Keep the run going boys. Will not be easy today against a side on the verge of relegation. No complacency please. I expect no changes from last week. Kuzmanovic is back from injury, but it is hard to see Gentner returning to the bench after his performance against Bremen. I assume Gentner retains the starting spot for the last weeks. auswaertssieg please!
Yep, Gentner's starting...good. The superfluous news is he seems to have gotten his haircut...almost didn't recognize him. Not sure how Koeln got to keep that ball in at min.27, when it pretty clearly went over the line (& touched by Sakai). Good thing they didn't score on the resulting break. Would have been completely lame. Good attacking energy from VfB to start. Koeln slowly working back in though with improved counters...
Uncharacteristically bad clearance by Sakai in the box in first half stoppage, put the ball at Podolski's feet. Fortunately, he couldn't capitalize on the mistake. We've had the advantage in possession so far, but overall a fairly uneventful match for both sides. Only four shots per each team. Bogged down in midfield as the saying goes...
0-0 at halftime. Hertha is bottling big time against Kaiserslautern, Koeln fans have obviously heard the news and both the supporters and the club are really fighting hard at this stage. We have been stable at the back but lacked ideas going forward. Anything could happen in the second half, curious to see how the game ends up. But it is not easy so far.
Correction...now, according to ESPN stats, Koeln had 9 shots to our 4. Not a good trend. We definitely let them back into this in the last part of the first half.
And Koeln goes up 1-0, early in the second half! Way to NOT guard the far post, Molinaro...maybe Bruno should put Boka back in...<joke>
And Cacau ties it! Amazing, and lucky spin on the ball, after glancing off the inside right post...actually was in front of the goal and spun back in. Whew... Meanwhile, over at Nuernberg v. Hamburg, Didavi scores again...
Final, Köln 1 : 1 Stuttgart A draw is better than a loss, especially on the road. Take the point and keep moving on. According to ESPN's stats, Stuttgart had the overwhelming majority of possession (64% to 36%), but trailed Köln 19 shots to 11! How on earth could that be?
Well, a point away from home is never bad. Shame the 3 game winning streak comes to an end, but we can live with this. Obviously this makes the gap between us and the rest tighter, and with Bayern coming up next weekend it could yet get close in the European fight. Hopefully we can cause an upset against the pigs. Very happy for Cacau, I truly hope he can still make the EM squad..
Belated player ratings: Sven Ulreich: Kicker Rating: 3.5 (32 played, 2.81 avg.) Gotoku Sakai: 4 (12 played, 3.46 avg.) Georg Niedermeier: 2 (16 played, 14 as starter, 2.89 avg.) Serdar Tasci: 3.5 (28 played, 3.13 avg.) Cristian Molinaro: 2.5 (21 played, 18 as starter, 3.71 avg.) William Kvist: 3 (32 played, 3.16 avg.) Christian Gentner: 4 (26 played, 15 as starter, 3.22 avg.) Martin Harnik: 4 (32 played, 31 as starter, 3.40 avg.) Tamas Hajnal: 3.5 (31 played, 28 as starter, 3.55 avg.) Julian Schieber: 5 (16 played, 10 as starter, 3.95 avg.) Vedad Ibisevic: 3 (23 played (10 with Hoff), 20 as starter, 3.18 avg.) SUBS: Cacau: 2 (31 played, 18 as starter, 3.89 avg.) Shinji Okazaki: No Rating (25 played, 17 as starter, 3.84 avg.) Maza: No Rating (24 played, 22 as starter, 3.64 avg.) Unused Subs: - Marc Ziegler - Arthur Boka - Zdravko Kuzmanovic - Ibrahima Traore