Yeah, when I saw the starting lineup I thought "Kevin got his wish for Toure to start." It is nice that VfB have a good set of players to rotate between 1.B and the CL.
So important. The workload is pretty intense now. And it's great to have so much tactical flexibility. When I look at our roster, we can match up with anyone in the league.
Unnece It was gorgeous. You can catch it on the YouTube highlights or at the end of the match. Totally unnecessary second yellow. The ref could have let bygones be bygones on that one. It was an ugly challenge. Chabot's reaction was totally normal, and a little shove between two players is nothing worth booking. Panic refereeing.
Yeah, I saw the replay. Outstanding week for Toure. Scored only goal against Juventus, and then scored and assisted the two goals today. And we thought VfB were fortunate last season with two good goal scorers -Guirassy and Undav- but this season has now THREE -Undav, Demirovic, and Toure!
I'm feeling really good. We stumbled a bit out of the gate this campaign, but that had more to do with Deniz coming in a little late, plus adjustments to the new guys. This is a really solid squad: talented, flexible and deep. It got a little dicey at the end today, but that's only because of some dicey refereeing. (We need to improve our 10-man game, though.) And we probably should have been up 3-0 at that point. There are a few more adjustments to make. But I'm feeling good.
Leverkusen v Stuttgart starting in about 20 minutes, but I can't watch it live. Will be checking in later.
Ouch! Leveling out in the 8th minute due to injury. Rieder in (That's all that the match tracker said).
He got caught between two defenders and doinked his hammy. He's going to miss some time. Very serious blow. He should be back during the first half, so at least there's that. https://www.vfb.de/en/vfb/latest/news/professionals/2425/muskelverletzung-bei-jamie-leweling/
Very much one-way traffic in the first half after Leweling went down. We adjusted pretty well, and it was a little more even in the second half. We actually got a couple good looks. But we were mostly fighting a rear-guard action.
News: Denis Undav is out with a hamstring injury until end of year, which may mean calendar year 2024 or the season. Hopefully, he will return in January.
The team site said he wouldn't be available "in the coming weeks." That's a little ambiguous, but it doesn't sound like he's out for the year. We'll have to soldier on. I'm happy with the composition of our squad overall -- very happy -- and we can still compete. But we all know we're not challenging the top of the table without Deniz. [EDIT: That doesn't mean giving up. We'll fight like hell. It's just the reality of where we are in the table. But it's still early enough where we can make a run the last third of the season and qualify for Europe if we stay within striking distance.]
Just now tuned in, at half time. I was watching the Valencia-Real Betis match, which was an emotional win for Valencia 4-2. This was their first match in nearly a month given the cancellations due to the DANA storm which killed over 220 and displaced 36,000. Sometimes futbol takes a back seat.
Horrible flooding. Our new climactic reality is already becoming a massive challenge, and a deadly one. We're in for a very rough ride, at best. I've been really heartened by the response of the football community, though. People get it. Anyway, we've been really good today. Führich and Mittelstädt especially have been a handful. We're just missing the clinical finish, again.