VfB Stuttgart came into 2044 absolutely flying and posing serious questions over FC Bayern’s ability to make it 32 consecutive Bundesliga titles. So manager Robaato Rasamu didn’t think too much work was required in the January transfer window.
Rasamu moved on a couple of players in January with the underperforming Marcus Johannson going to Valencia for £12m and whiney midfielder Ricardo Mendes going on loan to Sampdoria. In their place, Rasamu spent up to £18m on a 16-year-old as winger Nílson joined from Sporting.
Maintaining Bundesliga Push
The new year began with an exciting 4-3 win at 16th-place Mainz, who were somehow gifted three goals from five shots. But they were much more solid in a 3-0 win over Schalke led by star winger Ángel Galeano and striker Peter Goodwin goals. The wide players were at it as Leipzig came to town as full backs Gastón Bueno and Armando Carrasco created first half goals for wingers Galeano and Bruno. Carrasco then crashed home a third to crown an unusually clinical performance.
The strong form continued while Bayern lost their game in hand 2-1 at Schalke to leave Stuttgart 13 points clear with 13 games remaining. A tricky run of games began with a 1-1 at 7th-place Freiburg, early Serhiy Mazurenko and Dejan Vujicic goals earned a 2-1 win at home to Leverkusen and Goodwin’s strike secured a point at Dortmund, who scored with pretty much their only attack. That teed up a huge trip to perennial champions Bayern.
Stuttgart should have been ahead after 20 minutes as Vujicic missed when clean through on the keeper. But goalkeeper Marek Bílek gifted Bayern the lead with a ludicrous piece of play, passing the ball straight to their striker 10 yards away from goal. Neither side created anything until Bayern repaid the favour, their centre back passing straight to Goodwin on the edge of the box. And they played out a pretty dire 1-1 that kept Stuttgart still unbeaten and 11 points clear with eight games remaining.
Champions League
Stuttgart’s strong league form hadn’t quite carried over into the Champions League, as proven by a dire 0-0 at home to Villarreal. That secured their place in the playoff phase even before a fully rotated team went to Spurs and won 2-1 through Havard Fuglehaug and Vujicic strikes to secure 11th place.
They got a tricky playoff round tie against Serie A leaders Napoli, but Stuttgart made light work of them in a trip to Naples. They started well as Galeano’s free kick was headed home at the back post by Goodwin. Fuglehaug, learning a new role from the right wing, doubled the lead just before half time and Galeano made it three after the break. Rasamu made changes for the home leg and a 0-0 eased them through.
A much tougher task followed as they took on Chelsea, who have a striker valued up to £330m. Stuttgart thought they had a perfect start only for Vujicic to stray narrowly offside and Chelsea punished them by scoring their first shot (quelle surprise). A few minutes later they were level as Vujicic latched onto a stray pass and finished calmly and the striker doubled his tally a few minutes before the break thanks to a delicious Fuglehaug pass. Chelsea’s £330m striker equalised, they injured Pereira then had a man sent off but Stuttgart couldn’t take advantage and were slightly disappointingly held to a 2-2.
Chelsea unsurprisingly started the second leg on top and scored a quickfire double. Stuttgart grew into the game and Vujicic scored again to give them a chance. But even as Rasamu went for it and pushed players forward, they offered nothing and exited 4-3 on aggregate. Chelsea went on to reach the Final and lost 2-1 to Man UFC.
8 Games From Glory
The Champions League exit, which came just three days before earning that point at Bayern, gave Stuttgart a chance to focus on downing Bayern domestically. Their strong form meant that, with eight games to go, they’d already secured Champions League football but had a Bundesliga title in their sights.
Game 1 – Hamburg (16th, home): The run-in began with an easy 3-0 victory over struggling Hamburg. Hashem Salari, covering for the injured Pereira, opened the scoring early on and Goodwin and Galeano finished it off after the break. Later the same day, Bayern scored two late goals to beat Frankfurt.
Game 2 – Gladbach (13th, away): An international break followed and, frustratingly, Stuttgart had the Friday night kick. That forced Rasamu into several changes but they still had enough to see off 10-man Gladbach thanks to two homegrown talents. Right back Jordan McCann scored his first senior goal on 26 minutes but Gladbach equalled completely against the run of play just before the break. Rasamu laid into the side at the break and got the desired response as winger Adama Bamba finished off a fine team move to earn a disappointingly narrow 2-1 win, considering they had 2.95 xG to just 0.4. Conveniently, Bayern got an extra two days to recover and dominated Hoffenheim 3-0.
Game 3 – Fortuna Dusseldorf (9th, home): Another comfortable win followed as Galeano and Goodwin strikes inside half an hour downed Dusseldorf 2-0. And Bayern kept pace with a 6-0 win at Koln.
Game 4 – Frankfurt (15th, home): They were equally dominant at home to Frankfurt but took a while to make it count as Bamba’s cross was turned home by Goodwin on 77 minutes. And a 1-0 win was a little underwhelming after 21 shots to two and 2.69 xG to 0.23. The next day, Bayern racked up another 6-0 win at home to Schalke and, a week later, played first and won 3-1 at Mainz.
Game 5 – Hoffenheim (11th, away): That kept Stuttgart eight points clear, meaning a win at Hoffenheim would secure the Bundesliga title. They started well as Fuglehaug played the ball into Goodwin, who turned his centre back and drilled into the bottom corner. Stuttgart wasted a mass of chances again but that goal proved enough.
VfB Stuttgart were Champions of Germany for the first time in 37 years!!
They celebrated the title with Vujicic scoring the only goal at home to Koln, lost their unbeaten record with a 1-0 loss at Schalke and wrapped up the campaign by beating Mainz 3-1 on Rasamu’s 61st birthday. That secured the title by eight points from Bayern and 17 points clear of Dortmund in 3rd, bagging Stuttgart a cool £92m. Galeano was the league’s star player with 17 assists (six more than Bayern’s Alex Harvey), nine player of the match awards and a 7.51 average rating in 30 games, while Bílek led the way with 18 clean sheets.
Analysing Stuttgart’s Bundesliga Success
Stuttgart’s sixth Bundesliga title was built on a solid defence as they only conceded 19 goals in 34 games. They only conceded once from corners and once from indirect free kicks and only gave away one penalty. While their 83 goals was only bettered by Bayern’s 96 and they were second to Bayern in virtually every attacking statistic.
Goodwin led Stuttgart’s scoring chart with 19 in 39, marking a solid first season, followed by Bruno (16) and Vujicic (15). Their star man was clearly Galeano, who got 20 assists, 11 goals and a 7.47 average rating. But an unsung hero was right back Carrasco, who impressed with seven assists, five goals and a 7.20 average rating.
Rasamu belived there was plenty more to come from this potential-packed side, as proven by a Stuttgart player winning NxGn for the second successive season as wonderkid midfielder Gabriel Rancati succeeded Mazurenko.
Rasamu was delighted with Stuttgart’s domestic improvement to end Bayern’s ludicrous run of 31 titles. The big challenge now was to take that form into Europe in a bid to complete his Pentagon Pursuit.
Could Rasamu and Stuttgart use their Bundesliga success to challenge Europe’s best? Join us on Monday to find out!
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