(R) VfB Stuttgart Thread 08/09

[Borussia]

Damn, why didn't Lehmann have his bad day last week? :( ;)

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

I guess I might as well give my summary of the match then.

It was a huge disappointment. After the impressive 3-1 win away to Gladbach I was really excited for this game and optimistic about our chances for this season, a win could've confirmed an excellent season start. The side completely failed to live up to my expectations for this game, were outclassed by Leverkusen throughout the pitch, and I guess brought me and other fans back down to earth and reality.

Leverkusen started better and quickly took control of the game, besides one big chance for Hitzlsperger we didn't really do anything and Leverkusen were pushing us. Lehmann had a couple of good stops and anyone could see the first goal coming. On the goal our defense looked terrible, how someone could've left a strong striker like Patrick Helmes with so much space is anyone's guess. Delpierre and Tasci both struggled, and they, along with Osorio, looked out of position on the goal. Some people say Lehmann could've held the shot and could be to blame for the goal, and didn't play all too well. I disagree: he had a number of good stops and was generally a secure guy to have between the posts. He was slightly unlucky with the first goal but you can't expect a keeper to do all that much when he's faced with a striker who has a free shot at point blank range. He perhaps didn't get to the ground in time, but I wouldn't blame him, and he looked good in other scenes. I'm guessing the media just didn't have any other interesting stories so they just decided to counteract all the hype that they themselves had created by exagerrating his good performance last weekend. Funny how things work.

Anyway, we continued to look poor after that. We had a bright start to the second half and Gomez had an enormous chance to score, which he just missed. Soon we faded again though, and the amount of mistakes we made were very frustrating. Leverkusen expertly cut out most of our quick small passes that we normally play with. By the time they scored the second goal, in which our defense again looked slow, this time versus Gekas, it was already practically clear we wouldn't get anything from this game.

Concerning the players:

In defense, we looked shaky. Lehmann I already discussed, then Delpierre and Tasci both struggled somewhat against the Leverkusen strikeforce. Boka had some good moments, he saved a ball off the line again(3rd time in 2 games) and had effectively cleared the ball that led to the 1-0 before the rest of the defence fell asleep and aloud Leverkusen to regain the ball and score. However, it is also frustrating how, along with all these nice actions, Boka is also highly prone to gaffes, poor passes, lack of concentration. These are all aspects that he's going to have to work on, and i'd still say that Magnin is the safer choice in leftback for the moment. Osorio was perhaps the poorest today, not doing much going forward and being susceptible at the back. But I forgive him due to the fact he must've been exhausted by that long trip back from Mexico.

Pardo also was tired for sure, but he was still alright on the whole, bar a couple of poor situations. He remains reliable in midfield. Hitzlsperger did alright in midfield, could've scored the 1-0 to change the game but didn't, and was alright. I didn't quite understand why he was subbed off. Hilbert also had a poor game but I also think it was harsh to sub him off at halftime - funny that Basturk, who took his place, proceeded to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in an entire 45 minutes on the field. Finally, Simak was perhaps our worst player on the field on Saturday. Nothing worked for him, bad passes, didn't create anything, lost a lot of balls. A shame, but i'm sure he'll be better in the coming matches. Let's hope we'll see more of Gladbach-Simak and less of the Simak of this past weekend.

Finally, in attack, Marica was easily our best player on Saturday I though. He did well, kept hold of many balls with no support from teammates, set up his teammates well in various situations and did his best. He played well. Gomez is still not on top form, he missed one huge chance and an average chance and didn't create any noteworthy chances. He might still be slightly rocky from the Euro, I hope he finds his top form as soon as possible.

Anyway, this result, It's no crisis, both of the first two matches were matches we could realistically win but also realistically lose, in the end we've won one and lost one. Not entirely satisfactory, but no huge deal either. And hey, we're still in front of Bremen and Bayern :). I would suggest we do our best to forget about this game and look forward to the week ahead:
1. Qualify ourselves for the Uefa Cup, if we can put in a solid performance against Gyor.
2. And more importantly, make things good again in the Bundesliga by beating Hannover at home.

I think we have very good chances of completing both these goals, so let's forget about this game, but learn from the lessons, and accomplish both these aims. And hey, if we get three points against Hannover, we'll be right back near the top of the pack in the early days of this season.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Player ratings:

Jens Lehmann: Kicker Rating: 4(Avg. 3.00)
My Rating: 3.5

Ricardo Osorio: Kicker Rating: 4(Avg. 3.50)
My rating: 5

Serdar Tasci: KR: 4(Avg. 3.50)
MR: 4

Matthieu Delpierre: KR: 4(Avg. 3.5)
MR: 4

Arthur Boka: KR: 5(Avg. 4.25)
MR: 4

Pavel Pardo: KR: 3.5(Avg. 3.5) - Our Best.
MR: 3.5

Roberto Hilbert: KR: 5(Avg. 4.25)
MR: 4.5

Thomas Hitzlsperger: KR: 4(Avg. 3.00)
MR: 3.5

Jan Simak: KR: 4.5(Avg. 3.50)
MR: 5

Mario Gomez: KR: 4.5 (Avg. 3.75)
MR: 4.5

Ciprian Marica: KR: 5 - This mark I considered to be a completely insane and impossible to understand. Makes no sense. (Avg. 4.00)
MR: 3 - Our best.

Subs:

Yildiray Basturk: KR: 4 (Avg. 4.00)
MR: 5

Martin Lanig: KR: No rating
MR: No rating

Danijel Ljuboja: KR: No rating
MR: No rating.



In other news, we've drawn Bielefeld in the second round of the German Cup. We'll be playing at home, which I think is great news :) and, although it's pretty early to face a 1. Liga side, i'm confident that at home we should be able to secure qualification to the next round when we play Bielefeld.

[footyfan1]

In other news, we've drawn Bielefeld in the second round of the German Cup. We'll be playing at home, which I think is great news :) and, although it's pretty early to face a 1. Liga side, i'm confident that at home we should be able to secure qualification to the next round when we play Bielefeld.


Like you were confident you guys would beat them on the final day of last season at home?? ;)

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Exactly :)

[frasermc]

how long is Boulahrouz out for?

Vfbstuttgartfan,

you mentioned Gomez's shaky start being down to a possible Euro hangover. is it just as likely with the transfer window being open that his mind is thinking about what might change if a big bid arrives for him?

not a huge amount of money has been spent overall in Europe so far so there could be a late run of big deals at the end of the window.

[Rainer24]

It almost seems like following VfB has been one disappointment after the other, at least since the end of the 06-07 season.

[benztown]

It almost seems like following VfB has been one disappointment after the other, at least since the end of the 06-07 season.

I'd say it's back to normal ;)

But I'm still optimistic that this season will be better than the last one. I won't let this one game bother me just yet. :cool:

[benztown]

how long is Boulahrouz out for?

Vfbstuttgartfan,

you mentioned Gomez's shaky start being down to a possible Euro hangover. is it just as likely with the transfer window being open that his mind is thinking about what might change if a big bid arrives for him?

not a huge amount of money has been spent overall in Europe so far so there could be a late run of big deals at the end of the window.

It's possible that all this money is still on Gomez mind. But if that's the case, he better gets over it quickly because he won't go anywhere this year.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

I'd say it's back to normal ;)

Couldn't agree more :D

@frasermc

The club and Gomez have already confirmed that he won't be moving this summer. Almost certainly he will move next year if he plays a good season again, but he's 100% guaranteed to stay for this year. So I don't think it's a question of a possible transfer, my main theory would remain that people had such high expectations of him going into the Euro and he completely flopped that time around, and being a player who's still early on in his career and this was his first real let-down, he may not have the experience and wisdom to get over such set backs as other more routine players, and could therefore be taking longer to come out of his rough patch.

But then again my theory could just be BS, i'm just speculating :confused:

[footyfan1]

Couldn't agree more :D

@frasermc

The club and Gomez have already confirmed that he won't be moving this summer. Almost certainly he will move next year if he plays a good season again, but he's 100% guaranteed to stay for this year. So I don't think it's a question of a possible transfer, my main theory would remain that people had such high expectations of him going into the Euro and he completely flopped that time around, and being a player who's still early on in his career and this was his first real let-down, he may not have the experience and wisdom to get over such set backs as other more routine players, and could therefore be taking longer to come out of his rough patch.

But then again my theory could just be BS, i'm just speculating :confused:


I think your opinion makes plenty of sense.

[footyfan1]

Goal.com: Veh Bemoans Fixture Congestion (http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=834999)


I saw a German version of this story at kicker.de earlier today.

[Projekt4]

Couldn't agree more :D

@frasermc

The club and Gomez have already confirmed that he won't be moving this summer. Almost certainly he will move next year if he plays a good season again, but he's 100% guaranteed to stay for this year. So I don't think it's a question of a possible transfer, my main theory would remain that people had such high expectations of him going into the Euro and he completely flopped that time around, and being a player who's still early on in his career and this was his first real let-down, he may not have the experience and wisdom to get over such set backs as other more routine players, and could therefore be taking longer to come out of his rough patch.

But then again my theory could just be BS, i'm just speculating :confused:

These have been my thoughts as well.

[Rainer24]

I'd say it's back to normal ;)

But I'm still optimistic that this season will be better than the last one. I won't let this one game bother me just yet. :cool:


Yeah, it just seems like there has been little progress in the last eighteen months. We won with a team built largely on young players, but the team doesn't seem to have move forward from there at all.

At least Marica looks like he could finally pay off this year.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Well, here's where we've wanted to be since last season ended:

http://futballvideos.googlepages.com/uefa_cup_logo.jpg/uefa_cup_logo-full.jpg


And tonight, barring a disaster, we should be able to say that we've achieved our goal :)

We only won 2-1 at home, which means nothing's certain yet, but I still see few ways that this could go wrong. Gyor aren't good enough to control the game, so they'd have to rely on counters and the odd attack. If we can run the game, we should be able to score at least once during the process, and that already doubles Gyor's task.

I'm still 95% certain we'll go through. But obviously first we have to play the 90 minutes.

Regarding the side, Cacau is obviously still out. Magnin and Khedira also won't be here due to minor injuries, however Boulahrouz is traveling with the side for a competitive match for the first time since moving here. People say it's unlikely he will start, which I think is a shame as a game like this should be the ultimate chance to test him and his form out, but i'm hoping he will at least make an appearance towards the end if we're cruising.

A kicker article suggests that Basturk could take Simak's starting spot in this game. I can't say i'd be a supporter of that move.


Either way, let's go and enter Europe tonight :)

[footyfan1]

And I can't f#cking believe DSF is showing the meaningless Hertha match instead your match!!


Best of luck!!!

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Wow, it's good you wrote that, I didn't even consider the possibility of no one showing the match, but now you've mentioned it you're right :eek:


Well, guess I gotta deal with a stream if I can find one. This sucks.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Well, at half time I can safely say we've succeeded :)

We're up 2-0. The first was a goal from a set-piece where Pardo crossed the ball in and Lanig provided an excellent header to put us 1-0 up, the second goal was another of the Hammer's famous edge-of-the-box strikes.

So Gyor need to score 4 now, they aren't going to do that, so we're through. Still 45 minutes to play though, i'd like to see Veh make some changes for the second half. I think it's time for Boulahrouz to make his entrance, also perhaps players like Hitz and Pardo should be rested for the second 45 ahead of the Bundesliga matches this weekend. And I wouldn't mind some players who wouldn't normally play get some minutes in the next half. We're cruising so we've got an opportunity to experiment.

And I did manage to find a stream in the end, if any of you guys are looking for one here's the one(without sound) i've been using and which has been working well for me:
http://www.justin.tv/widgets/jtv_live.r8713.swf?channel=anya74

[The Old Lady Hertha]

Roll on next round congrats :cool:

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Finished 4-1.

Super Mario hit twice in the second half, first after a good run on the left wing he gave the ball to Hitz who passed the ball back to him intelligently and Gomez then beat his man and scored. His second goal came after a good set up by Marica who made a solid run before passing to the middle for Gomez to finish off. Marica himself also scored a goal but it wasn't given as the ball was (wrongly) judged not to have crossed the line. Also Boulahrouz came on at halftime and played an active 45 minutes, no sign of lacking fitness :)

Only downside was Gyor's one goal, which came after an absolute calamity by Lehmann, who riskily 'dribbled' an attacker before passing the ball straight to Bajzat, another Gyor attacker, who then just kicked it into the empty net. Didn't matter in this game, but I hope this won't affect Mad Jens's confidence, and I certainly hope he doesn't do something like that ever again! That was of Ueber-Raphael-Schaefer proportions!

But whatever, we won 4-1, team looked solid, we're through to Europe proper :cool: