Stuttgart blow 2 goal halftime lead, share points

The game was certainly how we thought (and hoped) it’d turn out; an open, fast paced, back and forth 90 minutes. For all the chances Stuttgart certainly had the better of the first half and the scoreline reflected that. That being said, there were some sitters flubbed on by some dudes who can score goals (see: Pizarro, Claudio and Cacau.) While both offenses know how to score and move the ball around I was still a bit surprised at how poor our backline looked all day. Just no marking at all. You could see Lehmann’s frustration with some of those balls crossed in, especially in the first half. But they escaped those first 45 unscathed. On the other end we were able to capitalize on a couple of our chances. Gebhart once again played in a beautiful cross that Khedira was able to head in for his 2nd of the campaign.

It was a little reminiscent of the Barca game in that we had the better chances of the first half, and we did score, but a couple of golden opportunities were missed that ended up costing us in the end. And much like that game we were a bit flat and gave up the lead. Credit Bremen for coming out a determined team in the 2nd half (even though we still had our chances) and taking it to Stuttgart. Almeida’s goal was set up nicely and it was a pretty nice finish. On the 2nd just a few minutes later I felt like the penalty was a wee bit soft but nothing I’d rant about. Frings coolly slotting home knotted it up. I think Stuttgart was a bit taken aback from the first strike and never really had any time to settle back in before they struck again.

I was a little surprised Hleb played (and all 90.) Given what he said I thought Gross would send some sort of message, but I guess he’s just hoping to deal with it quietly and try to keep the locker room at bay. Hopefully it doesn’t backfire. Though the starting XI didn’t change from last match that’ll definitely not be the case for next weekend as Delpierre picked up his 5th yellow of the season so he’ll be watching like the rest of us.

Here’s some video highlights before. It’s the only video I could find, sorry for the lame backing music.

Category: Bundesliga, Uncategorized, match comments