VfB Stuttgart Thread- Winter Pause und Ruckrunde 08-09[R]

[benztown]

I just wonder what's up with Elson. He was the only bright light of hope when Veh was still there, yet he hasn't had a lot of playing time since.

[panicfc]

Nice win for you guys tonight. Too bad I didn't get to see it.

[Rainer24]

I just wonder what's up with Elson. He was the only bright light of hope when Veh was still there, yet he hasn't had a lot of playing time since.


Well, with Hitzlesperger seeming to come back into form, Khedira in killer form, Lanig doing well, Pardo back from injury, etc. midfield is suddenly very crowded and I guess Babbel just rates him below those players.

[footyfan1]

You guys got one hell of a test in the UEFA Cup draw this afternoon.

Zenit St. Petersburg

I think your UEFA Cup opponents are tougher than Bayern's next CL opponents (Sporting Lisbon)! LOL!! :D

Zenit is going to be one hell of a job, but if you guys can play the way you did last night, you can do it........

[Borussia]

Interesting, but also pretty tough draw. Hopefully you'll do better than Leverkusen and Bayern last season...

I think it's gonna be a huge advantage to have the first match away.

[benztown]

You guys got one hell of a test in the UEFA Cup draw this afternoon.

Zenit St. Petersburg

I think your UEFA Cup opponents are tougher than Bayern's next CL opponents (Sporting Lisbon)! LOL!! :D

Zenit is going to be one hell of a job, but if you guys can play the way you did last night, you can do it........

Oh crap :rolleyes:

That was really the one team I wanted to avoid...

[footyfan1]

Oh crap :rolleyes:

That was really the one team I wanted to avoid...


I don't blame you, but if you're going to go all the way, you've gotta beat the big names sometime........

[benztown]

I don't blame you, but if you're going to go all the way, you've gotta beat the big names sometime........

True...I also think that we can do it, it's just going to be extremely tough...

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Oh crap :rolleyes:

That was really the one team I wanted to avoid...

Me too.

Seriously, an East European team that doesn't really have a big name (well, it does kinda now they've won the cup, but you get what I mean...), isn't that attractive for potential spectators, is located 3098574509346506 kilometres away from Stuttgart which sucks for travelling fans, and has a REALY good team who are going to be hell to beat.

That really sucks.

But I wouldn't count us out, we'll still have a chance. But Zenit are certainly the favourites, and we'll have to see what we can do.

If there is one bright spot it is as Borussia pointed out, that the return leg will be a home game.

[Equilibrium]

I think you guys will lose, but you do have a small chance. Remember this Zenit team isn't playing as good as they did last season either.

[Syriaman]

Difficult draw,like I expected:


Zenit St.Petersburg- VFB STUTTGART


But I think with much work we can do it,like you said.:)

["Eisenfuß" Eilts]

I think you guys will lose, but you do have a small chance. Remember this Zenit team isn't playing as good as they did last season either.

They are not playing much worse, they had better and experienced opponents
in the CL group, who don´t get trashed 0-4. :rolleyes:

Anyways, Stuttgart and us are not favorites in this round,
so we can surprise. That´s our chance, because both teams
normally do their best vs. big names, and i have a feeling
both will use it.

[+Gooner+]

Is it just me or was the quality of the Uefa Cup not the best last season compared to this year? Zenit really cruised to the final but even Bayern had one crappy lucky game after the other and when they finally met a strong opponent (who that underestimated in their arrogance as so often I think. They were probably already in he final in their minds) and some shots actually made it past the defense to Kahn - who should not have played anyway - they got thrashed. There is no way VfB will take Zenit lightly which is an advantage. I feel oddly confident with Babbel in charge of the team. In the past few months whenever I watched you guys play I thought doom would be only a matter of minutes but now I could even watch a couple of games on free-telly, lean back and enjoy the games. Did you even concede first with Babbel as new boss once? I think Stuttgart always scored first lately. And only 3 goals against in 5 games. Nice. :)

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Yup, we've only been behind for a total of 20 minutes under Babbel's reign, that was against Bayern.

In the first transfer news of the winter, we're being linked to 1860 Munich's hot prospect Timo Gebhart. Bremen are also said to be chasing him.

[Equilibrium]

They are not playing much worse, they had better and experienced opponents
in the CL group, who don´t get trashed 0-4. :rolleyes:

Anyways, Stuttgart and us are not favorites in this round,
so we can surprise. That´s our chance, because both teams
normally do their best vs. big names, and i have a feeling
both will use it.
That's ok, I accept Bayern embarrassing themselves once in a few years in Europe unlike Bremen who are a disgrace to German football whenever they play in European competitions.

Khedira so far seems to have benefited the most out of your new coach, though your whole team has improved considerably.

[hackespitze123]

That's ok, I accept Bayern embarrassing themselves once in a few years in Europe unlike Bremen who are a disgrace to German football whenever they play in European competitions.

A digrace to German football? That's why we currently are #12 in the UEFA team rankings I guess, and collected more points for Germany when we reached the UEFA Cup semis in 06/07 than you did last year.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method4/trank2009.html

And that, although you have a budget that is roughly 3x as high as ours. Stop talking out of your arse please, thank you.

[stonesean]

Though I agree that "disgrace" is certainly the wrong word to describe Bremen, counting on rankings to show anything that real results don't is a bit shaky.

[hackespitze123]

Though I agree that "disgrace" is certainly the wrong word to describe Bremen, counting on rankings to show anything that real results don't is a bit shaky.

How else do you want to measure European performance objectively? Bremen being a 'disgrace' for the Bundesliga implies doing awful in Europe, and therefore costing the league UEFA coefficient points. And that's frankly utter nonsense. The exact opposite is the case.

While there is no doubt that Werder should have done better in the CL in the last few years, especially against weaker opposition, we really don't have to take shit from anyone accusing us, out of all clubs, to let the league down. Look at that ranking (the team ranking is the basis of the seeding in the CL group stages btw.), take the budgets of those teams into account, and seriously claim that we have let the league down. While you are at it, give me some of the stuff you are smoking, too.

[Rainer24]

Getting back to Stuttgart, St. Petersburg is probably the last team I wanted to see us draw, and yet here they are. It's far away and they are a good team, which sucks, but at least the second leg will be at home. It will be a challenge, but I also think we can pull it off if we play our cards right.


Khedira was voted the Bundesliga player of the month by a wide margin over Ribery. Woohoo!


Also reports of lots of English scouts at the Liege game, mostly interested in Hitzi. Hopefully he doesn't go anywhere in the coming window.

[footyfan1]

Also reports of lots of English scouts at the Liege game, mostly interested in Hitzi. Hopefully he doesn't go anywhere in the coming window.


I doubt that he would unless someone makes Stuttgart an obscene offer. Any word on what clubs the scouts represented??

I don't think Hitzlsperger would leave you guys for anyone in England except one of the "Big Four......"