VfB Stuttgart-Deutscher Meister 2007 Thread 07/08[R]

[Proud_Pink_Cow]

Did they play Ajax yet? If not, when do they play?

[SoccerScout]

Monday morning they play Ajax.

Inter (BRA) 1 x 0 Stuttgart

Ti0WwQoOYlA

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Well, after struggling to stay awake due to enormous boredom for about 88 minutes, I got to see Farnerud score the 1-0, pretty nice goal, in the 89th minute to give us the win against Ajax :)

I'll give a round-up later.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Well, here's who played:

Ulreich - Hilbert, Tasci, Meira (C), Osorio - Khedira (60. Träsch), Pardo, Bastürk (60. Farnerud), Hitzlsperger (60. da Silva) - Marica (60. Ewerthon), Radu (67. Fischer)

My comments:

In Defense:
I was very pleased with how Ulreich did in goal. Another guy from our amateur youth sides, he's taking Langer's place as number 2 for now. He's very, very young for a keeper and is apparently quite a prospect for the future. So we should keep an eye out on him, especially if Schaefer remains sub-par. Yesterday, Ulreich put in an impressive game. Our defense played very well on the whole, Ajax were performing way under their capabilities but we were still able to weather whatever they did try, so that was pleasing. Tasci and Meira were both particulalry good. On Hilbert, he was okay, but rightback really isn't his position, he should remain on the rightwing and not be tested in defense.

Midfield:
Our midfield was solid but not brilliant. Pardo played well, Khedira was a bit average, Hitzlsperger also wasn't at his best, Basturk had some nice scenes but was still not good enough in creating chances. In one situation he was one-on-one with the keeper and tried to pass to a striker instead of just scoring, and the ball was intercepted. That was slightly typical, and annoying. Farnerud made a huge improvement on his Internacional performance. He started poorly after coming in, but then had some good scenes, and ultimately scored a nice goal to give us the win. Notably, Traesch, also from the amateurs, got 30 minutes today.

In attack:
Once again, not enough from the attackers. Marica did very little, couldn't bring himself into good situations, Radu atleast got a red card out of an Ajax player(without which I doubt we would've won), but other than that he also wasn't dangerous enough.Ewerthon did nothing after entering. Fischer atleast got some minutes.

Overall:
It was a good win, and an improvement on the last friendly, but still nowhere near good enoug imo. We played 80% of the match with a man more and still perhaps didn't deserve to win. Our goal came out of the blue, but we weren't consistently threatening during the match. Our defense put in a good showing again, but our midfield has been unable to provide enough killer passes to the attackers, which has been the main issue, and our attackers in turn have not been able to make themselves present enough in games and get themselves into scoring opportunities. This is what we must work on in the following friendlies.

Next Friendly:
January 12 vs. FC Zuerich

[Fussballer76]

when will Gomez be fit enough to play again? Will he be able to play on saturday?

[nanni]

i sure hope so....but you should check the VfB page when ever you have questions?! you can ussually find news on everything from them...

[footyfan1]

Kicker reported yesterday that Gomez is back in training.

[F96]

Is Fischer training with the first team?

[Fussballer76]

yes and i think he also scored or gave an assist in the last friendly

[THOMA GOL]

were not very active sadly....:( VfB fans are depressed...

Today I am not as I just got my very first-ever,Trikot after two weeks waiting. The VFB Retro
http://www.vfb-sport-shop.de/$WS/vfb-stuttgart/websale6_shop-vfb-stuttgart/produkte/medien/bilder/normal/3245_gr.jpg

Now I might have to show up at the Toledo Schwaben Verein :p

[nanni]

Today I am not as I just got my very first-ever,Trikot after two weeks waiting. The VFB Retro
http://www.vfb-sport-shop.de/$WS/vfb-stuttgart/websale6_shop-vfb-stuttgart/produkte/medien/bilder/normal/3245_gr.jpg


oh god that is sweet!!

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

I didn't post the last week because I had no internet, but i'm back now :)

Just to briefly go over the VfB - Zuerich friendly:

Score:
VfB 3(Marica, da Silva, Fischer)
Zuerich 3

How the team lined up:
Schäfer - Hilbert (46. Pischorn), Osorio (62. Beck), Meira (C) (46. Pisot), Träsch - Khedira (46. Schuster), Pardo, Bastürk (46. da Silva), Hitzlsperger (46. Farnerud) - Radu (46. Fischer), Marica (46. Ewerthon)

Just to briefly go over the positives and negatives:

Positive:
- Marica scored a nice goal, should give him some confidence
- Fischer played excellently in the second half. Scored a goal and provided a really nice assist as well. This guy will turn in to a great player in a couple of years.
- Farnerud seems to have built on his Ajax performance. He played very well against Zuerich with some great passes and dribbles. Hopefully we'll be seeing a new Farnerud in the second half of the season.
- Andy Beck returned from injury.

Negatives:
- The defense. Pretty much all the 8 defensive players who got time in this game did badly. to let in 3 goals against Zuerich is very poor, so that was dissappointing. Schaefer didn't save anything, Hilbert is simply not made for defense and I don't know why Veh keeps trying him out there, Pisot+Pischorn+Traesch are all decent players but to be honest I don't really see any of them breaking into the first team and becoming important players for the club in the future.
- Basturk I would single out as dissappointing in midfield. He remains too uncreative imo.
- Radu missed two enormous chances while playing. I haven't been too impressed by his friendly match performances, he still seems to be a way away from the form he showed for Energie.

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Team is back in Stuttgart now :)

[The Old Lady Hertha]

Poor defense indeed, especially after we took away their best striker...

[footyfan1]

Poor defense indeed, especially after we took away their best striker...

Didn't you guys take their best defender before the season too??

[The Old Lady Hertha]

Yea, but he was complaining about his defense so... ;)

[Syriaman]

SSV Reutlingen-Vfb Stuttgart 0-0!

:( !!

[Hobo]

I just noticed that GolTV, here in the US, has a new show called Bundesliga Magazine. Last week the show focused on Schalke. This week, VfB was the focus. The show was a mixture of then and now, interviews and highlights. And it ended with VfB's ten greatest goals.
The next showing is Sunday morning at 5am. It is worth checking out, and Hansi Müller gets a lot of face time.
http://www.goltv.tv/en_index.php?date=20080120&tz=eastern&lang=en&target=schedule/scheduleinc

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

What was voted top goal? I know which one i'd pick :)

[Hobo]

What was voted top goal? I know which one i'd pick :)

Hitz' was only number four I think, but it wasn't really a vote. There were a couple from Müller, a Bobic, a Klinsmann, two from Elber, a Balakov free kick, a Bordon free kick...

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

You guessed right by the way, it's that Hitzlsperger goal to equalize against Cottbus last season that I would've chosen :) - a mix of absolute beauty, enormous importance, and symbolic of the best season in the club's history. :)