a bad start in Duesseldorf

Werkself's Bundesliga start in Düsseldorf got off on the wrong foot, losing 4-2 to VfB Stuttgart. Although there were complaints of the pitch, that is no excuse as the visiting Schwaben had to deal with surface. The loss, while softened by 1899 being held to a draw by Gladbach, springs the Bundesliga race wide open as Werkself is now six points behind the table leaders.

The match was only in its third minute when the defending unit allowed Ludovic Magnin to go in untouched and cross to Mario Gómez inside the six yard and the German striker effortlessly gave VfB the lead. The visiting side continued to dominate for the first thirty minute and came close to adding a second but slowly Bayer 04 began to slow their advances and the match went to the break 1-0.

However tactical plans were thrown away four minutes is and Referee Günter Perl booked Arturo Vidal with his second yellow for bringing down Ciprian Marica and Werkself was a man down. From the free-kick Thomas Hitzlsperger hammered the ball through Rene Adler’s arms to double the margin.

Down by two and a man down isn't part of Bruno Labbadia's plans but without giving in Bayer 04 shifted to a 3-3-3 and summoned Angelos Charisteas and Henrique into the match. A few minutes later the match was within one as Henrique re-directed a free-kick to Stefan Kießling to drill into the net from close range.

Down by one with twenty-two minutes remaining the action was back and forth and the chance for points was still there. However with fifteen minutes left Gómez found his second of the net to bring it to 3-1 and the run of play slowed considerably. In the final stages of the match Lukas Sinkiewicz' own goal made it 4-1 before Angelos Charisteas added his first goal for Werkself deep into added time.

After the match Bruno Labbadia summarized the performance simply:

"VfB Stuttgart deserved to win."

This match was in essence divided into four thirty minutes segments. In the first Bayer 04 was asleep with poor work habits and was fortunate to escape with only one goal against. The second was more of a "holding on" and satisfied with keeping VfB off the score-sheet. The next two showed good general play given they were a man-down, however forty-five minutes does not make a match.