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

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Well, ahead of the next draw, i'd be happy with any draw that gives us a home game.

If we have to play a way, I would hope for: Werder Bremen II, Wuppertal, Hoffenheim, RW Essen or Jena. Any other away game would leave me uncomfortable but we'll see.

The only matches I despertely want us to avoid are Bayern, Schalke, Bremen or Hamburg away.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Well, ahead of the next draw, i'd be happy with any draw that gives us a home game.

If we have to play a way, I would hope for: Werder Bremen II, Wuppertal, Hoffenheim, RW Essen or Jena. Any other away game would leave me uncomfortable but we'll see.

The only matches I desperately want us to avoid are Bayern, Schalke, Bremen or Hamburg away.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

and we got Bremen II away. We can be pleased with that, should be the easiest possible ticket to the quarterfinals, and at that stage anything can happen :)

[roxbury]

Thanks for the detail.

Glad to see Basturk comeback healty and strong.
Game by game he perform better and better.

Its a joy to watch him,when he is ready.


Regards


Well, I saw the highlights and here are the kicker ratings:

Raphael Schaefer: 3
Ricardo Osorio: 5
Serdar Tasci: 4
Matthieu Delpierre: 4
Andreas Beck: 3.5
Pavel Pardo: 4
Sami Khedira: 4
Thomas Hitzlsperger: 3
Yildiray Basturk: 2.5(MoM)
Ewerthon: 5
Mario Gomez: 4

I agree that giving Basturk the man of the match award was fair, he provided the assists to all three goals! That's pretty impressive, maybe Basturk is finally getting settled at VfB and hopefully he can emulate this performance in the Bundesliga and Champions League! I'm happy for him and hope this is a sign of things to come.

We could see how important Hitzlsperger is to the side, since returning this was also a good game by him, and his great shot provided us with two more goals.

Giving Gomez a 4 was harsh imo. He provided the winning goal and also had a goal cancelled out for offside though it arguably wasn't. He should've gotten a 3 imo. Ewerthon however seems to have been useless again. He's been terrible in every match he's played for us beside the Cottbus game. a big dissapointment so far.

The defense was back to bad ways though. Delpierre didn't have a good comeback, but after 5 months injured he can be excused, I just hope he's quick to return to his old form. Tasci was bad again, but not as bad as Osorio who is really off-form and should worry about his starting spot imo. Beck was the best for the second game in a row, though this time it wasn't saying much.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Well, today is the key game away to Nuernberg. Both sides need the win, neither can afford to lose. A win for us here and it'll be three in a row and we may well be back on track ahead of the Bayern game. A losss for us here - and our terrible away record continues, we'd remain without a point, we'd remain cursed by FCN and we'd remain in crisis ahead of the Bayern game. For Nuernberg the situation is quite similar.

So this match is absolutely CRUCIAL, let's hope the boys get something out of it!
Auswaertssieg! Auswaertssieg!

In terms of injuries: Boka is still injured, as are Hilbert and da Silva. Notable news is that Armin Veh has given our two Mexicans, Osorio and Pardo, a 3 day rest since they have looked tired and slightly off-form of late, so they will not be travelling with us to Nuernberg. This means the starting lineup is very questionable, Veh even said there may be a surprise or two.

What kicker predicts:
Schaefer
Beck-Delpierre-Tasci-Magnin
Meira
Khedira-Hitzlsperger
Basturk
Cacau-Gomez

My prediction is this:
Schaefer
Tasci-Delpierre-Meira-Beck
Khedira
Schuster-Hitzlsperger
Basturk
Cacau-Gomez

Beck has been solid at leftback, so why move him away? Tasci on the other hand can play out rightback where Osorio normally is, and with Delpierre back from injury and Meira back from suspension we have to have our title-winning central defense back in shape. Khedira has mostly been solid when playing defensive mid so I think he should play there instead of rightwing. Schuster has been quite good for such a young guy in the two game tryouts he's gotten - why not give him a starting spot today?

But really, doesn't matter how we play, all we need are points!
Auswaertssieg! Auswaertssieg!

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Well, Kicker totally owned me in the predictions, they got it spot on.

but that's irrelevant, what's important is that we're leading 1-0 with less than 30 minutes to play! FCN is pushing, let's just hope for the best, if we could hold on it would be brilliant.

AUSWAERTSSIEG!

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

AUS!!!!!!

3 points AWAY FROM HOME!!!! Jaaaaaaa


Man we were so lucky, Nuernberg reinvented new ways to miss today.

This win was so critical!!!

[schwabe13]

AUS!!!!!!

3 points AWAY FROM HOME!!!! Jaaaaaaa


Man we were so lucky, Nuernberg reinvented new ways to miss today.

This win was so critical!!!

we are just a few points away from the UEFA cup places.Three wins in a row(counting as well the german cup) that is so positive!!!

[Borussia]

This win was so critical!!!

Indeed. ;) Was this finally the turning point of the season...?

Congrats on the win (even though it was very fortunate).

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Kicker Ratings for the players:

Raphael Schaefer: 2
(12 games started, average rating 3.13)

Andreas Beck: 2
(2 games started, 1 game subbed in, average rating 2.00)

Serdar Tasci: 3.5
(12 games started, average rating 3.92)

Matthieu Delpierre: 3
(1 game started, average rating 3.00)

Ludovic Magnin: 3.5
(7 games started, 1 game subbed in, average rating 3.94)

Fernando Meira: 3
(10 games started, average rating 3.67)

Sami Khedira: 4.5
(11 games started, 3.86 average rating)

Thomas Hitzlsperger: 2.5
(6 games started, average rating 3.17)

Yildiray Basturk: 3.5
(5 games started, average rating 4.00)

Mario Gomez: 2(MoM)
(9 games started, 1 game subbed in, average rating 3.89)

Cacau: 4
(8 games started, averae rating 3.44)

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Clearly the trend is moving upwards in terms of performance.

I generally agree with the ratings. In my opinion the man of the match was Schaefer, ironically he played his best game for us yet - against his old club!) Beck convinced again and I think for now Osorio must remain a substitute since Beck is just flying at the moment. Footyfan, if you're reading this, I remember we were having a discussion back in mid 2006 about VfB's youth program and you asked how I expected to be the next big guy to come out of it: I said it would be Andreas Beck. In the meantime he was injured for half a season and played very little last year, while it seemed I was wrong at the time as plyers like Khedira and Tasci made the jump to the first team so successfully. I kept on saying this year that Beck should get playing time, and now that he finally has it - look how good he can be! I hope that now my prediction can come true after all :)
Delpierre already seems to be back in the swing of things, it's great to have him back! Tasci played alright but for the Champions League game against Lyon i'd still bring Pardo back into the team and place Meira in central defense next to Delpierre - it would be a return to our brilliant defense last year!

Hitzlsperger is showing how important he is aswell. Since returning from injury he has played well in all three games, and like Delpierre, it's brilliant to have Hitzlsperger back! Basturk was alright if not brilliant, he wasn't as good as in the cup, but I still think he's slowly improving on to the form that he's capable of. Khedira was the only dissappointment, playing bad game. He seems to be very inconsistent this season, but i'm hoping he'll up his game for the Lyon and Bayern clashes.

In attack Gomez obviously deserved a good mark for his absolutely brilliant goal, Mario is coming back from his slump it seems, and that's just crucial! Cacau was poor. He generally plays well, but 1 goal in 700 minutes is not good enough for a striker, so he's still not at his best atm. I think we should start Marica against Lyon, but we'll see.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Lyon match coming up tonight.

I'm looking forwrd to it: if we lose, then all hope of even a uefa cup spot is completely lost, but it wouldn't matter too much, since hope practically died with the loss at home to them, so we could just go on quickly. But on the other hand if we win, it'll continue our upswing and we'll be back in with a chance of picking up SOMETHING, maybe third place, so it would be awesome. chances of us winning are small, we mustn't forget that we were lucky to win in Nuernberg, and Lyon are certainly better on paper. We'll see, but either way we don't really have anything to lose tonight, so let's just see what happens :)

My preferred lineup would be:
Schaefer
Beck-Delpierre-Meira-Magnin
Pardo
Khedira-Hitzlsperger
Basturk
Gomez-Marica

That would mean three changes from the FCN squad: Meira moving from midfield into defense next to Delpierre in place of Tasci with Pardo returning to the DM starting spot, and Marica getting a chance in place of Cacau.

but, to be honest, I expect we'll start witht he same lineup as against Nuernberg, and that wouldn't be a tragedy either.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

On second thought, I think Meira may be suspended but i'm not sure, in that case it would be Tasci in his spot.

[bltleo]

good luck today!!!!!

I hope you will win !!!!!

I root for you!!!!

[benztown]

good luck today!!!!!

I hope you will win !!!!!

I root for you!!!!

Thank you very much. I think we mostly need this victory to boost confidence. I think that's the major difference to last year. Everything that worked out last year seems to go wrong this time around...we still have a great team, we just need our confidence back...

[bltleo]

Thank you very much. I think we mostly need this victory to boost confidence. I think that's the major difference to last year. Everything that worked out last year seems to go wrong this time around...we still have a great team, we just need our confidence back...


yes...this victory is needed to boost your confidence:)..I´m going to watch the game soon..

anyway, the only thing I don´t forgive you is that you did beat Leverkusen:)...could you not
choose another team to win?...you lost so many games before, but against my team you won:)....

so good luck!!! Go Stuttgart!!!!!!....the city of my favorite Klinsi!!!!!

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

I highly doubt that we'll win.

But who knows :)

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Well, 3-1 at halftime and we're practically out of a shot for even 3rd place.

It's a shame, we aren't playing badly but the defense lets the whole team down. Tasci is especially crap, hence why I didn't want him to play in the first place, but there you go. And Schaefer's been very poor today, he remains a model of inconsistency, sometimes very good, sometimes terrible.

To be honest I don't mind that much, I pretty much gave up hope of 3rd spot after the last game. But whatever. Let's see how the second half goes.

[VfBOmaha]

3-2 and a great chance for der Ausgleich but Hitzlsperger has his penalty saved!:(

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Yup and it ended 4-2. Too bad we couldn't convert the penalty, but really this game didn't matter much as we're out anyway.

Just gotta build on the good attacking performance and stbilize the defense(i.e. bench Tasci) for the Bayern match and then we'll see what happens.