Can we finally get an away win again? If so, this will not be an easy place to pick it up! 5 points away from that elusive 7th place, we need to start getting these wins.
Up 2-0 at the break! Great job so far boys, really hope they can keep this up. Would be an excellent win! Ibisevic gave us the lead with his second goal for us and afterwards we got a penalty, which Kuzmanovic converted. Let's not throw this away, it would be a great result!
3-0! I missed the cause for the VfB penalty kick about min.47. Guerrero let his frustration get the better of him there! What a stupid move on his part for the red card. Ulreich guarding the ball off in the corner. Guerrero comes in from behind and spikes him in the left calf. Wow. Have fun now Hamburg! Go VfB! Now if Augsburg could just regain the lead on Hannover, it would be a really great day for us.
We're cruising here. This is really encouraging. Gotta say: 5-0 versus Hertha, 4-1 versus Freiburg, now the game here, and these were all in the last 4 matches. It does seem we have turned our form around again. The fight for Europe is most definitely still on. Unfortunately Hannover have taken the lead now.
Glad to see Stuttgart 3 - 0 Hamburg. (I've been drifting in and out between home-chores. Must keep the wife happy!)
On the positive though, Bremen are losing in Berlin. We'll have made up one point if the results stay like this.
Cool that Harnik's parents saw him score at the end. Team looked fairly dominant today. Form is back. Now there's a run against mostly weaker teams for awhile. Europa seems possible at the moment. As I type this, I see Augsburg has pulled back a tie (likely) with Hannover. Bremen about to lose to Hertha. I don't mind seeing Freiburg beat Schalke. And even better, Bayern taken down by Leverkusen (although that doesn't help our overall Europa chances...still a beautiful thing).
Great results today. The Europa league is definitely possible. I said so just two weeks ago that it can still happen, after we lost in Hannover and they were 8 points in front of us. Well, guess what, if we beat bottom-of-the-table Kaiserslautern at home next week, and Hannover lose in Bremen, we will have overtaken them only 3 games later. Of course, long way to go yet. But it's great to see the side on form again. If they can keep this up we'll make Europe at the end of the season, where we belong.
Ibigol has been fantastic for you guys! Glad to see it. He's loving life at Stuttgart, you can see it.
Gladly Ulrich did not get seriously injured in that scene: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27DBI_re_r8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27DBI_re_r8[/ame] Guerrero should get a season long ban, it is not the first time that he does such sh*t.
Seriously Guerrero is one of the biggest douchebags in football. Lucky that Ulreich wasn't hurt there, that guy should not play any more matches this season. Even after the ban (projected to be 6 games, should be longer really), I hope HSV do not play him. Total asshole.
Yeah. 2 goals and 4 assists in his first 6 games. Considering it often takes time for a striker to integrate in a new side, he seems to have gelled in very quick. Not that I didn't expect it, he is an excellent striker and it's been great to have him on the team so far. And he will continue to improve I believe. He has also helped improve the players around him in my view, whereas Cacau this season was mostly only serving to frustrate them. This is especially evident with Harnik, who has really taken off since Ibisevic has been in the squad. But you can also see it, to a lesser extent, in the performances of Hajnal and Okazaki. Hopefully this keeps up.
Doesn't surprise me at all, Ibisevic has always been a team player and I'm glad the partnership with Harnik is paying immediate dividends. Vedo is enjoying his football at the moment, something he wasn't able to do at Hoffenheim with all the negative stuff around him and thats currently plaguing our other NT player Salihovic. I hope Sejad joins Stuttgart as well.
Player Ratings: Sven Ulreich: Kicker Rating: 3 (24 games played, 2.77 avg.) My Rating: 3 Khalid Boulahrouz: KR: 3 (19 played, 3.50 avg.) MR: 3.5 Serdar Tasci: KR: 2.5 (23 played, 3.20 avg.) MR: 2.5 Georg Niedermeier: KR: 2.5 (8 played, 6 as starter, 3.50 avg.) MR: 2 Gotoku Sakai: KR: 3.5 (4 played, 3.63 avg.) MR: 3 William Kvist: KR: 3 (24 played, 3.21 avg.) MR: 3 Zdravko Kuzmanovic: KR: 2 (19 played, 15 as starter, 3.43 avg.) MR: 2 Martin Harnik: KR: 2 (24 played, 23 as starter, 3.41 avg.) MR: 2 Tamas Hajnal: KR: 2.5 (23 played, 20 as starter, 3.68 avg.) MR: 2.5 Shinji Okazaki: KR: 3 (21 played, 16 as starter, 3.78 avg.) MR: 3 Vedad Ibisevic: KR: 2 (16 played (10 with Hoffenhem), 13 as starter, 3.54 avg.) MR: 2 SUBS: Christian Gentner: KR: No Rating (19 played, 12 as starter, 3.35 avg.) MR: 3 Julian Schieber: KR: NR (8 played, 3 as starter, 4.83 avg.) MR: NR Cacau: KR: NR (24 played, 18 as starter, 4.03 avg.) MR: NR Unused Subs: - Marc Ziegler - Maza - Cristian Molinaro - Raphael Holzhauser
That is the first time I got to see the Guerrero red card and it was certainly deserved. That was just plain dirty. It really seems that Ibisevic has been a great acquisition, so let's hope that this continues and we can make the push for Europe. Edit - apparently the disciplinary committee is pushing for him to receive an 8-match ban.