Bundesliga
Stuttgart in a frenzy: new dressing room anthem and Bayern attack
VfB Stuttgart celebrates victory at FC Augsburg. photo
© Tom Weller/dpa
VfB Stuttgart is floating on a cloud in the final stretch of the season. Record win in Augsburg, 70 points, second place – coach Hoeneß is “really proud”. The coming week will be exciting.
After the record victory in Augsburg and the leap past FC Bayern into second place, the Champions League anthem resounded loudly from the Stuttgart dressing room. VfB’s party days continue seamlessly after coach Sebastian Hoeneß’s team’s fantastic run up to Europe’s premier football league. A week after the 3-1 win against the Bayern managed a confident 1-0 (0-0) against FCA. No let-up, no sufficiency – Hoeneß and his famous boys around 26-goal striker Serhou Guirassy are reaching for the runner-up position in the Bundesliga’s final spurt.
Hoeneß was “really proud” on Friday evening and gratefully listed what his team had achieved on that working day. “We set ourselves the goal of securing third place, we achieved that. We set ourselves the goal of getting 70 points, which VfB had only achieved once before (in the championship year of 2007). We achieved it. And we wanted one little final and something to play for next week. That’s great.”
Guirassy’s 26th goal of the season in the 48th minute was enough for win number 22 of the season, which was also a Bundesliga club record. “The team demonstrated their winning mentality, that impressed me,” praised sports director Fabian Wohlgemuth.
Goal Supercup final
“Now we want to crown the season in front of our fans,” said national player Maximilian Mittelstädt, looking ahead to the home game against Borussia Mönchengladbach. On the last matchday in the long-distance duel with Bayern (69 points – on Sunday against Wolfsburg) it will probably also be about participation in the Supercup final against Bayer Leverkusen. If the German champions also win the DFB Cup against second division team 1. FC Kaiserslautern in Berlin in two weeks, then they will face the runners-up in the Supercup on August 17th.
That would be an exciting start to the new season for VfB with a big comeback in the Champions League. The anticipation is already huge. “Now the anthem is still playing in the dressing room,” said Mittelstädt: “But we are all looking forward to standing on the pitch next season and hearing the anthem. We can hardly wait.”
The new favorite melody may also help to encourage top players who are heavily courted by larger clubs, such as national player Chris Führich or striker Guirassy, to stay. “I hope that as many as possible stay here,” said Mittelstädt. And of course you work on the shaky candidates, “it would be stupid if you didn’t”.
Undav wants to stay
Attacker Deniz Undav (18 goals this season), on loan from English Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion, is determined to stay. “I’m really keen to play here,” said the 27-year-old, who dreams of big premier class evenings against dream opponents like Real Madrid. “And maybe we’ll flatten them,” Undav joked, laughing.
Undav, Mittelstädt, Führich and Waldemar Anton – this quartet is looking forward to next Thursday, when national coach Julian Nagelsmann will nominate the squad for the home European Championships. “Let’s see if I hear my name,” Undav said.
Mittelstädt, who was included in the squad after his strong DFB debut against France (2:0) and Holland (2:1), spoke of a “relatively positive feeling”. He is counting on Nagelsmann to honor those who were there at the start of the year. “We laid the foundation for the European Championships in March and have already built a good team,” he said.
Hoeneß thinks the VfB quartet deserved to be there. He even promoted a fifth actor: Angelo Stiller. The midfielder was already in Nagelsmann’s focus in March. “Angelo has also performed really well since the last nomination. That’s why it certainly wouldn’t be a mistake to have a player like that there,” argued Hoeneß: “But Julian makes the decision.”