VfB Stuttgart in the B2: 2016/17 Season Second Half - Rückrunde Discussion

Hate to see Maxim go, but he's warming the bench here anyway. This is not the first trainer he has failed to impress, so I guess he is not giving his all during practice. It's a shame, because it is usually not an issue on matchday.

As for Green, he got subbed off at halftime, so I guess he didn't have a great game. He won't score any points with me for being an American international if he's not helping the team.

An unconvincing win at bottom-of-the-table St. Pauli. Düsseldorf beat us last time, but it's a home game this time. Can they pull it together, or will it be one of those second halves where it seem to be a different team out there?

 

It's hard to believe this was the same team that beat us earlier in the season. They get good pressure on the ball, but VfB looked so much quicker and had many takeaways. The two goals came without much build up from long crosses into the box. Green did especially well from his angle. Asano got past defenders regularly, but it did not end with a shot on goal. Mane also looks class. I still can't believe Luhukay quit over those two - he should've just said "Thank you".

Ginczek got 20 minutes. He still has the instincts. He forced a defender to handle in the penalty area, but the ref didn't see it. I'm still not sure if he's back physically. They look ready for the second half push.

As luck would have it, Hannover lost badly at Greuther Fürth, and Braunschweig lost to bottom of table St. Pauli?! We played the toughest opponent and we're 3 points clear at the top!

 

I just noticed how solid we are setup for the rückrunde when I looked at our bench for this match:
Uphoff, J. Zimmer, Ginczek, Maxim, Klein, Brekalo, Hosogai

All of them could start, but have better starters in front of them. We can survive an injury and still be in the top 2 at the end. That said, we did struggle to score against Sandhausen. One of our goals was a pen, but the other is worth finding the highlight, if you haven't seen it - a nice scissor kick volley by Terodde. Green and Asano are both very lively, and should be creating more eventually.

At 10 matches to go, I'm going to start counting them down. We have to get out of this league.

 

Anyone else see that foul by Grosskreutz? His first yellow was for minor contact, but then he slide tackles this guy and gets none of the ball - a clear yellow card. The ref doesn't want to send him off, so it was just a foul. Bullet dodged.

 

A 3-month subscription is €11.95 ($13). The last match is May 21st, so I will probably buy 3 months after Feb 21st. I'm betting $13 on a promotion run. Don't let me down boys!

The Bundesliga is so much better than the English leagues in this regard.

Link: https://shop.vfb.de/vfb-tv/abo/

 

Damn Mané made that a nailbiter. After Genter scored his double high volley (the first came right back to him), there was a beautiful feed across the middle from Insua for Mané to run onto. He had time to decide where to put it, with the keeper not back. He could have smashed it down the middle, but he wants to stay away from the keeper, so he misses a nearly open goal to the right. I was already cursing him before the equalizer, and long after.

Brekalo came to the rescue. You know those runs to the middle, just outside the box? They can almost always get a shot away, but it's tough to score from that range - that's how Heidenheim got their goal. Well, Brekalo made it harder by running away from goal to get around the defender. Then he turns on it and still hits it with power, but it's so far out there's not much chance. Sure, he meant to go top corner, but this seeing-eye shot hits the corner, off the crossbar and the post. It doesn't go in otherwise. Gotta be goal of the month. (That loan is looking great.)

15 minutes left are going to be nervy, but damn if they don't get 3 good shots in the next 5 minutes. Then we start giving up corners and each one is dangerous. We scrambled some away, cleared one off the line, Langerak flipped one up off the crossbar for another corner - a real shooting gallery, but nothing goes in. It finally calms down for the last 5 + 3 stoppage. The gods are on our side! There's no other explanation for how that didn't turn into a draw.

 

I got my VfBTV today. In a few minutes I was able to play the Kaiserslautern match. I used a browser plugin to download it for offline viewing. I was pleased that it included commentary in German - I thought that would belong to the TV broadcaster. The only thing missing is the clock and score overlay, for some reason. I am very happy with it, and that's before watching any of the other content (mostly interviews, I presume).

One odd thing I noticed when signing up, was that in addition to automatic renewal, they require two weeks notice to cancel. That will make it a small challenge to time it right. Challenge accepted!

Game summary: We outclassed them, but struggled to score until late.

VfB für immer! Niemals Dritte Liga!

 

We've beaten some good opponents in that streak. The top four have separated themselves a bit, so our biggest three matches in the rückrunde will be @Braunschweig, Berlin, and @Hannover. The last two are in the final 5 matches, and Braunschweig is Monday. They have only lost one home match all year, but it was recently, in their current 1-4-1 stretch. They've only scored 1 goal in each of their last 5 matches, so if we score first, we'll have them on the ropes.

 

Well, we scored first after all. It was a gift of a backpass, and was enough to earn us a point. Unfortunately we gave away two penalties for which I can't fault the ref. Thank god, Langerak kept one out.

Berlin passes Hannover to second place. Braunschweig remains fourth. Not a bad result.

 

Green was replaced at half-time both times he started. I think he needs more time to ramp up to starting, physically and mentally. We have seen flashes of ability, so I'm not worried about that.

 

I'm usually not watching it live anyway here in the Pacific Time Zone. I'm loving same day instant downloads of the match. I play them on my TV for the full experience.