratings:

Raphael Schaefer: Schalke had 3 great chances in the game, two were goals. Schaefer can not be blamed for either of the goals, and he made a brilliant stop when Schalke could have finished off the game, so it was a good debut for him overall.
My rating: 3
Kicker rating: 3

Arthur Boka: Made quite a few mistakes, his passes werent always precise, he lost some balls, but his fighting spirit was still great and nobody ran more during the game than he did. His performance was solid even if not brilliant.
My rating: 3.5
Kicker rating: 3.5

Fernando Meira: Played a very good game for almost the entire match, the captains only fault was that he, in my opinion, is most easy to blame for the 2-2 equalizer since he allowed Rakitic to get past him quite easily. But generally played well.
My rating: 3.5
Kicker rating: 3.5

Serdar Tasci: Our best defender on Friday. Made little to no mistakes, did not put a foot wrong anywhere, and was even occasionally helpful when going forward.
My rating: 2.5
Kicker rating: 3

Roberto Hilbert: Played out of position at rightback, he had a solid game overall, by the second half, when he gotten used to his position, he playedvery well. However, due to his unlucky deflection for the 0-1, its almost impossible to give him a good rating.
My rating: 4
Kicker rating: 2.5

Pavel Pardo: As last season, controlled the game well, played intelligently and gave many good passes, also won quite a few balls. And his penalty for the 2-1 was shot perfectly.
My rating: 2.5
Kicker rating: 2.5

Thomas Hitzlsperger: The worst player on this night. Was toos low most of the time, and his passes were not good enough. He lost quite a lot of balls and only started to play better in the second half of the second half. A bit off the form of last spring.
My rating: 4.5
Kicker rating: 4

Sami Khedira: The man of the match in my opinion. Made many good passes and many good runs, was imaginative and smart. In the second half, he struck a very nice goal that brought us back into the game. And even when we were at our lowpoint in the match and almost everyone was underperforming, Sami was still doing well.
My rating: 2
Kicker rating: 2(man of the match)

Toni da Silva: Very active. Had quite a lot of nice passes and nice dribbles, however also lost the ball quite a few times. It was quite a good performance by him overall though it will be hard for him to keep his spot once Basturk is fit.
My rating: 3.5
Kicker rating: 4.5

Cacau: I thought he played quite poorly in the first half, he and Marica dont know each other too well yet so thats understandable that they were not yet able to connect brilliantly. However, Cacau played a key role in the 2-1 when he forced that brilliant save from Neuer that ultimately led to the penalty.
My rating: 3.5
Kicker rating: 4

Marica: Was the more noticeable of the two forwards, he was quite dangerous in the first half, often causing problems. His speed won us a penalty in the second half which was well done. Also made some mistakes, hes not quite familiar enough with the teams playing style yet, but overall it was a promising debut, and i believe this guy could play a good role for us in the coming seasons, perhaps even in this one.
My rating: 3.5
Kicker rating: 4

[GUYJ]

Very entertaining match to watch. I hope we're on GOL alot like last year. As the champs there is no reason why we shouldn't be.

[stonesean]

Very entertaining match to watch. I hope we're on GOL alot like last year. As the champs there is no reason why we shouldn't be.

Pardo and Osorio make it certain.

Unless they go to Duisburg or something, we will have no problem seeing VfB on Television....

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

News with VfB:

Hitzlsperger prolongs contract to 2010:
http://www.vfb.de/de/aktuell/news/2007/11811.php

Good news :)

aand, a VfB team not consisting of Boka, Delpierre, Gomez, Cacau (all injured) and also missing Schaefer, Osorio, Tasci, Maiera, Pardo, Hilbert and Khedira won 8-0 in a friendly match against Spvgg Ludwigsburg

VfB 8(Ewerthon, Marica, Ewerthon, Farnerud, Ewerthon, Mandjeck, Ewerthon, Fischer)
Ludwigsburg 0

Team : Langer - Beck, Pischorn, Gledson (46. Pisot), Magnin (58. da Silva) - Mandjeck, Meißner, Bastürk (46. Hitzlsperger), Farnerud - Ewerthon, Marica (46. Fischer)

so it seems like the team, without anyone who started against Schalke besides Marica and Hitzlsperger, put in a solid performance. We saw the first VfB goals for Ewerthon and Mandjeck, and it seems like especially Ewerthon was on good form. With Gomez and Cacau injured, maybe we will see Ewerthon start for the first time against Hertha?

[Fußballgott]

So you think Ewerthon is back in form? Good to hear. :)
Wanted to also write about Hitz contract but took about 20 minutes to finish my post. :o
Back to watching Spartak - Celtic.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

I dont know if he was off-form or not, we haven t really seen much of him yet - but this is a good sign :)

My tip: he will start against Hertha.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

More VfB news:

a kicker article on Ewerthon:
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/artikel/139060/

news on the Hertha game:
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/artikel/368733/

It seems both Cacau and GOmez will miss this game, meaning we will almost certainly play with one striker. In good news however, it seems Basturk will be fit to play his first game for VfB against his ex-club.

Also, some other very positive news:
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/nationalelf/startseite/artikel/368723/

Khedira and Tasci were both selected for the first time to play in the German national team. Fully deserved in my opinion, i look forward to seeing what impact they will have.

[benztown]

More VfB news:

a kicker article on Ewerthon:
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/artikel/139060/

news on the Hertha game:
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/artikel/368733/

It seems both Cacau and GOmez will miss this game, meaning we will almost certainly play with one striker. In good news however, it seems Basturk will be fit to play his first game for VfB against his ex-club.

Also, some other very positive news:
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/nationalelf/startseite/artikel/368723/

Khedira and Tasci were both selected for the first time to play in the German national team. Fully deserved in my opinion, i look forward to seeing what impact they will have.

I'd still hope for two strikers. Marica has been pretty good so far and Ewerthon seems to finally find his form. The only problem with that is, that we'd either have to leave out one midfielder (probably Khedira who would deserve to be a starter) or start with Hilbert as right fullback again.


Good for Tasci and Khedira to be called up for the game against England. I hope they both get some playing time.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Yesterday was a really dissappointing performance, im not even going to get into it.

To fall apart the way we did in the second half is terrible, it all started due to the pathetic refereeing decision to give Hertha a penalty, but that is no excuse for the way the team played.

I wont give any ratings, wont comment any further on this game, but what i will do is say that we must win our next game or we will have officially ********ed up the season-start. One bad loss is not too bad, and i have faith that their performance will improve for the next games, but we still must ensure that such performances arent repeated too much more often.

[schwabe13]

Yesterday was a really dissappointing performance, im not even going to get into it.

To fall apart the way we did in the second half is terrible, it all started due to the pathetic refereeing decision to give Hertha a penalty, but that is no excuse for the way the team played.

I wont give any ratings, wont comment any further on this game, but what i will do is say that we must win our next game or we will have officially ********ed up the season-start. One bad loss is not too bad, and i have faith that their performance will improve for the next games, but we still must ensure that such performances arent repeated too much more often.

good post repped !

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

I'm back in Stuttgart and waiting for the Duisburg game :)

Some good news is that Gomez should be fit to play against Duisburg, which is very important since none of our goals so far this season have come from an attacker. It's very important to have him back.

This game will also be very important, we can not let ourselves slip too far behind, we really should win this. I think we will, but one sees what Duisburg did away to DOrtmund and last week they were unlucky to lose to Wolfsburg so we really shouldn't underestimate them.

[stonesean]

I'm back in Stuttgart and waiting for the Duisburg game :)

Some good news is that Gomez should be fit to play against Duisburg, which is very important since none of our goals so far this season have come from an attacker. It's very important to have him back.

This game will also be very important, we can not let ourselves slip too far behind, we really should win this. I think we will, but one sees what Duisburg did away to DOrtmund and last week they were unlucky to lose to Wolfsburg so we really shouldn't underestimate them.

Anything but a total demolishing of Duisburg is pretty unexcuseable at this point, isn't it?

I mean, Duisburg has looked pretty good of late, but looking at the roster of men on the pitch for each side, anything but total victory is a big statement about the current lack of heart and drive of our boys, isn't it?

[schwabe13]

Anything but a total demolishing of Duisburg is pretty unexcuseable at this point, isn't it?

I mean, Duisburg has looked pretty good of late, but looking at the roster of men on the pitch for each side, anything but total victory is a big statement about the current lack of heart and drive of our boys, isn't it?

Duisburg is difficult to play .Everybody expects at least a 3:0 victory for us .
Die "Zebras " have nothing to lose, they are the underdog ...
Just my 2 Cents ...
2:1 for VfB ( Vorbild fuer Bayern ;) )

[UncleSam'sArmy]

I'll be at the match; very soon, in fact. I've got section 39E, somewhat of a corner view, but not too bad.
Hope to see 'em turn it around today.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Anything but a total demolishing of Duisburg is pretty unexcuseable at this point, isn't it?

I mean, Duisburg has looked pretty good of late, but looking at the roster of men on the pitch for each side, anything but total victory is a big statement about the current lack of heart and drive of our boys, isn't it?

I think nowadays in the Bundesliga there is no team where you can go into a match expecting to demolish them, every team is too strong for that. I hope we can play well and, most importantly, get the three points, but it's far from a certainty.

And i don't think the boys are lacking any heart or drive.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Here's how we look 2 hours ahead of the game.

Defense:
Delpierre is still missing and Boka has a light injury. However, in the good news, Osorio will definitely be fit to play his first game of the season, which is good news :)

Midfield:
Basturk still missing, the guy is already making his talent for injuries known it seems, and unfortunately Khedira, our best player so far this season, will also be missing the game through injury.

Attack:
Gomez is fit to play - which is great news, but don't expect him to be more than a sub today, i see him coming in in the last 25-30 minutes. Cacau also may be able to play but it's unclear. Most likely Marica-Ewerthon will be our strike partnership again.

so:
-------------Schaefer
Osorio----Meira----Tasci-------Magnin
--------------Pardo------------------
Hilbert------------------------Hitzlsperger
-----------da Silva/Farnerud----------
------Ewerthon----------Marica--------


Not the strongest side, but it is enough to beat Duisburg if we can play to our ability. I'm leaving to the stadium in 45 minutes, i hope they'll be able to win - it's about time to kick-start this season :)

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

I'll be at the match; very soon, in fact. I've got section 39E, somewhat of a corner view, but not too bad.
Hope to see 'em turn it around today.

Cool to hear you're going!

I'm at Block A, on the other side of the Kurve. Hopefully we'll get something to celebrate tonight. :cool:

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

I'm back.

Well, we weren't too convincing, but atleast we got our first win of the season. So i'm satisfied overall, though i still believe this team is far away from its top form.