A quick roundup of things that happened over the break:

-Stuttgart players played zero part in Germany’s advancement over Russia. Cacau and Hitz warmed the bench and Tasci and Khedira (foot) were out. Pogrebnyak came on late for Russia looking for an equalizer.

-However, they did play in the garbage match game v. Finland (1-1 draw); Hitz until halftime, Cacau into the 2nd half.

-For all you German national team fans out there it’s easy for us to take for granted how often and with relative ease they advance through the WC qualifier rounds. Here’s a nice piece from Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger that touches on that point.

-Big ups to Julian Schieber who netted two for the under-21 squad v. Slovenia in a 3-0 win. Sebastian Rudy came on late and nearly scored as well.

-Yildiray Bastürk broke his thumb but should be ok as early as this weekend

Match preview a little later today-

The season opening itself was mostly, well, family entertainment: Some football games for the kids, a football table and a stage on which the audience could see a Puma fashion show, two bands, our annoying mascot letting itself be celebrated, cheerleaders that were borrowed from a local American Football team, and an interview with Horst Heldt, which was about the only interesting thing about the afternoon.

As opposed to the previous years, the team presentation wouldn’t happen until later, in the stadium, and the more or less traditional autograph session had been completely cancelled (this is the point where I have to admit that I really was hoping to get a few signatures on my VfB jersey, right?).

Once we got into the stadium/arena, we saw the signs with the new name, which were supposed to be un-covered during the ceremony, half-visible already. The three men responsible for the re-naming (Stuttgart mayor Dr. W. Schuster, VfB President Erwin Staudt and Dr. Klaus Maier, whose job description I had to copy/paste from a website: Executive Vice President Sales & Marketing Mercedes-Benz Cars) each held a short speech.
Then eight hundred children ran into the stadium with plates in their hand. Apparently the plan was that they first should show the city’s crest, the VfB logo and the Mercedes star and then turn them around to show the new name: Mercedes Benz Arena.
I say “apparently” because somehow, that didn’t work out at all, and we just got to see a white space with nothing written on it. In the newspaper the next day it was blamed on the heat.

After some “entertainment” – a band from a local radio station and those cheerleaders again – the team and coaching staff was presented to the fans.

A special moment was when Danijel Ljuboja wasn’t announced like the other players, but got handed the microphone instead, and apologised for what he had done two years ago. A few boos were heard, but soon became inaudible within the applause. Later, when he played in the second half of the match, some fans even started chanting his name.

Finally, after more than two hours of sitting around in our newly-named arena (I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to hang on with that), the match started.
And it was a quite good match, especially the first half.

The thing I remember mostly is how well the back four worked together. I was expecting things to fall apart more or less after the departure of Meira and as Delpierre and Tasci were once again playing fullbacks, I had already prepared to watch the usual disaster. But, no:
Instead of disappearing, like they so often did when together, they worked out just fine. Delpierre especially seems to grow on the added responsibility instead of being put under pressure.

Next surprise was Boulahrouz as a rightback – I always figured he’d be the man next to Delpierre and only jump in at the right position if necessary, but he played there amazingly well. And even Arthur Boka was having a couple of really bright moments.

So, even though there were quite a few more scenes in Stuttgart’s penalty area than I usually like to see in a match, it was a relieving sight, because they were able to clear almost every dangerous situation. And if Arsenal nevertheless got a chance to shoot at the goal, Lehmann was there.

Yes, our new goalkeeper did some quite nice saves during the first half. It was reassuring to see that he’s still in top shape and if he continues to play the way he did, we might end up conceding a lot less goals than last season.

So, while the defense and the midfield worked out quite nicely during the first half, we didn’t get to finish. There were a handful of well-executed free kicks and even some chances from play, but the final bit seemed to miss. Mario ended up in Arsenal’s offside trap over and over again and came a tad too late on other occasions.

It’s not something I like to see, mostly because of that idea that he might just have scored from that position before the Euro. Or maybe Arsenal were defending rather well, I don’t know; Even though the Arsenal fan next to me said “oh, look, our defense is just as crappy as yours!” (Hi David, if you’re reading this! *waves*)

The major difference between first and second half can be assigned to two changes: Khedira came for Pardo and Simak left the pitch and was replaced by Bastürk. After that, the playing was a lot more forward, more offensive, but also a bit riskier. At first it seemed to pay off, as Bastürk scored a couple of minutes into the second half, but soon they were back at the old habit of losing the ball too quickly.

It’s something that happened before with Bastürk, which is why I prefer seeing Simak on the pitch. Even though one has to admit that Yildiray is always one to surprise both audience and the opponent with a quick trick and has some great ideas in offensive play – there must be a way to benefit from that without the ball ending up with the opponent over and over again.

There were more goal chances, though, and they got the ball to the height of the penalty area quite often, but then it seemed the team lacked the idea of what to do with it then. And even if there had been a possibility to cross to someone near the goal – somehow our strikers failed to show up in the penalty box, especially after Gomez left in minute 63.

The speed of the match had increased; a lot of the players seemed eager to prove themselves, like Hilbert, who was pacing up and down like I seldomly saw it before, but the actions were a little too hectical. I suppose he really wants to succeed in the league and is hoping to get back to the national team, after being left out for the Euro.

Same goes for Ljuboja, who of course had been hoping for that chance quite a long time, or Matthias Morys, a young striker who was hoping to leave a good impression for the first team. All in all it was a combination of a few players trying too hard and a lack of fine-tuning and adjustment along the players, who of course don’t yet know each other well enough.

So, that’s what was responsible for Stuttart then conceding three goals in the second half, along with some problems in the defense – the stable back four from the first half had been completely replaced, except for Boulahrouz, and with one player who is actually a midfielder and one who played his first match with that team ever, one can’t expect too much of a defense.

All in all, it was a good match, though, and Stuttgart played very decently against such a big club. Now if our strikers get their shit together (it’s really amazing how little I’m worried about our defense and how good it feels to have an existing midfield), the next season can come ahead.

To finish the evening, we saw (or rather, didn’t see as we were on the wrong side of the arena) a firework. Despite some lapses in organisation (the opening), planning (the re-naming) and ability to score (the match), it was a good day, and I don’t even want to hear speculations about how much money I might have spent in the fan shop.

Stuttgart will play FC St. Pauli at the Millerntor later today in a match that I, of course, won’t be able to see. It’s almost beginning to turn into a tradition, isn’t it? The team is in good shape, even though I don’t quite know what’s going with Cacau, who seems to have muscular problems and wasn’t even on the bench for the Arsenal match.

It’s a little bit like last season, a lot of people say. Well, maybe it is, but it’s also different, because the bad start into the league has caused a gap that the team is still working on closing and of course the expectations are completely different.

Once again, I can’t comment that much on the match. It’s kind of unfair that people get a better TV coverage of the Bundesliga anywhere else in the world but here (or at least it seems to me like this) and with having to work on the weekend, it’s kind of hard to follow the matches up to a level where I can really form my own opinion of the team’s performances.

Anyway, what I saw of Hilbert was pretty good, not just the hitzelsbergeresque volley shot goal in the 20th minute but also the way he constantly played forward.
I’m not totally convinced concerning the qualities of playing with only one striker – but then, Marica hasn’t really performed that great this season, here’s to hoping that he’ll have his breakthrough next year – but I’m glad da Silva had a chance in the mid-field, even though it appears he didn’t really use it.

Who really showed an outstanding performance was Sven Ulreich, our goalkeeper baby. Sure at the age of nineteen no one can give perfect performances, but the parades he showed were quite impressive and together with our newly stabilised defence the goal wasn’t in much danger, at least for the first half.

The second half, then, once again showed a completely different team. I don’t know what it is with Stuttgart playing not more than one half (only the second against Rostock, not at all in Hanover, only the first half on Saturday) but it’s something I wish they’d stop, especially when they’re only leading 1:0. Veh said afterwards that one could pretend it’s tactics. I’d still rather have them play for 90 minutes.

Tasci and Khedira once again ended up lengthening the list of injured players, next to Gomez and Magnin. I don’t know what’s up with these two, one small injury seems to add to the other leading to a season with few match practice and not enough training, which then leads to another injury. Like Gomez, they need to work on stabilising themselves, but then, they’re both so young (Sami Khedira turned 21 last weekend, Tasci’s 21st birthday will follow later this month) that there’s enough time to develop (I really do have a weak spot for this second generation of “Junge Wilde”)

In other news, Mario Gomez was at the Sportstudio this Saturday, talking about the team, the hometown of his father, the transfer rumours (he’s still doesn’t feel like leaving and once he does, he wants everything to be perfect), his favourite club (still Barcelona? – “No, my favourite club is the VfB.”) and the importance of friendships in football. This led to a quite entertaining video clip of Ludovic Magnin, Thomas Hitzlsperger and Raphael Schäfer searching through his locker to find lots of hair care products – “he’s very vain and needs at least 30 minutes to style his hair.” “look-wise, his idol is Tim Wiese.” “more gel than hair.” – and a folder with contract offers from other clubs – “Oh, Manchester… wait, city. Too bad.” – and an obviously fake pre-contract with the FC Barcelona.
If you want to watch the interview, it’s here, sadly the embedding function is disabled for the video, the video clip I mentioned is at 3:38.

Oh, and Armin Veh has announced that he’ll quit training the VfB should they reach the second place since he’s got nothing else to reach in Stuttgart. Of course this was a joke but nevertheless some tabloids have started spreading the first rumours. I think I’ll save myself any comment on that.

Maybe I should try to sum up what brought me here in the first place? Actually I live in the wrong city to be a Stuttgart fan – they don’t seem to be the kind of club that has a country-wide fan base, and living in Munich, there’s always the influence of the ever-present FC Bayern (unless you’re born into a family of TSV 1860 fans, but that’s a completely different story).

Fact is I didn’t receive any football-wise upbringing at all, got swept into it by the giant wave that was the 2006 world cup and, like many others, got into the rather unusual situation of being able to choose a club instead of just growing up into it. At the beginning (I’m going to be honest here, even though I like to deny it every once in a while) I didn’t so much choose a club but a certain blond goalkeeper, though.
But you can’t follow a single player without knowing his club and I got interested and fascinated by the team and at some point in January, had the silly idea to go and watch the last match of the 2006/07 season live at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion.
I had hoped for them to do well, but like many others, had never expected things to turn out this wonderful and if I had liked them before, now I was in love.

To cut a long story short, all of a sudden we were champion [sorry, I just had to enter a celebration picture here, sometimes nostalgia gets the best of me], Hildebrand left, but my heart stayed there and here I am now, almost one season later, fretting about our sometimes so confused and out-of-place looking midfield, wondering when (if?) Khedira and Tasci will be back at last year’s shape, writing alternately love letters and death threats to our captain, wishing the best to our new goalkeeper baby and still crying over how tragic things went with Raphael Schäfer and hoping that Gomez will indeed stay for another year while I secretly wish it’d be at least two (there will be a lot of writing about Mario in general, be warned. It must be the goals, and maybe, but only maybe, also the blue eyes).

So, that’s my little story, the next entries will contain some more football – I hope to be back tomorrow or the day after with a report about last weekend’s match against Rostock, which I had the joy to see live (well, the “joy” part obviously only applies for the second half-time only, but more about that later).