All about the next game: Kaiserslautern at home in the cup | OneFootball

All about the next game: Kaiserslautern at home in the cup | OneFootball

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Icon: Rund um den Brustring

Rund um den Brustring

·29 de octubre de 2024

All about the next game: Kaiserslautern at home in the cup

Imagen del artículo:All about the next game: Kaiserslautern at home in the cup

The second con­se­cu­ti­ve mid­week match is upon us, and it’s time for a fri­end­ly show­down against last year’s cup fina­list, 1.FC Kai­sers­lau­tern. VfB enters the cup match with fresh con­fi­dence but also a few inju­ry con­cerns.

Fol­lo­wing the fan­ta­stic Cham­pi­ons League night in Turin and the essen­ti­al vic­to­ry over Kiel, this is the third com­pe­ti­ti­on in seven days for VfB. And things won’t slow down even after this game, as Ger­man cham­pi­ons Bay­er 04 Lever­ku­sen await us on Fri­day evening, fol­lo­wed by a home match against Ata­lan­ta BC. The phy­si­cal demands are alre­a­dy show­ing their first signs, and VfB Stutt­gart must pro­ve that the squad is well-equip­ped in terms of depth. The game against Lau­tern could the­r­e­fo­re be the first real stress test.


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Lau­tern was my pre­fer­red draw. While they’re a second-divi­si­on team, it’s not­hing like the match against Armi­nia Bie­le­feld two years ago, which had such low demand that the Unter­türk­hei­mer stand wasn’t even ope­ned, and the game requi­red mini­mal effort. I think Lau­tern will defi­ni­te­ly be more com­pe­ti­ti­ve. They pro­ved last year that they take the cup serious­ly. Alt­hough they had rela­tively favorable draws on their way to the final, their vic­to­ries over teams like Nürn­berg, Her­tha, and Köln were by no means gua­ran­teed, espe­ci­al­ly con­side­ring they were at risk of rele­ga­ti­on until the 32nd game day last sea­son. I don’t want to ove­re­sti­ma­te them—they’re not Lever­ku­sen or Munich—but the Red Devils could still pose serious chal­lenges.

It could be an exci­ting game not only on the field. Off the field, the fans of both clubs share a clo­se fri­end­ship. It’s nice to see that this bond is still ali­ve, even when the clubs aren’t in the same league. Love knows no league. This fri­end­ship is also why I could hand­le a poten­ti­al eli­mi­na­ti­on more easi­ly. If we have to go out, then at least it’s to a likeable tra­di­tio­nal club, and not to Lever­ku­sen, Leip­zig, etc. But if we’re for­t­u­na­te enough to advan­ce, I would wish for KSC as our next oppo­nent. After all, we still have unfi­nis­hed busi­ness with them.

Personnel Situation

Yel­low-red card reci­pi­ent Cha­b­ot will also be absent against Kai­sers­lau­tern. The new­co­mer has to take a break due to a minor mus­cle inju­ry. Yan­nik Kei­tel will also miss the game due to adduc­tor issues, which is espe­ci­al­ly unfort­u­na­te sin­ce I would have given him some play­ing time against Kai­sers­lau­tern. Deniz Undav was unable to train yes­ter­day due to inju­ry, but accor­ding to Hoe­neß, he could play against Kai­sers­lau­tern.

Possible Starting Eleven

Imagen del artículo:All about the next game: Kaiserslautern at home in the cup

Bred­low will start in goal ins­tead of Nübel. I think Hoe­neß will rota­te a bit and give Füh­rich and Krät­zig some more play­ing time. I could also ima­gi­ne Hen­driks making it into the start­ing lin­e­up. Mean­while, Undav will be res­ted due to his foot issue.

Statistics

This will be the 98th mee­ting bet­ween the­se two his­to­ric clubs. The first duel dates back to June 4, 1950 (a 5–2 win for VfB). The last mee­ting was a while ago, with the teams last facing each other in the second round of the DFB Cup in 2017, whe­re VfB won 3–1 at the Bet­ze. Lautern’s last cup vic­to­ry over VfB Stutt­gart was in 1993. Over­all, VfB has won 46 times, with 18 draws, while the Red Devils have clai­med vic­to­ry 33 times. In the cup, this will be the ninth mee­ting bet­ween the two clubs. Only Bay­ern has faced VfB more often in the cup. Out of the eight pre­vious cup matches against Lau­tern, VfB has won five. Only Ham­burg and Wolfs­burg have as many cup defeats against VfB, and the­re is no oppo­nent against whom VfB has won more fre­quent­ly in the cup.

Conclusion

If Lau­tern is up for it, it will be a tough game for VfB. Chabot’s absence doesn’t make things any easier. But what’s the­re to lose? If we have to go out, it might as well be to our fri­ends from Lau­tern. But I think we’ll see a straight­for­ward 2–0 vic­to­ry for VfB, and then it’s off to Karls­ru­he!

Pic­tu­re: © Alex Grimm/Bongarts/Getty Image

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