CM10: Life after Mario Gomez

[m_vaughan]

Hilbert extends Stuttgart deal

Hilbert extends deal

Roberto Hilbert has signed a new deal with VfB Stuttgart that will see him remain at the club till July 2013.

The 24-year old German winger has been at the Mercedes Benz Arena for three seasons since making his ?1.2 million move from Greuther Furth.

Soon after signing the new deal, Hilbert, spoke to the press: "It is an honour for me to extend my time at this great club. I have enjoyed three fantastic seasons at this club, and want to continue doing that for longer."

His manager, Markus Babbel, also welcomed the news.

"Roberto is one of our key players, one of the pillars of this squad. He is still young and will get even better, and we are delighted to have secured his long term services," said Babbel.

 

[m_vaughan]

Stuttgart brush aside Bamberg

VfB Stuttgart completed a 3-0 drubbing of Eintracht Bamberg in a preseason friendly encounter at the Mercedes Benz Arena.

Brazilian born German international, Cacau, opened the scoring in the eigth minute after picking up a lose pass from Andre Laurito, and scoring of a rebound after his initial strike was blocked by Bamberg keeper Christian Horcher.

New signings Pavel Pogrebnyak and Zdravko Kuzmanovic were involved in the second goal. The Serbian midfielder finding Timo Gebhart who went for goal only to be blocked by Horcher and Pogrebnyak slotted the ball home from yet another rebound to make it 2-0.

Stuttgart pressed for furthur increasing their lead but had to wait till the 85th minute for their third and final goal. Jan Simak's cross from the left found Aleksandr Hleb in the center who nicely headed the ball past Horcher into goal.

So a much improved performance from Markus Babbel's side after that shock defeat to Karlsruhe, with the players giving a good account of themselves overall. However Eintracht Bamberg is not the level of opposition they will be against when the season proper starts, so they will have keep working and improving as a team in order to compete with the top flight sides in Germany and Europe.

Final Result: VfB Stuttgart (Cacau 8, P Pogrebnyak 32, A Hleb 85) 3-0 Eintracht Bamberg

 

[m_vaughan]

Late Raffael winner knocks Stuttgart out

VfB Stuttgart have failed to progress beyond the first round of this season's DFB Liga-Pokal after being beaten 0-1 by Hertha Berlin at the Mercedes Benz Arena.

Markus Babbel's side enjoyed a greater share of possession in the match and had more shots on target as compared to the visitors. But in the end the Swabian side were penalised for not converting their chances by Hertha's Brazilian striker, Raffael, who rammed home the winner from all of 25 yards out just three minutes from full time.

Final Result: VfB Stuttgart 0-1 Hertha Berlin (Raffael 87)

 

[m_vaughan]

Stuttgart destroy Fiorentina in friendly

VfB Stuttgart put in their most impressive display in preseason by beating Fiorentina 3-0 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence.

In a game between two teams that will be playing in the Champions League playoffs this season, Sami Khedira opened the scoring in the 6th minute with a composed finish after being set through on goal by Aleksandr Hleb. The hosts then pressed for an equaliser but failed to find the breakthrough.

Stuttgart then doubled their lead in the 62nd minute when Khalid Boulahrouz's towering header beat Sebastian Frey, and substitute Jan Simak completed the rout by a well taken strike in the 77th minute.
Manager Markus Babbel admitted his delight at the result but refused to get carried away by it.

"It is a good win against the level of opposition we will be facing in Europe this season. But it is preseason, so we must not get ahead of ourselves with this result," said Babbel.

Final Result: Fiorentina 0-3 VfB Stuttgart (Khedira 6, Boulahrouz 62, Simak 77)

 

[OffCutters]

Dont know why you dont get comments, this is a good story. Good win over Fiorentina, looking good against the European teams, KIU.

 

[m_vaughan]

VfB draw Waldhof Manheim in DFB-Cup

In the first round of this season's DFB-Cup, VfB Stuttgart will host Regionalliga west side, Sportverein Waldhof Mannheim. The draw for the first competitive game of the new season was made today. The game will take place at VfB's Mercedes Benz Arena on the 1st of August, 2009.

VfB team boss Markus Babbel: "We have just one target - progression to the next round. And in football, no opposition is easy, so we have to take them seriously otherwise we may regret it later."

VfB sport-director Horst Heldt: "The DFB-Cup is a special tournament and we welcome Waldhof Manheim to our ground for this first round encounter."

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Yeah really easy win over Fiorentina, and nice draw in the cup.

 

[m_vaughan]

Bayern thrash Werder Bremen to lift Liga-Pokal

Bayern Munich have started the new season off in dramatic style by beating Werder Bremen 4-0 in the DFB Liga-Pokal.

The first goal came as early as the second minute when Jurica Vranjes' lose pass back was picked up Luca Toni, who then rounded the keeper and comfortably tapped the ball home.

Two minutes later it was 2-0. Jose Ernesto's Sosa darting run from the left flank before cutting in and going for a perfect angled shot into the top corner doing the trick.

18th minutes into the game, Toni latched onto Bastian Schweinsteiger's fabulous cross to make it 3-0, and ten minutes later Thomas Muller headed home from Schweinsteiger's free kick to make it a night to forget for Werder Bremen.

But there were to be no more goals although Bayern did come close on a number of occasions in the remainder of the game. In sharp contract, Werder managed just one shot on goal in the entire match.

Bayern who beat defending Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg and Bundesliga 2 winners Freiburg en route to the final, have now won their seventh Liga-Pokal crown.

Score: Bayern Munich 4-0 Werder Bremen
Scorers: Toni 2, 18; Sosa 4; Muller 28

 

[m_vaughan]

Wounded Stuttgart see off Waldhof Mannheim

VfB Stuttgart came from a goal down to beat Regionalliga side Waldhof Mannheim 3-1 and progress to the secound round of this season's DFB-Cup.

However the win came at a very big cost as Sami Khedira, who scored the equaliser, Cacau and Aleksandr Hleb all picked up injuries.

The home side were stunned in the 3rd minute of play when Waldhof striker Daniel Ruele beat the Stuttgart offside trap and scored with a low shot that Jens Lehmann was unable to stop from going in.

Stuttgart did not have to wait long for the equaliser as in the 14th minute Pavel Pogrebnyak headed the ball from Hleb's cross into the path of Khedira and the 22-year old blasted home from close range.

However they did have to wait till the 79th minute for finding the winner. Thomas Hitzlsperger's saw off the challenge of two Waldhof defenders and put a cross right in between them into the center of the box where Roberto Hilbert was there to head home.

And Pogrebnyak then made it 3-1 in the dying moments of the game when his header off a Julian Schieber corner found the back of the Waldhof net.
After the game, a pale looking Markus Babbel expressed his relief in his team's progression in the competition.

"It was a very difficult game for us because Waldhof were defending really well, and we lost three players because of injury. So I am pleased the players fought their way till the end and got the win," said Babbel.

He also said that he was unaware of the extent of the injuries, the details of which would be confirmed by the club's medical team after examination.

Final Score: VfB Stuttgart (Pogrebnyak 14, 90, Hilbert 79) 3-1 Waldhof Manheim (Ruele 3)

 

[m_vaughan]

Khedira sidelined for a month while Cacau and Hleb face more than a week out

VfB Stuttgart have been rocked by injuries to three of their key players during their DFB-Cup first round tie against Regionalliga side Waldhof Mannheim.

22-year old winger, Sami Khedira, is the biggest casuality, as he is expected to be out of action for a month because of a fractured collarbone.

Striker Cacau and midfielder Aleksandr Hleb both suffered leg injuries and will be unavailable for atleast a week.

It is to be seen if Stuttgart make any new signings to compensate for these setbacks, especially that of Khedira's.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Some huge injury blows for Stuttgart,the squad depth will be test at the start of the season. Great writing sid..

 

[m_vaughan]

Thanks Shan. Unfortunately I am not finding enough time to post updates like this so I am going opt for the summary time monthly reports similar to Jack's style.

 

[m_vaughan]

August-September Update
(Since the DFB Cup first round game)​

Results

Player Stats

Bundesliga

Europa League

Summary​

VfB Stuttgart started off its domestic campaign well as after the DFB Pokal 1st round win over Waldhof Mannheim they won their opening two games in the Bundesliga against Mainz and Hertha Berlin. However the injuries to Sami Khedira, Aleksandr Hleb and Cacau hurt them big time in Europe. After a 3-0 thrashing to Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, VfB won the home game 3-2 but we knocked out of the Champions League on aggregate. This ofcourse meant they would be playing in the Europa League.​

Anyways the European blow looked to have affected their league form as well as they lost their next four Bundesliga games. They did end that run recently when they beat VfL Bochum 4-1. In the Europa League though they have started well winning 3-1 away to Maccabi Haifa. And Stuttgart's second string side saw off the challenge of Osnabruck in the second round of the DFB Pokal winning the game 2-1.​

Amongst the players, new signing Pavel Pogrebnyak has already chalked up nine goals for the Swabians. Roberto Hilbert and Thomas Hitzlsperger have been the only other performers in an otherwise underperforming squad. Hleb and Khedira ofcourse have been unable to contribute because of their respective injuries.​

October Fixtures

 

[m_vaughan]

October Update


Results

Player Stats

Bundesliga

Europa League

Summary​

After the win over Bochum, VfB suffered a disappointing defeat at home to Galatasaray the following week in the Europa League. It was disappointing because the Turks outplayed us and could have easily won by a bigger margin but in the end it was Milan Baros' 2nd minute strike that settled the tie.

Stuttgart did respond two days later with a 2-1 victory over Dortmund in the Bundesliga but once again suffered defeat when they went down 0-2 to in-form Bayer Leverkusen two weeks later.

But following that Markus Babbel's side put up a run of four consecutive wins, two of which came in the Bundesliga and against strong sides in Schalke and Wolfsburg. In the Europa League, Stuttgart had a comfortable win over CFR Cluj to move to second in the standings while in the DFB-Pokal they beat Hannover 2-0 to progress to the last eight.

Amongst the players, Pavel Pogrebnyak increased his goal tally to 13 with 9 of them in the Bundesliga where he leads the charts. Incidentally Mario Gomez had yet to find the back of the net for Bayern in the Bundesliga. But one player who really impressed this past month is left back Ludovic Magnin who also played at left winger against Borussia Dortmund.
​

November Fixtures

 

[m_vaughan]

November Update​

Results​

05/11/2009 - UEFA Europa League Group G Match 4
VfB Stuttgart 0-0 CFR Cluj
A disappointing draw that hampers VfB's qualification chances​

07/11/2009 - Bundesliga Match 12
Hoffenheim 0-1 VfB Stuttgart
45 - Pogrebnyak
Pavel Pogrebnyak's headed goal handed Stuttgart a narrow win at Hoffenheim​

21/11/2009 - Bundesliga Match 13
VfB Stuttgart 2-0 Hamburg SV
16 - Pogrebnyak
62 - Hilbert
Stuttgart blew apart relegation threatened Hamburg at the Mercedes Benz arena and could have won by a much bigger margin. In the end goals from Pogrebnyak and Hilbert was enough though.​

29/11/2009 - Bundesliga Match 14
Bayern Munich 2-1 VfB Stuttgart
8 - Robben
36 - Hleb
45 - Gomez
VfB gave a good account of themselves in this game with Aleksandr Hleb getting on the scoresheet while Mario Gomez scored his first league goal of the season against his former employers.​

Bundesliga standings

Europa League standings

Player Stats

December Fixtures