“How can something like that happen?” must have been the question both sides were asking after the game on Saturday. After putting in an appalling performance in the UEFA Cup...
“How can something like that happen?” must have been the question both sides were asking after the game on Saturday. After putting in an appalling performance in the UEFA Cup...
“How can something like that happen?” must have been the question both sides were asking after the game on Saturday. After putting in an appalling performance in the UEFA Cup on Thursday evening, VfB Stuttgart raised their game to a distinctly other level whilst Werder, who came so close to claiming a historic win against Ibrahimovic, Adriano & Co. in Milan, put on their worst display of the season. Both trainers were in agreement: “It’s all psychology!” Armin Veh admitted: “I just said that we were about to face Bremen, who are probably the best side in the Bundesliga, which means we are the underdogs, and that is something we should be happy about.” Thomas Schaaf in typical dry fashion: “And we had psychological tricks that had exactly the opposite effect.”
Klaus Allofs saw it so: “Stuttgart embarrassed themselves on Thursday but they will be the celebrated side again today, for us it was exactly the opposite way around. We wanted to pick up where we left off in the second half in Milan but we saw nothing of that. You can’t win games like that.”
Head coach Thomas Schaaf was of the same opinion and discussed the situation in even more detail: “There are surely a number of different opinions as to how a game like that can occur. One of those arguments is that teams don’t always manage to adapt to playing against every team immediately. That makes a difference because the side are influenced when many positive things are being said about them and at the same time they can read that their opponents are not playing well because they have problems. Real professionals are not influenced by such things and are then successful because they go into every game fully concentrated and totally determined. But I understand that it’s not easy to do.”
