When Angelo Stiller was asked to stand in front of the microphone after the game, he said a sentence that he has probably said many times in his career as a professional football player. When asked about the dimension of the result that had just been achieved, he said that unfortunately he couldn’t say much about it. He doesn’t know “how the others played”.
This sentence is mostly said by footballers whose teams are involved in the fight for the championship or against relegation and who have no knowledge of the results from Dortmund, Leipzig Bochum or St. Pauli immediately after the end of the game. In this respect, Stiller’s sentence had a certain humor in it. If you had asked him on Wednesday evening after VfB Stuttgart’s 5-1 win against YB Bern who he meant by “the others” – he would not have been able to give a precise answer.
Do the Stuttgart team – who are twenty-sixth in the miserably long Champions League table and have to finish at least twenty-fourth to advance – only have to pay attention to Zagreb and Eindhoven, who are directly in front of them, or is it also worth taking a look at the two Lisbons in the middle of the league? Can you dare to dream of overtaking the great Manchester City or at least the already quite big Frenchmen from Paris St. Germain, who are twenty-fifth and still have to compete at VfB? At least the Stuttgart team hardly has to look back anymore, the points scored by the teams from 27th place onwards are probably too low. The Champions League newcomer from Stuttgart has already left a field of ten behind them and has concluded the group of those who can still make it into the playoffs. VfB is last among the best.
It is debates like these that both supporters and opponents of the new regulations monopolize. Proponents of the format can claim that UEFA is fulfilling its central promise of transformation More excitement until the last match day in January! obviously redeemed it, especially since the number of ten points calculated in advance by a computer may not be enough for the playoffs after all. Opponents of the format would argue that complete confusion should not be confused with excitement. And what’s exciting about it when ten of the 36 teams are already left behind before Christmas?
A win, but once again after falling behind: VfB has developed a strenuous pattern
At VfB they understandably refrain from fundamental debates. In this turbulent European back and forth, the people of Stuttgart simply continue to try to tell their own story – the story of one Overperformerswho constantly has to make sure that he doesn’t lose his joy of playing in the strenuous constant football mode. This brave team has now developed a pattern that increases the effort without necessity: VfB has gotten into the habit of starting their games without joy for no reason, only to then use considerable effort to equalize or even turn them around – as was the case recently in Bremen (2:2 after two deficits), against Union Berlin (3:2 after 0:2) and now against Bern, when a 0:1 deficit (6th) prevented VfB from asserting its superiority to make it usable sooner. In addition to the equalizer by the as always outstanding Stiller (25th), it took a controversial opening goal to make it 2-1 (Millot, 53rd), in which the VAR apparently applied the special legal rule “In case of doubt, for the ball”; Whether he actually touched the goal line when Fabian Rieder made the assist or had already crossed it could not be reliably determined from any TV picture. In the end, the verdict of referee Kruashvili was valid, who overruled the flag of his assistant, which was first raised and then lowered again.
Stuttgart’s playing pattern these days also includes playing their way into a state at the end that, at least in some scenes, is reminiscent of the rush of the previous season. Führich (61′), Vagnoman (66′) and Keitel (76′) increased the score to 5:1 thanks to the Bernese’s supportive passivity, which doesn’t change the scary challenge that VfB still faces before Christmas. After the game in Heidenheim on Sunday, they have a whole week until the end of the year against St. Pauli – no game on Tuesday, none on Wednesday. Not that they suddenly get bored.
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