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VfB STUTTGART v BORO - VIEW FROM THE STUTTGART END III
Guts
VfB Stuttgart 2-1 FSV Mainz 05, Sunday 19 February 2006
I have to begin by putting this match into context. I was really angry about our performance against the Boro last Thursday so I didn't want to go to the game against Mainz at all. I considered it a waste of time going just to see us lose again.
The problem was that I had two tickets for the game - and tickets in the main stand as well. So I called a few friends of mine to see if they'd like to go. I didn't even want money for the tickets, I just wanted rid of them. To cut a long story short: nobody, not a soul wanted them.
The spirits were obviously very low. In the ComeOnBoro chatroom during the Preston match, WestHam told me I should go anyway. He was right (thanks again by the way). After all, being a good Swabian, I hate wastefulness.
The management even ordered our suspended players Ludovic, Magnin and Jesper Gronkjaer to watch the game together with fans in our fan stand, which was a brave decision after the fan's reaction to the defeat against Middlesbrough. After all, the players had been booed off the pitch upon the final whistle on Thursday night.
I wouldn't call the Mainz game a great one, but it was obvious that they wanted to win this time. Maybe it was to make up for the Middlesbrough defeat three days earlier.
Andreas Hinkel and Danijel Ljuboja worked particularly hard for the victory over Mainz. Ljuboja even managed to score for us after seven minutes. It was a promising start. But just like so many times before this season, the opposition responded and in the twenty-fifth minute Mainz equalised through an eighteen yard shot from Antonio da Silva.
Normally this wouldn't bode well for our already uncertain players. But not this time. Even if it wasn't an entertaining game the players of VfB Stuttgart didn't want to give in on this occasion. If you're not playing well you sometimes have to make up for it with hard work and a fighting spirit.
That's what they did and that's what finally worked out to be the right strategy for our first victory in 2006. As a late birthday present Christian Tiffert scored in the seventy-first minute. Luckily the last minute effort of Mainz wasn't rewarded.
On one hand it's too early to call it a turning point for Armin Veh's team, on the other it's still a first step in the right direction. Another defeat would have been a disaster for the fans, the team and the upcoming matches in Middlesbrough and Hamburg.
Hopefully this victory will improve the team's self confidence for the games ahead. One will see whether this has been realised after next weekend. Either way, at least it gave the whole club and its supporters something to look forward to.
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