With a little help from my (microscopically small) friends

By: Anna | August 14th, 2008

As someone who followed Stuttgart through the last season, I know what it feels like when half your team is out due to injury. That’s why I won’t spend too much time delighting in what the FC ETO Györ is going through at the moment.

What seemed like a success at first sight, namely reaching the last round of UEFA Cup qualification, has taken a high price: Despite even bringing an own chef to the away match against Georgian club FC Zestafoni, twelve players got infected with the rotavirus.

Györ even had to cancel their last match in the Hungarian league against TE Kecskemeti. As this is not possible in the qualification for European competition, the club will have to rely on reserves and youth team players to get through the match.

Stuttgart, on the other hand, can rely on a great part of the players. Cacau is having problems with the adductors, Khalid Boulahrouz’ ankle still isn’t quite as stable as it should, but apart from them, the team is in good shape.

Thanks to playing in three competitions, Veh is forced to a certain rotation: Pavel Pardo and Thomas Hitzlsperger are going to have a break today, they’re going to be replaced by Sami Khedira and Jan Simak. So we’ll have Lehmann in goal, Osorio, Delpierre, Tasci and Magnin in the defence, Lanig, Bastürk, Khedira and Simak as midfielders and Gomez and Marica as strikers.

I’m extremely curious how the midfield is going to look like with three very creative players who surely are going to push forward a lot, and if Khedira is going to be able to manage the defensive part all on his own, especially as I don’t think they have played together in that line up before.

As for the captaincy, I supposed Pardo would be the first choice to take the armband when Hitzlsperger isn’t playing, but as he’s going to start on the bench as well, I’m not quite sure. Delpierre has captained the team in a few test matches, but is in general seen as “too quiet”. It’s also possible that Lehmann is going to captain the team.

With the opponent being weakened and the VfB being eager to play on the European stage this season, I suppose chances aren’t too bad, and I hope that Stuttgart will be successful in the match, and that the players don’t catch that virus, too.

The match in the Mercedes Benz Arena (typing that name doesn’t get any easier with time) starts today at 18:30. The second leg is sceduled for 14. August at 20:30.