VfB Stuttgart

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Bayern’s dreams of qualifying for next term’s Champions League hang by a thread after a demoralising defeat to closest rivals VfB Stuttgart.

A 57,400 full house at the Gottlieb-Daimler stadium witnessed a cautious affair until midway through the first half, when Brazilian hitman Cacau single-handedly took it upon himself to rip the visitors asunder with a lucky opener, a cool second, and a shot off the bar which would surely have wrapped up the points just half-an-hour into the match.

Instead, the champions’ hopes of a salvage operation flickered briefly after the restart, but confident Stuttgart had too much composure and resolve to let the outcome slip and now lie five points ahead of the Bavarians, who remain fourth on 53 points, seven and nine respectively behind weekend winners Bremen and Schalke with just four matches to play.

Reds unchanged

Coach Ottmar Hitzfeld kept faith with the side which beat Leverkusen 2-1 last weekend, handing another start to Christian Lell at right-back in place of long-term injury victim Willy Sagnol.

Roque Santa Cruz was again asked to provide invention behind the front two at the apex of a midfield diamond featuring Hasan Salihamidzic, Owen Hargreaves and Mark van Bommel, with Lukas Podolski again partnering Roy Makaay up front.

Nightmare first half

Van Bommel just failed to lob home keeper Timo Hildebrand and Salihamidzic was too surprised to convert when the ball landed at his feet in the six-yard box, but the first half shot count of 10-1 in Stuttgart’s favour told its own story after 45 minutes the champions would certainly rather forget.

Benni Lauth, former Red Thomas Hitzlsperger and fellow Germany international Roberto Hilbert had all come close before Bayern failed to clear their lines on 23 minutes, allowing Mexico star Ricardo Osorio to angle a cross into the area.

Lell swung at the ball, but the youngster’s attempted clearance ricocheted off the diving Cacau’s head and past Oliver Kahn’s despairing dive. The visitors hardly had time to draw breath before Sami Khedira broke on the right and crossed for Cacau to burst between Bayern’s static centre-halves and slot home.

Better after restart

Munich were all at sea, but it could have been even worse as Cacau first failed to beat Kahn from a thoroughly inviting position and then smacked a drive against the crossbar, prompting the giant keeper to hurl away his cap in disgust and collect a booking from referee Dr Markus Merk.

Kahn still had a save to make from Hitzlsperger before Bayern reached the haven of half-time, Hitzfeld sending on Claudio Pizarro for the ineffective Podolski in the hope things could only improve after the restart.

Rally in vain

The General’s men duly upped the tempo in the first twenty minutes of the second period and Pizarro and Van Bommel warmed Hildebrand’s gloves, but Bayern were vulnerable to counter-attacks and Kahn was at his most alert to deny Hilbert, Hitzlsperger and Khedira in short succession.

Bayern heads visibly went down as the Reds failed to make headway, and Stuttgart comfortably ran don the clock to seal an eighth away defeat of term for the champions, and a reverse laden with consequences at that.

<!--wenn ein Presseartikel, dann muss noch folgender Spruch dargestellt werden-->VfB Stuttgart - Bayern Munich 2-0 (HT: 2-0)
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="HEIGHT: 15px"> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=f00000012px><NOBR>VfB Stuttgart:</NOBR></TD><TD class=abstand_15> </TD><TD class=f00000012px>Hildebrand - Osorio, Fernando Meira, Delpierre, Magnin - Pardo – Hilbert (Beck 78), Hitzlsperger - Khedira – Lauth (Da Silva 61), Cacau (Streller 86)</TD></TR><TR><TD style="HEIGHT: 15px"> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=f00000012px><NOBR>Bayern Munich:</NOBR></TD><TD class=abstand_15> </TD><TD class=f00000012px>Kahn - Lell, Lucio, van Buyten, Lahm - Santa Cruz (Görlitz 73), Hargreaves, van Bommel, Salihamidzic (Karimi 84) - Makaay, Podolski (Pizarro 46)</TD></TR><TR><TD style="HEIGHT: 15px"> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=f00000012px><NOBR>Substitutes: </NOBR></TD><TD class=abstand_15> </TD><TD class=f00000012px>Rensing, Demichelis, Ismael</TD></TR><TR><TD style="HEIGHT: 15px"> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=f00000012px><NOBR>Referee: </NOBR></TD><TD class=abstand_15> </TD><TD class=f00000012px>Dr Markus Merk (Otterbach)</TD></TR><TR><TD style="HEIGHT: 15px"> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=f00000012px><NOBR>Spectators: </NOBR></TD><TD class=abstand_15> </TD><TD class=f00000012px>57,400 (capacity)</TD></TR><TR><TD style="HEIGHT: 15px"> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=f00000012px><NOBR>Goals: </NOBR></TD><TD class=abstand_15> </TD><TD class=f00000012px>1-0 Cacau (23), 2-0 Cacau (25)</TD></TR><TR><TD style="HEIGHT: 15px"> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=f00000012px><NOBR>Yellow Cards: </NOBR></TD><TD class=abstand_15> </TD><TD class=f00000012px>- / Kahn, Podolski, Van Bommel</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

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Very dissapointed, but we deserved the loss after the horrible play.
If Pizarro started from the 1st minute, things could have been different.
But it's over, there are no if's and but's, so:

Goodbye Champions League for next season!

This team must be rebuilt. If this doesn't happen, we wont see success nowhere. Changes must be done, some players must leave, some new players must come.

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Stuttgart 2 - 0 Bayern Munich

23' [1 - 0] J. Cacau

25' [2 - 0] J. Cacau

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VfB Stuttgart 2 - 0 Bayern München

Stuttgart's win puts them five points clear of Bayern in the race for the third Champions League slot. VfB now trail second-placed Bremen by just two points.

A crowd of 56,000 filled the Gottlieb-Daimler stadium for the big south German derby. And most of them went home happy thanks to a double strike from Cacau (23rd and 25th mins).

Bayern tried to up the pace, but rarely looked like making any inroads on that deficit, and the hosts squandered several breakaway opportunities to add to their lead in the second half.

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Ottmar Hitzfeld made no attempt to hide his profound dismay after Bayern’s 2-0 defeat away to VfB Stuttgart. “We gave a diabolical display, especially in the first half,” the Munich head coach raged. Captain Oliver Kahn was equally in no mood to pull punches: “You have to go back a long way to recall a display like that.”

Reaction to VfB Stuttgart v Bayern:

Ottmar Hitzfeld: “Obviously we’re bitterly disappointed. We gave a diabolical display, especially in the first half. We were never able to get going. Stuttgart were bursting with aggression and started very well. Too many of my players’ heads went down with the score at 2-0 – I didn’t like that one bit. You’re always in with a chance, but you have to fight for every inch of ground. We lacked the aggression we needed. We rallied in the second half, but we failed to score, and it was all too late anyway. I’m exceptionally disappointed with our display. We know we don’t have the quality in certain areas, but we have to make a lot more of what we’ve got, and there’s no way we’re worse than VfB with what we have right now. What we lacked was fight, passion and desire, but those are essentials. I also think the fact we’re not used to battling just to finish third may have been a factor. Finals for Bayern normally mean finishing first. We were afraid of the consequences, the pressure was immense – it was all negative tension. I believe it was a mental problem for my team. All that aside, we have to roll up our sleeves try and win all our remaining games, and preserve a chance of qualifying for the Champions League.”

Oliver Kahn: “I was seriously surprised at the way we approached the game in the first half. You have to go back a long way to recall a display like that. We let in a goal, and we promptly fell apart. You can’t let your head drop, you have to pull yourself together mentally. We were still bothered by letting one in, and then we conceded a second and nearly a third. Even now, after the match, I can’t explain the first half.”

Mark van Bommel: “It was an evenly-matched contest until they scored. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t a catastrophe. You’ve still got to expect more from us after going 2-0 down. I’ve not regretted moving to Bayern for a single second. In my opinion, Bayern remain the best team in Germany. Unfortunately, we’re not first, we’re fourth, and we have only ourselves to blame.”

Horst Held (VfB Manager): “There’s not a lot to complain about after the week we’ve had. Our team is performing heroics at the moment. We could have been 4-0 ahead at half time. Bayern never got to grips with us.”

Armin Veh (VfB coach): “We gave a commanding display today. We kept it very tight at the back and created plenty of chances. We definitely deserved to win by two goals. The match reflected a great season for us, but it’s not over yet and anything could still happen. We need to remain cautious. You make more mistakes when you’re successful.”

Timo Hildebrand (VfB keeper): “We looked good in attack, we matched Bayern for aggression, but we defended incredibly well and stopped them having chances. There are four games to go – if we keep on concentrating, we could go all the way.”

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My player ratings:

Kahn - 6 // If there wasn't Kahn, we'd have probably been 5-0 down. He made some tremendous saves. He'd have got a higher rating if he didn't concede the goals, although it wasn't his fault in both of the goals conceded.

Lell - 3 // Average display, only showed off his real strength in the last 5-10 minutes of the match.

Lucio - 3 // Didn't do good at all, he should have done much better, and reacted much better on the goal actions. He let too much space for the Stuttgart players.

van Buyten - 3 // Same like Lucio, as a CB he is, he should have done much better.

Lahm - 3 // Un-noticed, poor performance. God damn it, where the f*ck is the Lahm of World Cup?

Santa Cruz - 5 // S.Cruz had an alright performance. I liked his moves, but nothing came from it. His passings were kinda poor, and he possesed the ball too much (to loose it after a few secs) and that pissed me off. Oh well, you can't replace Schweini easy.

Hargreaves - 5,5 // Hargreaves was the one who controled midfield this time, he was the best midfielder on the field I should say. His passes were always correct, but unfortunately they didn't bring anything.

van Bommel - 4,5 // Mark usually does better, much better actually. I was surprised with his weak performance today. He's usually our midfield boss as he does better than all other midfielders, but today he wasn't our best midfielder. Dissapointing.

Salihamidzic - 4 // Brazo with an average performance, another surprise, as he usually does much better. I expected a lot of crosses from him, passes and possibly shots, but he dissapointed.

Makaay - 2 // Horrible performance, totally crap. He seems to be afraid from defenders, what the f*ck is that? Why does he keep passing the ball back to defence? God damn it, go forward, attack!

Podolski - 2 // Just like Makaay, horrible, crap performance. Just a shadow of himself, god damn it. What more, he was unable to control himself, after Magnin provocated him often. Poldi got a yellow card, and Merk even warned him he'd send him off if he continues. But Hitzfeld didn't let that happen, as Poldi was substituted in half-time pause.

Pizarro - 7 // Hitzfeld should have started him from the begin. I don't know why he keeps selecting Podolski over Pizarro, I just can't understand. Maybe Podolski does better in training, but come on, we all saw Podolski the whole season, just a shadow of himself. Well done Pizza today, and thank you for the performance. Unlucky not to get a goal, as he had a few good chances. He had a lot more chances than Poldi and Makaay together. Bayern looked different since Pizarro got in the pitch. If he started from the 1st minute, I'm sure things would have been different. I usually don't pick Bayern's Man of the Match after horrible performances, but I make rare expections, and this is one of them. Pizza - FCB Man of the Match.

Karimi, Gorlitz - Not rated

[Oliver_Kahn]

Goodbye CL


Just 2 good aspects to take from this match, Kahn seemst to have played very well and that makes me happy, the other aspect is that Pizarro played well and will probably take Podolski's place (fucking finally, I've been wanting this since February!!).

[Oliver_Kahn]

Fuck Cacau

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More like fuck our crap defenders.

[Oliver_Kahn]

That as well

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VfB's final two home games at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadium against FSV Mainz 05 (05.05.2007) and Energie Cottbus (19.05.2007) are noe completely sold out. No further orders for tickets for these games can be processed.
Team manager Horst Heldt: "I'm delighted that the final two home games are already sold out and we can rely on the support of the fans for the closing phase of the league."

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In November last year, E. Breuninger GmbH & Co., who have been a business member of VfB Stuttgart since 1936, became the first company in the clubs history to be awarded an honourary membership of the club. The honour was an acknowledgement of the very special relationship between the club and the traditional Stuttgart business who have, for many years, maintained a special bond with Baden-Württemberg's biggest club and are currently a team partner and official provider. During the last week the two parties agreed on an extension of their cooperation until 2010.

[Oliver_Kahn]

This new deal happened because Stuttgart are going the CL next season

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VfB Stuttgart visit rock bottom Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday. bundesliga.de paid a visit to confident Stuttgarters.

You struggle to find similarities between VfB Stuttgart and Borussia Mönchengladbach t