A flying start to the 2044/45 campaign saw VfB Stuttgart sitting pretty at the top of Bundesliga and starting to hold their own with Europe’s elite in the Champions League. But Robaato Rasamu was keen to carry that momentum into the second half of the campaign.
The Stuttgart success this season and last had been fuelled by a rock solid defence led by goalkeeper Marek Bílek, who was named runner-up in the World’s Best Goalkeeper award at the end of 2044. That saw Man UFC come in on deadline day with a bid of up to £132m, which Rasamu had to turn down as he simply didn’t have time to replace him.
Their excellent defence was boosted by Rasamu returning to his former club Athlético Paranaense for the first time to sign 18-year-old left footed centre back Jaílton for £12.5m. He has a lot of room for improvement but provides much-needed support in defensive areas.
Bundesliga Defence
Stuttgart began 2045 in fine form, putting five past rivals Freiburg with goals by holding midfielders Ricardo Mendes and Gabriel Rancati, striker Peter Goodwin and wingers Ángel Galeano and Iulian Vlad. They then went to struggling Leizpig, who were down in 12th, and edged a 1-0 win thanks to exciting winger Nílson’s first senior goal.
The unbeaten start ended with a 3-0 loss at Bayern but they remained 11 points clear. Their lead was chipped into further as they went four games without a win, drawing at home to Gladbach and at Frankfurt and Hannover and a 1-0 loss at home to Wolfsburg. That left Stuttgart four points clear of Bayern with Wolfsburg and Schalke four and five points back with five games remaining.
Injuries hit at the wrong time as Stuttgart hosted Dortmund and their winless streak looked set to be stretching to six games until a half-fit Galeano bagged a 96th-minute winner. They eased to 3-0 wins at Koln and with a rotated side at Osnabruck, which meant a win at Kaiserslautern would seal consecutive titles, not that you’d know it from the laboured performance of the players. But they finally made the breakthrough as Adrian Keckeisen picked out attacking midfielder Ibrahima Tiréra to score the only goal.
Stuttgart finished on 84 points with 26 wins, six draws and two defeats, four points clear of Bayern and 14 ahead of Wolfsburg.
Champions League Knockouts
Stuttgart had two easier games remaining in the league phase. A 1-0 win at Galatasaray, thanks to Goodwin’s early strike, then a 3-1 win at Dinamo, in which Nílson scored his first goal for the club, sealed a place in the top eight. While Bayern topped the league phase.
However, they got a really tough last 16 tie against Barcelona starting with a daunting trip to Spotify Camp Nou. The only highlight of the first half was a Serhiy Mazurenko free kick being well saved and a pretty poor game swung on an inspired substitution. Rasamu threw on his two exciting young wingers and Nílson broke down the left, cut inside and squared the ball for Adama Bamba to tuck home the winner.
That advantage was wiped out as Bílek conceded to Barca’s first two shots inside 16 minutes. But his teammates rallied and bailed him out as Galeano and Mazurenko made it 2-2 by half time. Just after the break, Galeano got in behind and picked out Goodwin to head home a third and the striker doubled his tally to wrap up an impressive 5-2 aggregate success.
Their reward was a quarter final with domestic rivals FC Bayern. A trip to Munich was first up and a poor game saw few chances and no goals, mostly thanks to Bílek pulling off a great save in the second half. The defence stood up to be counted again at home as they dealt with everything Bayern threw at them. While the attackers took advantage of a rare counter as a superb Mazurenko run saw him beat three men, get to the byline and chip the ball across for Goodwin to nod home the winner.
A third semi final in four years saw Stuttgart take on Newcastle while Milan faced Man UFC in the other. This time they were at home first and started really sluggishly with Newcastle much the better side in the first half then taking the lead on 68 minutes. But Rasamu laid into the side and they immediately responded through centre back Lars Haasnoot. He rang the changes and right winger Iulian Vlad came off the bench to grab a pretty undeserved winner in injury time.
Nwwcastle had a goal ruled offside early on at St James’ Park but Stuttgart took control as Galeano fired them in front from a corner. However, they fell apart early in the second half, conceding twice in 13 minutes and offered nothing so it went to extra time. Stuttgart struggled to get going and Newcastle edged in front six minutes in. But Rasamu range the changes, threw two up front and got his reward as Galeano whipped teed up Bruno to strike two minutes from time. That took the game to penalties and Bílek delivered, saving Newcastle’s first and fifth penalties to seal a 4-2 shootout victory.
Champions League Final
Stuttgart’s maiden Champions League Final took them to Italy to face AC Milan at their own stadium, Estadio San Siro. Rasamu’s big injury concern was Galeano, who picked up a tight hamstring in training but was fit to start, and big selection dilemma was who to start on the right wing. He lined up:
Bílek; Carrasco, Grootheusheidkamp, Haasnoot, Bueno; Pereira, Rancati; Bruno, Mazurenko, Galeano; Goodwin
Subs: Wieland, Jorgic, Jaílton, Tiréra, Vlad, Keckeisen, McCann, Bamba, Nílson, Zubizerreta, Schutz. Abrogast
The game started slowly and never really got going. The first half saw just four shots and none on target and the second didn’t see a single highlight. Something finally happened in extra time as Milan had a goal disallowed for being miles offside. Rasamu made all six changes while Milan only made four, including taking off substitute Vlad for Bamba. And that proved the pivotal switch as Bamba whipped in a corner for centre back Denilho Groothueshiedkamp to bullet a header into the back of the net in extra time first half injury time. Milan continued to offer nothing, Rasamu wasted time… and it worked. But this has to go down as one of the worst Champions League Finals of all time.
VfB Stuttgart were Champions of Europe!!
Pentagon Pursuit Completed!
That success meant that Rasamu had done it. His Pentagon Pursuit was completed as he added the European Champions League to the continental titles won in Asia, North America, Africa and South America.
Rasamu wasn’t quite sure how Stuttgart had managed to become Champions of Europe given they didn’t really have any star performers this season. Goodwin led the way with 21 goals in 39 games but only had an average rating of 6.97 and had been held back by injuries and poor performances at the end of the season. Galeano also suffered injuries but scored 10 and got 12 assists in 40 games, Mazurenko scored 14 but only got six assists as the team’s lead playmaker.
But it was pretty clear that Stuttgart’s rock-solid defence was the main reason behind their success. Bílek only conceded 25 goals in 37 games and Armando Carrasco was the only starting defender to get under a 7.00 rating. Captain and anchor Pereira added solidity in midfield while the Dutch duo of Grootheusheidkamp and Haasnoot were absolutely dominant at the heart of the defence and the latter scored the final goal of Rasamu’s managerial career.
So that’s it done and dusted, Rasamu had gone from managerial obscurity in 2022 to one of the greatest managers of all time in 2045. Thank you for reading this Pentagon Pursuit series and I hope you enjoyed following Robaato Rasamu’s journey!
We’ll be back with one final episode looking back on that journey and summarising Robaato Rasamu’s career on Monday.
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