Bundesliga – Season Opener

Yesterday I sat down to watch the first soccer game of the year that actually meant something, in my mind anyway.

The Bundesliga season officially kicked off with a matchup of defending champions, Wolfsburg, and 2007 champions, Stuttgart. To me, the Bundesliga is the most enjoyable major league in Europe. Their average attendance was 41,900 last year, which is the 7th consecutive season it has increased and they have more goals per game than the big 4 leagues every year since 1989. Not only that, but from a supporters point of view, there are a number of clubs who can challenge for the title every year, unlike Spain, England, Italy and France who realistically have 2-3 clubs each year with a shot. The Bundesliga has had 5 different champions in the last 8 years. I still watch a lot of Serie A and EPL, but the Bundesliga is the best total package in my mind. Now on to the game…

Wolfsburg spent the offseason holding on to their attacking trio of Edin Dzeko, Grafite and Zvjezdan Misimovic. They also managed to add Obafemi Martins to their forward line from Newcastle and Karim Ziani from Marseille to their midfield.

Unfortunately for Stuttgart, they lost their leading scorer, Mario Gomez, to Bayern but attempted to replace his offense by signing Pavel Pogrebnyak from Zenit and reuniting with Aleksandr Hleb on loan from Barca.

The match started with Wolfsburg playing either a 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield or a 4-1-3-2, depending on how much room the flank midfielders were given. Regardless, all play went through Misimovic, given his 20-assist campaign last year. Stuttgart was playing a 4-4-2 with the central mids playing more of a holding role and the wide mids pushing forward in an attempt to keep Wolfsburgs fullbacks from joining the attack.

In the early going, Wolfsburg dominated possession, creating several chances using weaves and overlaps through the middle of the field. Both Grafite and Dzeko had solid chances in the first half that were parried away by Jens Lehman. The VW crew also appeared to be pressuring Stuttgart on the ball, especially high up the field, in order to force quick possession. Stuttgart was forced into a counter-attack game by this tactic, but almost turned it into gold when Sami Khedira put his head on a cross that was narrowly saved at the post by Diego Benaglio.

The first half ended 0-0 but several players had made their mark on the game. Pogrebnyak looked great on the ball for a big man and was much more reliable than his partner Cacau. Khedira had proven to be the source of Stuttgart offense. Both Grafite and Dzeko had picked up where they left off last year and LB Schafer had proven that we was extremely dangerous in attack. Josue and Misimovic had controlled play down the middle and had forced Stuttgart to move the ball up the wings.

In the second half, Stuttgart came out playing very physical defense on the twin tower attackers and it appeared to be extremely effective. The Wolfsburg attackers switch sides and frequently split wide, but still couldn’t find enough space. Stuttgart moved Gebhardt out to the right and Khedira back into central midfield in an attempt to neutralize Schafer. At this point, Stuttgart clearly had the control of play.

In the 55th minute, manager Markus Babbel pulled a largely ineffective Hleb for Jan Simak, who proved to be just as ineffective. In the meantime, Marcel Schafer unleashed a monster shot from the left side that narrowly missed goal.

At the 64 minute mark, Grafite showed some poor sportsmanship and effort by going down at the edge of the box, instead of lunging for a ball he could have retrieved. I hate that. That said, it could have been retaliation for a hapless Ludovic Magnin diving and writhing like he’d been shot by a sniper earlier in the first half.

At this point, Wolfsburg was using Alexander Madlung to unleash a number of long balls from the central defense in an attempt to change the defense. It reminded me of Marco Materazzi doing the same for Italy during the 2006 World Cup.

In the 68th minute, Ciprian Marica was brought on for Cacau who had spent way too much time shooting from poor angles and not enough time looking for open team-mates. In the meantime, Ziani had spent the last 8-10 minutes showing why Wolfsburg had pursued him. While switching sides with Gentner frequently, he had managed to hold possession, create space and find team-mates in dangerous positions. He added an attacking dimension down the right flank to complement Schafer’s runs down the left.

In the 71st minute, the complexion of the game changed. With the RB, Riether holding the ball inside the half, Gentner drifted right of the box to receive the ball and gave a quick pass to the top of the box to find Misimovic in space. With a quick step left to gain his balance, Misimovic unleashed a curling left footer to the left side of goal that left Lehman bewildered after taking only a step. The ball was in from the moment it left Misimovic’s foot and Lehman knew it. 1-0 for the defending champs.

3 minutes later, Stuttgart almost equalized on a redirected corner but it was cleared off the corner post by a defender. This was followed by Gebhardt being subbed off for Elson.

Elson rewarded his managers move by launching a missile shot from well outside the box that forced the save of the match from Benaglio.

In the 78th minute, we learn why most managers will save 1 substitution until the final few minutes. Trasch, the RB, who had been playing a very good game, slid to block a cross and caught one arm underneath him. It appeared that he broke his wrist and had to be removed from the game. With Stuttgart a goal down, they were now a man down as well. Let’s just say that Babbel won’t enjoy speaking to the press after this one.

In the 82nd minute, the game is put away by Grafite. He dances past Magnin on the right wing and has no cover to beat since Stuttgart are a man down. As he stepped into the box, he calmly slotted it past a charging Lehman to ice the game.

In the last few minutes, Wolfsburg brought on 2 young players, Ashkan Dejagah and Alexander Esswein, for Ziani and Grafite, but the game was over.

Wolfsburg start off the season with a solid win against a strong opponent and Stuttgart are left to wonder if they somehow could have equalized had they kept one substitution in reserve in case of injury. Either way, the Bundesliga season is underway and I’m excited.

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