It was an even game that our Boys in Brown need not have lost. In the 2-0 home defeat against Werder Bremen, our team did not reach its performance limit and had to admit defeat to the much more effective Bremen team in the last home game of the year. “We weren’t mentally fresh enough to keep up for 60 minutes,” said coach Alexander Blessin. Captain Jackson Irvine added: “We lacked concentration in the important moments. The goals came far too easily.” Our team would have loved to say goodbye to their fans at the Millerntor with something that could be counted. The bottom line is that it was an annoying and avoidable defeat against Werder.
“We can do better again next week,” said Philipp Treu, immediately after the final whistle and also looking at the game at VfB Stuttgart. The next difficult task lies ahead for last year's runner-up and this must be overcome with a better team performance than against Werder Bremen. Physically, our team showed that they can push themselves to their limits at the end of a long and eventful year. In the last 90 minutes of the year, the necessary freshness of mind will also be important in order to be successful again.
VfB Stuttgart was very successful in 2024. The Swabians played outstandingly in the previous season and celebrated their runner-up finish. In the current season, VfB was unable to build on last year's performance consistently enough, but has recently gotten back on track. Since the clear 5-1 defeat in the Champions League at Red Star Belgrade at the end of November and the subsequent 2-2 draw at Werder Bremen, VfB has celebrated four wins in a row across all competitions – for the first time ever in the 2024 calendar year. The Swabians climbed in the league thanks to the recent victories against 1. FC Union Berlin (3:2) and 1. FC Heidenheim (3:1) in sixth place.
With 29 goals this season, coach Sebastian Hoeneß's team has the fifth best offensive, and VfB has always celebrated at least two goals in the last five league games. There will certainly be a lot of defensive work for our Kiezkickers; with the compactness they often show, the Swabians' attacks should be fended off as best as possible. Of course, one's own offensive game should not be neglected, also because VfB has already conceded 24 goals – the most of any team in the top half of the table. “We want to challenge them, put pressure on their chain and work towards mistakes. You could see that they were vulnerable,” said Coach Blessin before the game.
The personnel situation has not eased compared to the previous week, and almost a dozen players are still unavailable. Blessin also has to worry about the use of Eric Smith. The Swede had to end training early on Wednesday (December 18th) due to calf problems. His possible replacement Adam Dźwigała was absent at the start of the week due to illness, but according to Blessin he could be used. Morgan Guilavogui, who was recently suspended for yellow, is available again and no one on the brown-white side would mind if the offensive all-rounder continued where he left off before his yellow suspension. Our number 29 scored in both the 3-1 home win against Holstein Kiel and the 1-2 defeat against Bayer Leverkusen.
On the VfB side, coach Sebastian Hoeneß also has to complain about a few failures. Dan-Axel Zagadou, Luca Raimund, Nikolas Nartey, Wahid Faghir, El Bilal Touré and Justin Diehl are definitely out, and the use of captain Atakan Karazor (ill) is also very questionable. The recovered national players Deniz Undav and Jamie Leweling will be rested in the last game of the year in order to be fully resilient for the crisp start to the new year – with nine games within four weeks.
Swiss
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