Slowly sneaking up the table

By: Anna | April 7th, 2008

The weeks of six-pointers have started and Stuttgart is once again sneaking upwards while the rest of the league appears to be looking some other way.

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.