Outside, the Cannstatter Wasen was raging, the big Swabian folk festival, where people have been dressing up as Bavarians for a number of years, as they think they know them from the “Wiesn”. Many of the mostly young people in dirndls and lederhosen seemed surprised when, around 5.30 p.m. local time, there was a large crowd of people in white and red fan clothing.
They had left the stadium in a reasonably good mood after first the upper and then the lower tiers had been released. Shortly before the end, Stuttgart’s Chris Führich had leveled out the early Wolfsburg lead in dramaturgical perfection (89th) – and thus caused a collective mood swing among the 52,000 spectators.
Suddenly there was some residual hope in the VfB annex to be able to end the season as a first division team – and maybe even after the 34th matchday. On this crazy afternoon, they even received a little more nourishment, because two minutes after Stuttgart’s goal to make it 1-1, Bielefeld also equalized against Hertha. Until shortly before the end of the regular season(s), it looked as if the season could at best end on the relegation rank, but now there were four points between the Berliners and VfB.
If you win the next two games and Hertha don’t win at least one as well, you could actually go on summer vacation in mid-May. That’s the optimistic scenario.
A direct acceptance by Borna Sosa lands just five meters off the post
The pessimistic would still be the direct descent. Given that they are only two points ahead of seventeenth-placed Bielefeld, the second division is also a frighteningly realistic option. And for a long time almost everything that VfB showed on Saturday looked like a fairly direct route to the basement. You had to “work out the courage and determination”, admitted coach Pellegrino Matarazzo after the game and spoke of “several weak points”.
Stuttgart’s Chris Führich (left) still equalizes in a mixed game.
(Photo: Tom Weller/dpa)
After less than a quarter of an hour of play, VfB was behind. John Anthony Brooks had headed the 0:1 after being able to climb up to the header unaccompanied (13th). After that, as in the previous week at 0: 2 in Berlin, VfB made deeply sad faces among his supporters. Not this time, however, because he would have played as pomadigly and unwillingly as in the capital. On the contrary: the team couldn’t be blamed too much – apart from the many, many mistakes in the last third of the field.
The weak Saša Kalajdžić missed four simple transfers to well-positioned colleagues, there were false throw-ins and desperate shots and a direct shot by Borna Sosa, who landed five meters from the post and went wide (42nd). In the second half, in which VfB was better, the clichéd inconstant Wolfsburg this season was enough for a pragmatic defensive presentation with a few attempts to relieve the pressure.
Until substitute Enzo Millot showed shortly before the end that Stuttgart players can also hit good crosses: The rest was taken care of by Führich, who caused ecstatic scenes on all sides of the stands with the 1-1 and already thought ahead: “We have to keep going now, stay tuned , so that we can achieve our goal of staying in the class. This one point can help with that.”
In front of the Cannstatt curve, where the ultras had been hard at work for 90 minutes, the team gathered after the final whistle and once again applauded the fans. However, all of a sudden it seemed to occur to everyone that the beautiful scenario of the two victories on the 33rd and 34th match day could face a hard impact with reality. Because on the last day of the game, VfB welcomes 1. FC Köln, who are currently playing passable football. And next weekend we’re going to Munich. The evergreen “Take off the Bavarians’ lederhosen” sounded more convincing.
