Bundesliga 2007 / 2008, 34. (und letzter) Spieltag

So did HSV get any European spots, must be the most exciting team in the North of Germany these days.

Karlsruhe, sounds like a salad.

Go Hamburg! woot, woot! Thank god we got rid of that oaf Sanogo!

Rafael > Ribas

I am shocked about Wolfsburg I haven't follow the Bundesliga that well lately but I thought they were far from convincing at the beginning of the season while surprise team Karelsruhe fell down a bit after the stunning begin...

FORZA GIALLOBLU!!! wrote:You were a Laziale? I hate Lazyo more than Tottenham! You must relinquish any feelings you have and had for them, now! Do it for me Sheffield, do it for the love of humanity!

*sprinkles holy water on SG's face* The power of Christ compells you! Devil be gone!

Don't worry I have done. It was only a case of appreciating their football, and I was starting to get disaffected a year or two before they won the title. I didn't like their football as much, didn't like the spending, and obviously started to notice the conduct of the fans a fair bit more. I don't follow them now or care for them at all, so no need to worry!

OMG, Blut just hacked me.

Sheffield gunner wrote:

FORZA GIALLOBLU!!! wrote:You were a Laziale? I hate Lazyo more than Tottenham! You must relinquish any feelings you have and had for them, now! Do it for me Sheffield, do it for the love of humanity!

*sprinkles holy water on SG's face* The power of Christ compells you! Devil be gone!

Don't worry I have done. It was only a case of appreciating their football, and I was starting to get disaffected a year or two before they won the title. I didn't like their football as much, didn't like the spending, and obviously started to notice the conduct of the fans a fair bit more. I don't follow them now or care for them at all, so no need to worry!

In any case, Roma have always played the better football and will remain so for quite some time.

Just a quick analysis of the season, this basically says it all...


Table of the first half, before the winter break:





Final table again:





So much more could have been possible this season, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. Once again, we had a 'crisis' after the winter break...

But considering all the injuries, the drama and what not, it was still a very good season. Fortunately, we found some form in time, and won 7 of the last 8 matches.

Qualified for the CL for the 5th time in a row, not even Bayern managed to do that.

Markus wrote:So did HSV get any European spots, must be the most exciting team in the North of Germany these days.

We are the most exciting team of the league. Hell, we excite even when we lose. Nobody else does.

RicardoJol wrote:I am shocked about Wolfsburg I haven't follow the Bundesliga that well lately but I thought they were far from convincing at the beginning of the season while surprise team Karelsruhe fell down a bit after the stunning begin...

Well, they were one of the best clubs of the second half of the season. Just take a look at both tables I posted above, and you get the picture.

So if you consider the teams in UEFA cup contention their half-seasons break down like this:

First half:
HSV - 32
Wolfsburg - 20
Stuttgart - 25
Leverkusen - 30

Second half:
HSV - 22
Wolfsburg - 34
Stuttgart - 27
Leverkusen - 21
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So Wolfsburg did superbly in the second half of the table. Taking 13 more points than Leverkusen and 7 more than any of their rivals. Although it is worth pointing out that Stuttgart did have an impressive recovery in the second half of the season, up until the final three games where they were hopeless. Hamburg's good start was enough for them, but Leverkusen were very poor in the second half of the season and it was their undoing.

Manuel Fischer. Remember this name. Won a penalty and scored a goal for Stuttgart today. He is one of the best talents we have in Germany, a future striker for die Mannschaft.

Pander with two assists after set pieces once again. Löw really should have called him up, we really could do with a specialist like him.

Manuel Neuer with a great match also - it's between him and Adler to replace Lehmann after he retires.

Sheffield gunner wrote:So if you consider the teams in UEFA cup contention their half-seasons break down like this:

First half:
HSV - 32
Wolfsburg - 20
Stuttgart - 25
Leverkusen - 30

Second half:
HSV - 22
Wolfsburg - 34
Stuttgart - 27
Leverkusen - 21
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So Wolfsburg did superbly in the second half of the table. Taking 13 more points than Leverkusen and 7 more than any of their rivals. Although it is worth pointing out that Stuttgart did have an impressive recovery in the second half of the season, up until the final three games where they were hopeless. Hamburg's good start was enough for them, but Leverkusen were very poor in the second half of the season and it was their undoing.

The Leverkusen fans were furious, and chanting "Skibbe raus" again today. Remember, Leverkusen had the best chance to qualify for the UEFA Cup before this matchday (they had ths superior goal difference, and were 4th). Will be interesting to see what happens should Leverkusen really not play in Europe next season, and it looks like they won't.

Prediction: Otto to switch his team again soon.

So Blut, how have you reflected upon Bremen's season? Expectations met? Exceeded? Below par season? What would you like to see next season and what are your goals and achievements for Bremen?

Go!

Replied in the Werder Bremen thread, where it is more appropriate.

I posted the Bayern goals earlier, but here are some longer highlights, including the Hertha goal and it's easier to watch in just one video. Plus you get to enjoy the nonsensical Goltv commentary!

Bayern 4-1 Hertha

Do you think Skibbe will survive? Are the players behind him or is there a lot of discontent at Leverkusen?

blutgraetsche wrote:
Prediction: Otto to switch his team again soon.

I haven't heard Otto support Wolfsburg yet, so maybe it's their turn. Although if Lehmann goes to Stuttgart then surely it's an easy decision to make!

The GolTV commentators are hilarious indeed. Wish I could watch GolTV over here...

Skibbe will probably survive, because he has Völler's (sporting director) support. The fans are furious though, so who knows.

Wolfsburg is a good shot. Otto will probably call Magath a "great coach" now soon. Stuttgart only when there is some glory to hunt...

Borussia Dortmund 2-4 Wolfsburg

Not the best goalkeeping display.

Dortmund will invest in a couple of new defenders. Wörns will probably retire, and Kovac will either be benched, or move. Their central defence is way too slow and clumsy, basically past it.

Now that the euphoria has died down a little...

We were lucky--incredibly lucky to finish in 6th place (the best position Stuttgart has ever finished in after winnig the championship, according to Veh in the Sportstudio). Sure, we are no team who can contend for the championship each and every season, but the UEFA Cup should be more or less a fixture. This year, we only qualified for the Intertoto Cup because everyone else (i.e. Leverkusen) was simply too stupid, to put it bluntly.

There have been and will be a number of articles examining why we played as awfully (or brilliantly, shouldn't forget the 6-3 win against Werder ) for a good part of the season as we did, so I won't go into too much depth myself.

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(1) The signings

-Money was wasted, plain and simple. If you dig back through the entries and posts on here, I was never really happy with Bastürck, simply because he hadn't done that well for Hertha. Marica often shows promise of what he could do but doesn't deliver, Radu... Well, the less said about the poor sod, the better.
Which leaves us with Schäfer... What I don't understand is: They signed him early, very very early on, so they must have watched him play before that--how on earth did no one discover that he, as blutgraetsche pointed out last week, apparently didn't (or back then wouldn't) fit the system?

-the shopping list for the summer should include:

A centre back. At least one. It also depends on whether Meira goes or not. If he does, we'll need a second one.
A goalkeeper, if they really want to sell Schäfer
A back-up striker. Manuel Fischer is up and coming, but he's just 18 and really should be eased in gently.
A rightback, if Beck goes.

(2) Second Season Syndrome

On paper, the team really hasn't changed that much (also thanks to the money-mismanagement/waste of such), but in contrast to last season, they lacked the cohesion that made up for individual shortcomings. Plus the players just had to synchronise their crises in form. Meira, Hitzlsperger, Delpierre and Pardo for some time as well, they all weren't the backbones of the team anymore and it showed.

And it just can't be that we rely solely on Gomez to score the goals (yes, I remember that Hilbert got the winner against Hamburg and that Cacau played an important part as well), centering our system on him, or making it depend on his form on a matchday is highly risky.

Plus, if he doesn't get any support from midfield (because Bastürk lost the ball again...) or the sides, what is he going to do?

I don't want to criticise everything, there were times during the season when I thought, yep, they've got 'it' again, they're looking like a team again. It was just that a week later, they'd lose to Bielefeld or Duisburg or Cottbus.

Which highlights another matter: Our goal difference was 0. Which is great in one regard, we scored a lot, but absolutely humiliating and dreadful in another: It also means we conceded 50+ goals. One of the main aims for the new season? Strengthen the defense, not just personnel wise but also mentally and tactically. It wasn't just Schäfer and his blunders who were at fault for the goals, no. It started in midfield where the balls were lost, continued in defensive midfield, where Pardo didn't clear them away like he did last season and then went to the troubled and often changed (because of injuries or suspensions or lack of form) back four before finally reaching the keeper, who was already discussed.

"Verteidigung fängt im Sturm an" (defense starts with the strikers), that's what Veh should start employing again. I'm not talking about playing catenaccio, no, I know that playing attacking football carries risks, but if he wants us to play like that, there should be a solid back four to stop the balls.

I have a dream...

(3) The expectations and failing to meet them

Otto said the other day that he counts the VfB's fans among the most fickle in the league. I dare to disagree--they aren't any more or less fickle or cynical or demanding or whatever else than any other group of fans in the league, well, apart from maybe Mainz'. But they're in a category of their own anyway.

And so the pressure to achieve, especially after having finished first last season, wasn't any higher than in Leverkusen or Hamburg. That isn't to say, however, that the pressure ISN'T high, it's just not higher than at any other club. And it depends on how the players handle it--and how the manager and management help them with that. And that's what Stuttgart has to improve on.

It can't be that the streak of losses towards the end of the season has become a fixture. There must be a way to avoid it. Maybe it's time to call up Daum or Klopp and ask them for ideas.

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So, all in all, unterm Strich: The season was not as awful as it feels right now or felt for the last few weeks but we have to be grateful to and thank a lot of people, starting with Werder and Leverkusen today.

Now I just hope they'll get their $h!t together over the summer break so that we can slip into the UEFA Cup via the back-door. It's not impossibly hard, but it's not that easy either, especially not if you don't take the competition or your opponents serious enough.

Here's to rocking the Ujfaluschi-Cup.

Great detailed analysis Wiebke, appreciate the effort.

It's good to have a fan's perspective on Stuttgart's season. Hopefully, fans of the other Bundesliga clubs on here will follow your example. Enough has been said about Werder I think (at least for now)...

blutgraetsche wrote:Great detailed analysis Wiebke, appreciate the effort.

It's good to have a fan's perspective on Stuttgart's season. Hopefully, fans of the other Bundesliga clubs on here will follow your example. Enough has been said about Werder I think (at least for now)...

Danke.

Laberbacke.
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Fairplay: Hertha spielt im UEFA-Pokal
http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/Sport/de/16962262/Fairplay+Hertha+spielt+im+UEFA+Pokal

That means:

CL: Bayern, Werder
CL-Quali/UEFA Cup: Schalke
UEFA Cup: HSV, Wolfsburg, Dortmund, Hertha
UEFA-Intertoto Cup: VfB Stuttgart

Correct me if I missed a club.

Belatedly the rest of yesterday's highlights.

If anyone knows where I can find Stuttgart highlights can they let me know. The video I've found stops after 40 seconds so I've only seen the first goal and I'd like to see Fischer's contribution and how Stuttgart conceded so quickly after taking the lead!

Hamburg 7-0 Karlsruhe

Good assists from VDV.

Eintracht Frankfurt 4-2 Duisburg

Bochum 1-2 Hansa Rostock

Hannover 4-0 Cottbus

Right, time to respond to Anglo's analysis of Stuttgart's season. First of all, well done for an excellent summary. I agree with virtually all your points, so I wasn't sure how to write an in-depth post just concurring with your points! I should point out that I'm still relatively unfamiliar with the club and German football, so there are a couple of times I make sweeping assumptions that may simply be inaccurate, in which case I apologise, but it's essentially how I see things at Stuttgart.

First of all, you are right to an extent in saying that you only got European football because others 'lost' it, but as far as I'm concerned Stuttgart, HSV and Leverkusen are all in the same boat this season just to slightly differing extents. They all played well for spells of the season, but underperformed for longer than they should have. If Stuttgart only got into the Intertoto cup because Leverkusen were too stupid, it's just as fair to say Wolfsburg got into the UEFA cup because Stuttgart (and Bayer) were too stupid. But that's something that can be worked on.
As you say, winning the championship this season was never realistic or feasible. Therefore at the start of the season European qualification should have been the aim, and you should achieve that. And that is important, it will allow you to consolidate your position amongst the top German clubs, will bring in extra revenue and will make you a more attractive proposition (both to players still at the club and those you are looking to bring in).

As you say, the signings this season just haven't worked at all. Some haven't been too expensive a mistake, but still from a position of strength in the summer you were unable to build on the squad in any meaningful way. Along with the players mentioned, the likes of Ewerthon were essentially a waste of time. You need to bring in players more wisely this summer to really progress.

The Schäfer issue will obviously remain the key signing that has affected your season. I think blame must be apportioned to all parties. He was the wrong player to bring in, I think we all broadly agree that he was the wrong type of goalkeeper to suit the Stuttgart defence, and the fault for that should lie primarily with those who signed him. Stuttgart's defence has been terrible this season, which is why I find the focus on Schäfer to be unjust, but he has also underperformed throughout this season, and will surely leave this summer.

My impressions are that Stuttgart desperately need to buy some experienced, calm heads this summer. The squad is a young one, and we've seen how good and exciting they can be when they are confident and playing with youthful exuberance. The problem I have is that some of the experienced players haven't had the composure to really lead the team when things have been going badly. When they should be leading the team and acting in a commanding manner they have been as quick as anyone to lose the plot. Meira is captain, yet he has been sent off three(?) times this season if I remember correctly. He has given away stupid penalties and generally played in a reckless manner when the team have needed a more composed leader.

As has been said, this has been compounded by a lose of form to key players and injuries, so maybe the issue has been more obvious this season than it normally would. I just feel the team needs greater leadership to help steady things when they are struggling. There are enough young talents, they need experience and direction to balance this now.

Despite being slightly nuts, I'm beginning to think Lehmann would actually be of benefit here. For a start he is the right type of goalkeeper to suit Stuttgart's style, but also he would command the defence better, and I don't think he would allow quite such slack defending as Schäfer, who maybe didn't have the confidence to order the defence. For the rest of the team I can't really make any suggestions as to who to sign.

It seems to me that Stuttgart as a club are on the cusp of being a 'big' team in Germany, but that they don't have the confidence or the financial strength to be bold enough in the transfer market just yet (not entirely their fault if they don't have the money, and a prudent approach in that case). But the players they sign currently seem to be 'hopeful' signings, in the sense that they aren't players you are certain will make a difference, but it's more a case of being optimistic that one or two will fit in. It's less risky doing this because the fees are relatively small, but maybe a bolder approach will be needed for Stuttgart to properly step up a level.
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As I said, I agree with your points about what you need and how the team should play to address some of their weaknesses. I hope my supplementary points make a bit of sense and aren't rambling too much. It's been a tough season, and it's probably misleading to call 6th place a success, but it was the minimum you needed to achieve this season so in that case it is a satisfactory season. Plus the younger players should learn a lot from the lessons of this season. It's vital that you qualify from the Intertoto and strengthen well this summer, because it's likely the teams above you will spend heavily this summer. But there is the potential in the squad to push for a CL place next season and to consolidate the team as a UEFA cup side.

Some pics of Bayern's Meisterfeier












Men in Lederhosen

Sheffield gunner wrote:First of all, you are right to an extent in saying that you only got European football because others 'lost' it, but as far as I'm concerned Stuttgart, HSV and Leverkusen are all in the same boat this season just to slightly differing extents. They all played well for spells of the season, but underperformed for longer than they should have. If Stuttgart only got into the Intertoto cup because Leverkusen were too stupid, it's just as fair to say Wolfsburg got into the UEFA cup because Stuttgart (and Bayer) were too stupid. But that's something that can be worked on.

Amen to that.

I always have a problem with...you know...all that "XYZ didn't deserve to qualify für CL/UEFA Cup/win the league/avoid relegation" etc. Basically everyone usually deserves what they get.

Yes, our second half of this season was mostly dreadful. Yes, Karlsruhe was exceptionally bad yesterday. But if you score 7 goals, you deserve to win, damnit. And if that makes you end up on # 4, you deserve to play UEFA Cup next season.

It's as simple as that. *shrugs*

The beer looks good but not much else does in those photos (aside from the trophies)!

You like men in Lederhosen ?