44' Silas rugby tackled in the box, PK. Gonzalez does his slow, stutter step approach and weakly kicks the ball into the goalie's gut, who was already laying on the ground. Still 2-1. Done in by defensive errors once again.
VfB had greater ball possession, more shots on goal, and won more challenges, but lose where it counts, 2-1. Gonzalez and his weird PK approach failed them.
Week 18: 5-7-6 22 points Went to Freiburg and lost 2-1. Wamangituka scored on a rebound shot and all other shots went high, wide, and just off the right post (twice). Poor defense was offset by a good offense the first half of the season. Now a misfiring offense will allow them to drop in the table. Gonzalez could have made it 2-2, but he missed a PK with his weird, slow, stutterstep approach to the ball. Goalkeeper went down the left side and was lying there on the ground and Nico kicks it right into his gut. My grandmother could have scored on that shot even though she's been dead for many years. Goals - Assists Wamangituka 10 - 3 Gonzalez 6 - 2 Kalajdzic 5 - 3 Didavi 2 - 3 Castro 3 - 1 Mangala 1 - 2 Sosa 0 - 3 Kempf 2 - 0 Coulibaly 2 - 0 Klimowicz 1 - 1 Klement 0 - 2 Forster 1 - 0 Endo 0 - 1 Anton 0 - 1 Goals scored: 33 Goals conceded: 29 Clean sheets: 1
Thanks for the play-by-play again @Teak ! After their good start, especially on the road, it appears that VfB are regressing, both offensively and defensively. They really need to add a couple of good, solid defenders. I hope they end their skid soon, or other teams that are below them in the standings might be able to catch up with them.
Week 19: VfB host FC Mainz in Stuttgart for this week's Friday match. Probable lineup: Stuttgart: Kobel - Stenzel, Anton, Kempf - Silas, Mangala, Endo, Coulibaly - Klimowicz, Castro (c) - Gonzalez Can't say that I am too excited about their chances at home against Mainz. VfB are in a poor run of form of late, and Mainz beat Red Bull last weekend. VfB defense is still shaky, and offense gets a lot of shots but few of quality. Not sure what happened to Sosa. He didn't play in the loss to Freiburg and looks to be out for this one also.
Agree about Sosa, he was a (potential) bright spot for this year, but hasn't panned out. He has been injured, and I don't hold that against him, but he just hasn't been consistently good when he was healthy.