“In Glasgow the lads got to see that they can still win games and score goals. We’ll need to convince in the same way against the league leaders.

“We will need to repeat the virtues from Glasgow once again. There we were willing to do the leg work, we were compact and created lots of chances on goal.”

Leverkusen have yet to lose domestically. Part of their success can probably be attributed to the fact that they have no European or Cup competitions to worry about, so they can fully focus on the Bundesliga. It’s been a sharp campaign in all facets for Leverkusen thus far. They have conceded a league-low 9 goals in 13 matches and scored 26, good for 3rd overall. Stuttgart should have the good fortune of Tasci back in the starting XI for the first time since injuring his foot against Sevilla. I’d expect to see more of Sebastian Rudy who garnered high praises from Babbel over the week. Maybe this is blasphemous, but was anybody else not disappointed to see Hitz missing from the starting XI against Rangers? I’d expect to see him back there on Sunday.

Stuttgart sit in the relegation zone right now and 12 points away from European competition. It’s not too late to get there, but the window is getting closer to closing each week we draw with a bottom of the table club like HSV or lose outright. Yeah the midweek win was great but there’s no time to harp on it or settle.

I’ll try and be on here during the match but no guarantees. Up Stuttgart-

Rangers were able to eke out a draw in Stuttgart weeks ago in their first match of the campaign. Stuttgart were overall a better side but faltered a bit, were not able to strike the decisive blow and Rangers ultimately played better and scored in the 2nd half. Here’s to hoping The Schwaben have learned from their first leg and plan accordingly.

While it’s never easy to play in Glasgow, they have shown chinks in their armor in this campaign with both Unirea and Sevilla winning outright. First and foremost Stuttgart MUST play with more composure than their last match in Seville. As you may recall the first 15 minutes of that match the entire team were a bundle of nerves and Sevilla capitalized quickly. Once they calmed down it was a far more equal matchup and realistically Stuttgart should have done better than a draw being up a man with 20 or so minutes remaining. But I digress. Here’s the key points to victory:

-Stay composed. We’ve already touched on this.

-Clean up the sloppy defensive mistakes. This should be a theme of theirs for the entire year as every game there’s a few moments where someone or the whole backline caves in. A momentary loss of concentration in this case can cause far greater detriment than just letting up a cheap goal against the flow of play. There’s no telling how big an impact this has psychologically as well.

-Health: Probably the biggest question mark is who will be fit to play. Tasci and Gebhart also made the trip and we’ll see if they’re able to shed their injury woes and play. Though to be honest I don’t even really want to see Gebhart suit up.

-Halftime adjustments: I don’t know if much has been said about this during the current campaign but there’s definitely been some great halftime adjustments and some woeful ones. Early on in the Champions League Stuttgart have looked the more dominant team throughout the first half but came out flat in the 2nd. Whether it was just poor motivation or an inability to counter the opponent’s adjustments is hard to say but has been alarming nonetheless. That being said his halftime adjustments against Sevilla last match were superb (though admittedly very very obvious, everyone was screaming for those 2 to come off.)

-Score. Please. Who will step up and add a clinical finish to their repertoire? We can only hope. The quality chance to score ratio has been woeful this year.

Friends, I don’t know about you but I’m a bit tired of these non-winning ways. September 26th, 2009 was the last time VfB Stuttgart won a match outright. That’ll be just shy of 2 months come Tuesday night when they battle in Ibrox Stadium. And far too long for a team that should be contending both domestically and advancing in Europe.

I’ll be on here posting throughout the match. Please share your comments or just blow off some steam before, during and after.

Perhaps the biggest news for the club coming out of the break is the shuffle of healthy comebacks and newly wounded (mostly the latter.) Cacau couldn’t have picked a better time to make his anticipated return given the injury blow to Schieber on international duty. Osorio, Tasci, and Khedira will similarly be unavailable. All these injuries couldn’t have come at a more crucial junction in the season. After this weekend’s match Stuttgart will clash in a huge matchup with Rangers away to effectively determine their Champions League fate.

Berlin have struggled to put the ball in the back of the net all year and I anticipate their struggles to continue on the road to a desperate Stuttgart side. Couple that with the suspensions of Raffael and Sascha Burchert Berlin will only have one true striker available: Artur Wichniarek. Stuttgart are banged up on their back line but should be able to hold Berlin down. I anticipate a close game but ultimately Stuttgart coming out on top, either 1-0 or 2-0. A 0-0 draw would, well, suck.

Borussia Monchengladbach sit two points ahead of Stuttgart in the table. Their form has also been shabby as of late but have picked it up the past 2 matches with a draw and a win. Borussia Monchengladbach are amongst the worst in conceding goals which is a welcome sign considering the trouble Stuttgart has had in finishing throughout the year.

Expect Babbel to once again shake up the lineup this weekend, juggling injuries and using the midweek clash as a barometer. Babbel has “strongly hinted” at starting Sebastian Rudy presumably over Roberto Hilbert. Babbel is also fully aware that his job is on the line and I’m sure will put out his finest XI to pick up a much needed win. Perhaps he realizes that another mediocre performance against a weaker team could do him in for good. News has leaked out that some journalists near the visitor’s locker room on Wednesday overheard Babbel’s spirited (read: pissed off) halftime speech with juicy excerpts like these coming out (taken from bild.de):

“We are absolutely scared stiff,

“But the only person here who has to have any fear is me. It is my job which is on the line.

“But I can tell you, I am not going to stick up for the team which I saw in the first half. That was catastrophic.”

He likened his rousing halftime speech to the way that sometimes a father has to yell at his children. It certainly struck a chord in Kuzmanovic who after scoring ran up and hugged Babbel, later citing the halftime speech as much needed upliftment to everyone on the club. I for one am thrilled to hear this. I’ll take the cornered animal fighting for his life any day; it’s all about survival. And if that means more rants and disowning your team if they are playing like crap at halftime then so be it.

Anyways I like Stuttgart’s chances. I haven’t done a score prediction in a while (I think my cumulative record is somewhere around 0-37) but here goes:

Borussia M’gladbach 2 Vfb Stuttgart 3

But that’s much further down the road, friends. Let’s focus on tonight. One can never be sure what side Babbel will field, but with Cacau injured and Ciprian Marica picking up a slight knock over the weekend (groin) I’d be surprised to see anyone other than Schieber and Pogrebnyak up front. Osorio, Träsch, and Khedira will also be unavailable with injuries. Here’s what Babbel had to say ahead of the critical trip to Spain:

“The game against Bayern gave us a bit of a boost. We were solid at the back, didn’t allow them to create many chances and, at the same time, managed to forge some openings of our own. If we can play that way against Sevilla, and maybe repeat the sort of performance we put in during the home game against them two weeks ago, then we have the class needed to take something positive back to Stuttgart from Spain with us.”

Right on brotha. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was most encouraged by the backline play against Bayern more than anything else. If Stuttgart can put it all together, that kind of defense and the same attacking style they put in against Sevilla last time, we may have something here. Stuttgart’s biggest problems last time were man marking with set pieces and other balls sent into the box. They were beaten by two headers and a poor goalie blunder. Fabiano was essentially invisible last time around and it’s got to be the same today too.

I’d like to see a little more of this again too- comment before, during, and after the match. I’ll be around-

Am I being naive in still dreaming of European qualification for next year? Perhaps. And maybe I sound like a broken Horst Heldt record here but I believe in this team and by and large the players available to win and make a run at it. While the higher ups continue to preach that Babbel’s job is safe everyone and their mother knows that just isn’t the case; it can’t be. With that in mind I see a spirited effort this weekend not only to right the ship in the domestic table but they’re also fighting for Babbel’s job. Yep, it’s pretty much against logic. Bayern have looked sharper as of late, smoking Eintracht Frankfurt during the week 4-0 in DFB-Pokal competition and also having won their last 2 in the Bundesliga. Stats be damned.

Anyways as always leave your comments here before, during, and after the match. Also, peep the Bayern Offside for a live blog; I’ll be jumping on there too.

Up Stuttgart-

The last time Stuttgart and Sevilla hooked up was in the Europa League last year where Sevilla promptly dispatched Die Schwaben 2-0. Sevilla have only added to that squad with Brazil’s Fabiano, who is sehr gut to say the least. He did not figure into Sevilla’s loss over the weekend after WC break due to WC qualifier fatigue. But he’ll be back and ready to go in this affair. However, Sevilla will be w/o their starting goalie Palop, as well as defender Konko, midfielder Renato, and Negredo. With this in mind it’s really Stuttgart’s best chance to steal a result. Make no mistake they are heavy underdogs, playing like crap all year against a team that has only excelled. And Babbel, ever the optimist, feels this works in their favor:

“We are better off not being the favourites because now we have nothing to lose, we can only win. I feel that the team is willing, ready to give everything.”

One would hope they would embrace being expected to win. But I digress-

So here’s hoping to taking advantage of a weakened Sevilla squad, and, you know, maybe rallying around home pitch advantage for once. Please post before, during, and after the match and I’ll surely be blogging live with whoever wants to as well.

Cut to a year later. Stuttgart are lower half of the table, struggling both domestically and abroad. Our manager, who missed his last required coach training session, is dangerously close to losing his job. Course organizer, Frank Wormuth:

“We are okay up to the start of November, but if he should be absent again after that, then we will have to think about our options.”

Not sure what he means by “options” but they can’t be good. You can read the article here. Note: It’s in German. It’s basically outlining what you need to graduate. You need to attend a certain percentage of the entire course (around 90%) and a certain percentage of individual subject areas (around 80%.) On top of that is the examination in March.

It sounds like Hleb will be back and available for the match which is a welcome sight for sore eyes. Here’s to hoping Schieber can keep up his form that he’s shown as of late, and maybe we can get a boost from the internationals.

Anyways, as always, rant your comments before, during, and after the match. Up Stuttgart-

Big game today; the green whites have looked strong all year domestically and even more so in European play. It’s also yet another test to compete against a team we’ll most likely be battling for Euro competition next year too. I think logic would tell us that it would seem they would struggle this year after losing Diego to Juve, but Özil has slotted in far nicer than anybody could have imagined; he’s really blossoming.

Hleb will be out again; this muscle problem is a bit more persistent and worrying than I first thought. Other than that should be a similar squad to that of the other day, but I’d expect Schieber to start.

Comment during and after the game. Voice those ever insightful opinions here. Up Stuttgart-

It cannot be overstated how important this game is for Stuttgart if they are to advance to the knockout stages. You’ve got to figure that they will need to take a few points away from Rangers and Sevilla and pretty much ALL the points away from Unirea. Sometimes easier said than done. While Urziceni are undoubtedly the underdog in the group they’ll be looking to make a splash as well and they looked threatening at times against Sevilla even though they lost. But let’s hope Stuttgart can build on the success from the weekend and take all three of these much needed points.

I’d like to see Pogrebnyak and Schieber up front together tonight in attack. Hleb will again be out as well as the long term usuals (Magnin, Lanig.) I’d assume Lehmann is set to go again as well too.

As you can see I’m calling this a rant box more than a CL preview – comment throughout the game and I’ll be looking to comment/reply often and keep it interactive. UP Stuttgart