After the fourth and final goal of the day, cheering chants could be heard in the Stuttgart stadium, which sounded unintentionally modest given the score: “We are number one in the country,” chanted parts of the Cannstatter Kurve in the direction of the bewildered Freiburg fans. The demands in Stuttgart are now completely different than just being the best of four first division teams in Baden-Württemberg – alongside the Heiden and Hoffenheimers, who are in danger of relegation. And next to SC Freiburg, who weren’t nearly as good this afternoon as their position in the upper midfield suggests.
A VfB in great spirits scored three goals before the break against the strangely absent, never-competitive guests. All three fell just a few seconds after their own corners, first by Anthony Rouault (3rd) and Ermedin Demirovic (17th). Nick Woltemade, this VfB striker who is surprisingly agile and tricky given his height, later followed up with a penalty (45+4.), which was also whistled by referee Felix Zwayer after a corner and subsequent foul on Jamie Leweling. In the end it was 4-0 because substitute Deniz Undav also scored (80th) – the luxurious situation of a club that can put established professionals like Undav, Chris Führich, Maximilian Mittelstädt, Jeff Chabot or Jacob Bruun Larsen on the bench .
The slap for Freiburg might have been even more humiliating if VfB hadn’t sensibly rested themselves in the second half for the game in Bratislava. A win there on Tuesday evening would ultimately be important if not essential in order to progress in the Champions League and thus continue to be involved in all three competitions.
At the end of an English week, VfB now have nine additional points to their name. After wins against Freiburg (4:0), Leipzig (2:1) and Augsburg (1:0), the Stuttgart team suddenly found themselves in fourth place. Since Sebastian Hoeneß took over in Stuttgart, such series have been commented on in a pleasantly sober manner. The coach is reliably inoculated against the loud-mouthed arrogance that used to be heard in the VfB environment. However, the modest coach exaggerated the understatement a bit when he also claimed that he was only “really” sure that they would win this game after the 4-0 win. After all, no team in the history of football has ever turned around a 3-0 deficit without having to deal with the opposing goalkeeper at least once.
“It’s not possible for us to concede four or five goals in every game against the top teams,” complains SC captain Christian Günter
The fact that VfB sports director Fabian Wohlgemuth doubted his own perception in the interview zone and emphasized that he “now doesn’t know whether Freiburg had a clear chance to score, I can’t remember any” was unnecessary: there really wasn’t one. The VfB team, which is noticeably young on average, seems to be getting closer to the form from the previous season, which is certainly also due to the fact that the offensive squad has filled out again after the return of Undav and Leweling. In fact, Wohlgemuth found that the game was “to a certain extent a demonstration”.
Conversely, this conclusion shows how long the list of deficits was for the opponent from Freiburg. The Stuttgart team were able to mix and match to their hearts’ content without any annoying attempts at interference, although the chicken-and-egg question naturally remained open. So whether the Stuttgart team benefited above all from Freiburg’s patience, or whether it was the great determination of the Stuttgart team that never let the SC find their way into the game? Freiburg’s captain Christian Günter spoke afterwards of “phases where we weren’t hard enough” – basically this phase lasted 90 minutes.
Nothing illustrated Freiburg’s lack of defense better than the fact that this game was decided by set pieces – a discipline in which Freiburg has traditionally specialized. This is how the situation turned out to be wrong: after every VfB standard, it became so dangerous in the Freiburg penalty area that Stuttgart’s best player (no new news that it was Angelo Stiller again) later paid tribute to the assistant coach Malik Fathi, who was in the Stuttgart coaching team is responsible for corners and free kicks.
“It’s not possible for us to concede four or five goals in every game against the top teams,” complained Christian Günter from Freiburg, who can also take good corners on other days. And in fact, Freiburg have already lost 2-0 in Munich, 3-1 in Leipzig, 4-0 in Dortmund and 5-1 in Leverkusen this season. This was followed by a 4-1 defeat in Frankfurt last Tuesday, and now this 4-0 defeat at VfB. This results in a somewhat worrying bottom line in what has been a decent Freiburg season so far: SC has had three problems so far, namely, firstly in away games, secondly against top teams and thirdly in away games against top teams. The next game is a home game again, which makes us optimistic. It’s not quite as optimistic that it’s against FC Bayern.
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