(R) VfB Stuttgart Thread 08/09

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Early goal by Marica!

We're ahead!

[Borussia]

Perfect start! ;)

Now let's hope that the game won't develope the same way like in Wolfsburg...

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Halftime: 1-1.

Samp equalised in the 39th minute. Nevertheless, i'm more than satisfied so far. The team is making some good moves, nice passes, has been dangerous on the counter attacks. They are fighting really hard too. So i'm certainly pleased.

If the game ends 1-1, it'll be a very good 1 point. After eeing this half, it is possible that we win this, but I don't think that's likely. Samp remain the favourites, and i'll be surprised if we don't concede any more goals to them.

Magnin had to go out due to injury very early on unfortunately, Boka has so far done alright since coming on. Hilbert has been booked and I think Lanig should come on for him around the 60th minute.

An encouraging half, we'll see what the second brings!

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Gomez fouled in the penalty box... gets a yellow for diving.

What would the outcry be like if that happened to Bayern...

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

1-1, it's over.

I'm satisfied! Encouraging performance, were equal to Sampdoria in terms of play, and that away from home. Not bad. And, most importantly, we got a point out of this. I didn't really expect that, so i'm pleased about that, obviously big improvement already on the Wolfsburg game.

If we play like this on the weekend and Schalke plays like they did today, we can beat them. But I don't want to get optimistic yet. We weren't world-beaters today, but there were some nice passes, andthe team showed good composure throughout the match. Also seemed to have greater fighting spirit which was also necessary.

Again, encouraging start for Herr Babbel!

However, we now, as expected, will probably NEED to win the last game against Standard Liege in order to qualify. They have beaten Sevilla and now Partizan away, made life tough for Liverpool in the CL qualifiers, clearly they are quite a strong team. It's gonna ve a very hard match. But we'll worry about that when the day comes, for now we can take this point and look forward to Schalke.

[Borussia]

With this draw, you kept your chance alive. If Liege doesn't beat Sampdoria at home, you can catch them on the line on matchday 5 by defeating them in the direct duel.

However, I bet this won't be easy against your magyar fellow Ladislaus Bölöni ... since the Belgians are pretty strong at the moment.

[Borussia]

With this draw, you kept your chance alive. If Liege doesn't beat Sampdoria at home, you can catch them on the line on matchday 5 by defeating them in the direct duel.

However, I bet this won't be easy against your magyar fellow Ladislaus Bölöni ... since the Belgians are pretty strong at the moment.

[Rainer24]

We didn't play well enough to win, but getting a point away from home is always good. Hopefully we can find some form somewhere.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Babbel's home debut today!

It's gonna be a cracker, against Schalke! We're now without a win in like 5,6 games, i've lost track. But for some stupid reason I think we have a chance today. The boys showed an improvement against Samp, and Schalke have looked very mediocre for a large part of this season, nowhere near the form they're capable of. Midweek, they got shooled by Manchester City. If the team plays like we know it is capable of playing, we can win it today.

I only expect one chang in the side: Magnin who's now injured will be out and Boka will start. Boka played one of his best matches of the season against Sampdoria, hopefully he repeats that today.
Other than that, i'd consider starting Simak instead of Elson, but not necessarily, depends on what the coach wants.

Game starts in 90 minutes.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Halftime in a very, very exciting high-tempo game. It's 0-0 at the moment.

Schalke had two enormous chances early on: first Jones hit the post and the rebound shot by Farfan was saved on the line by Boka, then Boka fould Kuranyi in the penalty box- but Mad Jens saved the Farfan penalty!!

We could've been 2-0 down by then already, but a mixture of luck and brilliance by Lehmann kept us in it.

We then had one big chance, a strong Gomez shot was saved well by Neuer and the rebound was shot only slightly over the bar by Hitzlsperger.

Then Gomez scored. But the linesman ruled it offside. Of course replays showed it wasn't. So the referees seem to continue playing their little game on which DFL referee can ******** us over the most.

It's too bad.

But we have all the chances to win this. We can also lose. But it's very, very close.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Goaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!

Substitute Simak with an excellent lob! Great goal!

Come on a win would be so great today, please hold on these last 10 minutes boys!

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Gomez with the decider!

2-0!

Well done boys!

Babbel's gonna win his first home game!

And it always feels great against ********ing Schalke!

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

It's over!

I had almost forgotten what winning feels like!

It wasn't pretty, but we deserved this one today! Well done boys!
Congratz Lehmann on the penalty!
Congratz Simak on a beauty goal and hopefully just the kickstart you wanted!
Congratz Babbel on motivating the side enough to figh 90 minutes and gain this massive victory!

The play still isn't great, but thankfully Schalke was even worse. And the team gave everything throughout and got a deserved win. I can only hope this is the beginning of an upwards trend.

[+Gooner+]

Hitzlsperger and Hilbert need to get banned to the bench but luckily the subs mananged to turn the game. In the first half it was just luch and Lehmann that saved them from going down 2-0 or 3-0. But I am happy for Stuttgart (and kind of sad for Schalke) because in the end they wanted it more and deserved the win. Beautiful goals, too! :)

[THOMA GOL]

Wow!! Just got back in the house and to see this score, it makes one have the "boys are back" type of feeling. There will probably be euphoria if this becomes a habit. A place in Europe is a very obtainable goal if the Schwaben got on a streak.

Olé olé olé, olé olé olé ola
Olé olé olé, wir sind immer für Dich da
Oooooohhh, VfB Stuttgart
Bist unser Leben
Gibst uns so viel!!!

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Well, a day has passed since the first good victory in a whiiiile. Here are the player ratings:

Jens Lehmann: Kicker Rating: 2 - Man of the Match (15 games played, 3.00 avg. rating)
My Rating: 2 - Man of the Match

Ricardo Osorio: KR: 2.5 (9 games played, 3.44 avg. rating)
MR: 3

Serdar Tasci: KR: 3 (14 games played, 3.32 avg. rating)
MR: 3

Khalid Boulahrouz: KR: 3.5 (9 games played, 7 as starter, 3.94 avg. rating)
MR: 3

Arthur Boka: KR: 4 (14 games played, 11 as starter, 4.00 avg. rating)
MR: 3.5

Pavel Pardo: KR: 3 (9 games played, 3.17 avg. rating)
MR: 2.5

Roberto Hilbert: KR: 4 (12 games played, 10 as starter, 3.88 avg. rating)
MR: 3.5

Thomas Hitzlsperger: KR: 4 (14 games played, 3.71 avg. rating)
MR: 3.5

Sami Khedira: KR: 4 (12 games played, 9 as starter, 3.45 avg. rating)
MR: 4.5

Mario Gomez: KR: 2.5 (15 games played, 3.50 avg. rating)
MR: 2.5

Ciprian Marica: KR: 4 (11 games played, 5 as starter, 4.25 avg. rating)
MR: 4.5

SUBS:

Cacau: KR: 4 (11 games played, 9 as starter, 3.95 avg. rating)
MR: 4

Jan Simak: KR: No Rating (7 games played, 5 as starter, 4.08 avg. rating)
MR: 2

Christian Traesch: KR: NR (4 games played, 3 as starter, 3.17 avg. rating)
MR: NR


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Was a solid performance by the great majority of the team really.
Lehmann was easily man of the match with that saved penalty, and he also helped keep the clean sheet. The entire defence did fairly well. Tasci and Boulahrouz were, besides a couple of confusions, very secure together. Boulahrouz himself provided the assist for the 1-0. For me it was his best game yet in a VfB shirt, which isn't saying much for now, but hopefully he continues to improve. Osorio was a rock at right back. Boka meanwhile obviously made the mistake in fouling for the penalty, but I was generous to him after he saved Farfan's first big chance on the line.

The defence looked good.

The midfield, however, again looked somewhat under-average. Pardo played very well, as he normally does, but he was the only particular bright spot. Hilbert and Hitzlsperger tried, and in my opinion did alright, but they are still quite a way off their top form and they're gonna have to work very hard to get back to it. Many VfB fans want them out of the starting side. I disagree - I don't see who we've got who's better in those positions. I'd suggest we keep them in the side and hopefully with time they'll refind their form. Khedira meanwhile was probably our poorest player on the pitch yesterday, although to be honest creator really just isn't his best role imo. He's an excellent all-rounder in midfield, but attacking midfield is probably the one midfield position I don't really rate him at. I'd expect Simak to be back in the creator role next week after he broke the ice yesterday with that awesome goal.

In attack, Mario had many chances and could've scored earlier than he did, but fact is he makes a pretty uncreative midfield look very creative with his good runs that just beg for throughballs and good positioining. It's a strength people don't often notice in players, but it's a very important one for a striker and MArio showed that throughout yesterday. And of course in the end he got his goal too. Well done. Marica and Cacau weren't good, but i'm still preferring Marica overall.

Let's hope the team build on this result!

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Here's an awesome video of our fans trip to Sampdoria midweek: :)

http://www.myvideo.de/watch/5537278/ue_0809_05

And also against Schalke came a final tribute to Veh:
http://www.lostboys99.de/fotos/2008-2009/vfb-schalke/spruchband0.jpg

[benztown]

In attack, Mario had many chances and could've scored earlier than he did, but fact is he makes a pretty uncreative midfield look very creative with his good runs that just beg for throughballs and good positioining. It's a strength people don't often notice in players, but it's a very important one for a striker and MArio showed that throughout yesterday. And of course in the end he got his goal too. Well done.

That's exactly what I'm always saying over at the NT forum when people start criticizing Gomez.

Those who don't know Gomez that well think he's useless for the NT. Well, to a degree they're right, but only because the NT midfield doesn't feed him properly. He needs those through-balls up front.

[+Gooner+]

Btw, the usual violence problem from certain "fan" who just go on the trip to have a good fight. The fans had to wait in the stadium after the game and in the upper level some idiots started to rip out seats and push so violently into the crowd from the back that the police started to beat them back. And of course the ones who did not want to get involved in the first two rows or so got the beating, not those ********** who were at fault. I just hate when scum like this uses a football club to "identify" with and causes violence in the name of the team. Disgusting! :mad:

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Yup I heard there were scuffles in Genoa. But nothing big.

I think the fans showed fantastic support in that game though, really were as much of a twelth man as an away side can have.