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

[VfBOmaha]

Monkey off our back...Ljuboja has gone on loan to Wolfsburg for the rest of the season with a buy-option at the end. Hopefully he does well in all games except against VfB (if they even allow him to play).

Also, Wolfsburg has signed our former 2nd/3rd choice keeper Diego Benaglio. I guess Magath sees him as a starter...

[nanni]

Monkey off our back...Ljuboja has gone on loan to Wolfsburg for the rest of the season with a buy-option at the end. Hopefully he does well in all games except against VfB (if they even allow him to play).

Also, Wolfsburg has signed our former 2nd/3rd choice keeper Diego Benaglio. I guess Magath sees him as a starter...


Letz get Hildebrand back...:(

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Hildebrand is slowly getting more playtime with Valencia. It's good for him :)

I say give Schaefer the second half of the season. If he's still poor in the next 17 games, then let's get a new keeper this summer.

[Fussballer76]

sven ulreich is better

[nanni]

yess 2 good pints but i still weep for the days of hildebrand.....can you blame me?

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Good news :)

After the embarrassment against Reutlingen, we won our last friendly game away to Mainz :)

Mainz 1
Stuttgart 3

How we played:
VfB Stuttgart: Schäfer - Hilbert (80. Schuster), Meira (C) (80. Pischorn), Delpierre, Osorio (80. Träsch) - Khedira, Pardo (46. Beck), Bastürk (80. Farnerud), Hitzlsperger - Marica (80. Fischer), Radu (61. Gomez)

Hitzlsperger hit the first goal, then Marica and Fischer added two more in the second half.

How will we play in the next competitive matches?
In Defense:
Many questions still open:
Osorio and Tasci will be banned away to Schalke, and Boka will be at the Nations Cup still I believe. Meira and Delpierre should be safe bets in central defense. At left back Hilbert is still be tried out but, to be honest, I just hope Beck gets better in time and can play there instead. Magnin is meant to be fit in time to play the Schalke game at leftback, but he's still injured now and hasn't played in the friendlies so a big question mark over him.

In midfield:
Pardo will be banned for the Schalke game, I would assume that Khedira will then play defensive midfield. Hitz should be a safe bet for left mid, Basturk looks fit now so he should play COM, and I would like to see Hilbert then as right mid, but if he keeps getting played in defense that may not be possible. We'll see.

In attack: Marica has done fairly well this winter so his starting place is looking good. Alongside him, Gomez made his comeback yesterday, and i'm hoping he'll be fit enough to play 90 minutes once Schalke comes around :) Radu's had many minutes this winter and has yet to score, so his spot is only the bench for now I would say, and Ewerthon continued to do poorly this break so he too should not contend for a starting spot. As for Fischer, well he played 10 minutes yesterday, scored again, but I really think we won't be seeing him playing a part for us in the league until next season, though it's still exciting everytime I hear that he has scored, I just know the kid will be really, really good for us one day.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Also, David Pisot, the defender who made a debut for us in the thrashing by Hamburg, has been loaned out to Paderborn for the rest of the season. Good move i'd say, to be honest I don't really see him ever making a big impact for us, but if he dos well at Paderborn, it might be the boost he needs.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

At this year's annual 'New Year's conference', Erwin Staudt underlined his goals for the coming season: along with the usual boring /obvious statement such as the wish for sporting and financial success, Staudt also noted that one of the other main goals for this year will be to being the transition of getting rid of the stupid athletics ring and turning the GD-Stadion into a 'proper' football stadium. I was very happy - this'll make viewing and atmosphere better during games and, lets be honest, having a running track is just simply not modern enough these days :)

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Last few days feel like i'm talking to myself but more news anyway:

Ewerthon leaves:
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/artikel/374514/

Out of the blue, it's been decided that with Gomez, Marica, Cacau once he's fit, new signing Radu and hot prospect Fischer, there is simply no need for Ewerthon anymore, and Zaragoze have now loaned him to Espanyol away from VfB.

His stats for his time with us:
11 1.BL matches, 8 as a substitute.
1 goal,
1 assist,
average rating 5.00(4 games rated)

4 Champions League matches, 3 as a substitute.
0 goals
0 assist
average rating 3.00(1 game rated)

2 DFB Pokal games, 1 as a substitute
0 goals
0 assists
average rating 5.00(1 game rated)

It's safe to say his move here was a complete disaster. It was best that he leaves, and he isn't needed here anyway really. I wish him the best of luck in the future.

Other news:
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/artikel/374594/
Veh ' keeping an eye on Ozil' who has fallen out with Schalke manager Slomka and has 'no future with the club'. We are being rumored to maybe make a last-ditch entry into transfer talks. so far it seems Ozil has a choice between sitting on the Schalke Tribune, or transferring to Hannover, If we got involved, we'd have an excellent chance of getting him. I think making a move on him would be a brilliant idea, I really rate him and he's got bags of talent. We'll see what happens in the next 24 hours.

[BlinderPassagier]

Last few days feel like i'm talking to myself but more news anyway

No worries, we're listening! I for one though, have nothing useful to contribute yet. :o

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

For one thing i'm definitely looking forward to our side returning to competitive action in the Pokal tomorrow :)

Hopefully the side won't mess up against Bremen's amateurs and we'll be able book our passage into the quarters.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Sorry I couldn't talk more today about the cup game but I was busy travelling all day -most important thing is that we're through to the next round :)

We were leading 3-0 at halftime, almost threw the game away, but ended up winning 3-2. The performance wasn't great but all that counts in the cup is wins, and qualifying to the next round, and we've successfully accomplished that.

Super Mario made a wonderful comeback from injury(what else would we expect?), scoring all three goals. Hitzlsperger, our best player of the first half of the season imo, assisted two of the goals, and Khedira assisted 1.

I can't say more on the game since I haven't seen the highlights yet, but when they come up on VfB TV, i'll watch them and then give a better overview tomorrow. But the win is what matters most, especially in a round where both Schalke and Werder Bremen exited the competition.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

I watched the highlights in the meantime, Gomez's first goal was very nice, a precise left-footed shot from outside the box, the second was brilliantly created by Hitz who got past two defenders before sending a pinpoint cross for Gomez to tap in, and the third goal was a good finish by Gomez but admittedly offside.

In the second half we really played bad it seems, there were opportunities for Bremen to complete their comeback, thankfully they didn't succeed.
Best players for us in my opinion were Gomez, Hitzlsperger and Khedira.

Regarding Ozil, unfortunately we are out of discussions. The rumours proved true, we were after him, and we ven reached an agreement witht he player himself but Schalke wanted 6 million euros for him while Heldt and co. were only prepared to loan him out with an option to buy in the summer. I think it's a shame he won't be coming here, he's really excellent for his age and has a big future. It's too bad :(

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Player Ratings:
R. Schäfer (4) - Hilbert (3), Fernando Meira (3), Delpierre (4), Beck (3,5) - Pardo (4) - Khedira (3), Hitzlsperger (2) - Bastürk (4) - Marica (3,5), Gomez (1)

[VfBOmaha]

We were a bit lucky yesterday to win in Bremen, but luck is what you make it and a win is a win, especially for our VfB. I'm hoping this weekend we can build on this and get 3 points in Gelsenkirchen.

I would have liked for Oezil to join VfB, but 7mio seems a bit high. Maybe we were afraid of spending that much on a young guy after Marica's disappointing Hinrunde. I have heard rumors that Bremen bought him for 5mio though, so who knows...

in other news...keepers with connections to VfB are hot property these days...first Langer to Freiburg, then Benaglio to Wolfsburg (played in the Pokal win yesterday and stopped a penalty), now Dirk Heinen to Bielefeld! I thought Dirk had retired, but apparently VfB just didn't renew his contract.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Yeah, I was also shocked when I heard he was still an active keeper. I thought to myself 'Wait, he still plays for us?' then later I realized he had been a free agent :)

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

We just drew Jena in the cup - AT HOME!

Couldn't have been better :)

[benztown]

DFB-Pokal draw:
Stuttgart has to play Jena. Definitely the easiest team among the last eight teams, so that should be doable. Plus, we'll be playing at home. So no worries there...;)

[VfBOmaha]

We just drew Jena in the cup - AT HOME!

Couldn't have been better :)

Yeah, best possible draw for us. Plus, 1860 is going to dump FC Bayern out!:D

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

I'm thinking we'll make the semis, but then the opposition won't be as simple anymore. Still, we've been very lucky with our draws so far, and this was no exception. Awesome! :)

Tomorrow i'm not looking forward to as much though - if we can take a point back from Gelsenkirchen i'll be satisfied I think.

Kicker's predicted line-up:

----------------------Schaefer
Hilbert------------Meira------Delpierre-------Beck
----------------------Khedira
----------Farnerud-------------Hitzlsperger
----------------------Basturk
-------------Gomez------------Marica

Bench: Ulreich, Schuster, Pischorn, Meissner, da Silva, Traesch, Fischer, Radu

Still lots of injuries so this is probably the best lineup. Osorio and Tasci are both suspended, and Beck will have to play leftback since Boka is with the Ivory Coast and Magnin it seems has lost the battle to be fit on time for this game, so we'll have no choice but to keep Roberto at rightback, and thus have to start Farnerud in midfield. Not ideal, but we can't do much about it. Pardo is also suspended so Khedira will have to play defensive midfield and can't play instead of Farnerud in midfield, and Cacau is still injured.

So again, not ideal, but we'll just have to do the best we can.