Match preview Bayer Leverkusen vs. VfB Stuttgart

By: Anna | April 12th, 2008

Beck and Kießling duelling - from the last Stuttgart vs. Lev match It’s yet another six-point match and even though I’d love to, I can’t really look forward to it. With their youth and their beautiful football, Leverkusen remind me a lot of the Stuttgart team we saw last season, only that they have the disadvantage of Bayern being back at their usual strength.

Their elimination from the UEFA-Cup was unfortunate but not devastating and they seem very determined to qualify for the Champions League this season. If Stuttgart want to win this match, they’ll have to play with a lot more force and endurance than they have shown lately – I doubt one lucky goal, like the one Andreas Beck scored in the first leg, will be enough to beat this team. The mid-week match also isn’t necessarily an advantage for Stuttgart since Leverkusen rested huge parts of their usual starting line up.

It’s also going to be the meeting of two members of the so-called new goalkeeper generation. René Adler is in his current shape surely one of the best keepers of the Bundesliga (if not the best) and Sven Ulreich is certainly not the only of his colleagues who admires him. Two years of age difference, both started playing on a regular basis surprisingly early and both, together with a few others, are now called the future of German goalkeeping.

Injuries and other news concerning the line-up:

- Gomez is, as was to be expected, not going to play. The question is whether they’re going to start with Cacau as the only striker again, or if Marica get yet another chance. Considering that Leverkusen is, much like Stuttgart (when they’re in good shape, that is) a team that loves to play forward and isn’t so easily defeated in the defence, I’d guess they’re going to start with two forwards.
- The usual injuries: Khedira (thigh issues), Tasci (knee injury) and Magnin (torn ligament in the ankle joint) started training with the team again this week. If he’s in shape, at least Magnin is surely going to play, whether Khedira gets a place in the starting line up might depend on the system – if they should start with five players in the midfield again, it’s possible.
- Osorio didn’t train with the team until Friday, so I suppose Andreas Beck is, at least for this week, going to keep his starting place as right wing defender. The match practice should do him good and it also makes me hope for yet another goal like the last one against Leverkusen. It should also encourage him to stay with the VfB and not search for other opportunities – there have been rumours around that he’s not quite happy with playing second fiddle to Osorio, whose main advantage is the age and therefore experience on the pitch.

I guess I should apologize for not being around as much as I wanted during these first two weeks here. I was terribly busy with a practical training from university, but I hope to be able to catch up now with all sorts of news like the latest transfer rumours (some of which don’t even include Mario Gomez!), the re-naming of the Gottlieb Daimler Stadion and the correlative conversion to a football-only stadium, or Raphael Schäfer speaking about his degradation to number two in goal for the first time.