The Fritz-Walter is packed. Three sides of the stadium are Kaiserslautern and the Stuttgart fans are behind the opposite end from the Westkurv. Its properly loud. This will be a real match and it feels great.
The match started in our end.
Avdo Spahic needed strong hands to beat away a thunderous drive from the Stuttgart winger Enzo Millot in the 16th minute.
When we finally made it into their end in the 20th minute.
Since Stuttgart were playing a narrow formation with wing backs, I knew we'd be able to break up the flanks.
Dominick Schad and Martin Kleinsorge worked the ball up the right. Schad then passed inside to Rene Klingenburg.
Rene zipped a pass across to Marlon Ritter who promptly chipped the ball into the space ahead of Osayamen Osawe.
Osawe was in.
He rounded the keeper.
The angle was tight, but ...
F***.
He didn't shoot at the open net and it was on his favored left foot!
I buried my head in my hands as he turned away, circled back, tried to cross and the chance was lost.
Stuttgart brought the ball back into our end. Osawe and Kleinsorge marked their wing backs closely and Stuttgart had a hard time finding any openings. We worked hard for each other, talked amongst ourselves and kept them at bay except for one instance when luck saved us.
In the 34th minute, Stuttgart central defender Konstantinos Mavropanos lobbed a ball over our center backs and Millot caught Kevin Kraus asleep. The footballing gods were smiling on us as he rattled the upright with his shot.
And that was it for the first half.
I told my players to keep the faith and work hard.
I told them that we'd be able to break up the flanks.
And I was right, but our joy came through the middle in the 75th minute.
Ritter chipped a ball into the channel for Muhammed Kiprit to chase.
Kiprit had been loitering with intent off the Stuttgart center backs.
So he was off as soon as he saw Ritter look down to play the pass.
And he was in on goal.
The Stuttgart keeper came charging out.
And Muhammed chipped the ball over him.
1-0
This happened right in front of the Stuttgart fans. They were shocked. The rest of the stadium erupted.
I was swept away by a avalanche off the bench.
We settled back into thwarting Stuttgart.
The problem was that we were tiring.
First to come off was Osawe. Kenny Redondo replaced him. I told Kenny to play as a winger. So we had two wingers now.
Next off was Kleinsorge and Ritter. On went Elias Huth and Mike Wunderlich.
Finally, in the 84th minute I used my final set of subs for Klingenburg and Julian Niehues. On went Jean Zimmer as defensive midfielder and Hikmet Çiftçi for Klingenberg.
In the 89th minute, Huth gave away a goal. He received a pass, started dribbling inside. He had four passing options. Instead he decided to keep dribbling. A Stuttgart player nipped it off him and fed it down the wing to the open wing back Huth was no longer marking.
That wing back curled in a cross and their striker got to the cross before Spahic and redirected it into our goal.
1-1
I stood there with my hands in my pockets fuming. F***ing Huth. Can't score, can't even keep possession.
"Enrico," Jörg said in my ear. "Go easy on Huth."
After five minutes of extra time. the players gathered at our bench for a pep talk.
I told them to hold together defensively. I reminded them that we'd get a couple of opportunities and that we needed to make the most of them.
We held steady for the first half of extra time.
From the restart, Schad played a ball over the top of the Stuttgart defense.
Huth charged onto the pass and was in on goal.
Here was his opportunity to redeem himself.
He rounded the keeper.
The angle was tight ...
but instead of shooting into an open net he turned away and looked for support.
"F*** him," I muttered. "You're done. You'll never play another minute. F***!"
I felt an over-sized hand on my left shoulder.
"I know the look on your face," Jörg said into my right ear. "Don't murder him. I even grant you that you have a few f***ing reasons for it. But don't say it in front of everyone. Take it easy on the guy."
I nodded.
Both sides were exhausted and the match ground down into nothing.
My penalty takers would be:
- Wunderlich
- Kiprit
- Kraus
- Redondo
- Zimmer
- Winkler
We won the toss.
Wunderlich stepped up, placed the ball and waited.
The ref blew his whistle.
He smashed it into the top right hand corner.
Didavi scored for Stuttgart.
Kiprit went left and converted.
Marmoush scored for Stuttgart.
Kraus watched their keeper dive right and rolled the ball left.
Spahic got a hand to Massimo's blast but couldn't keep it out.
Redondo's shot was saved.
F***!
Kenny stood there with his head in his hands.
It wasn't the best shot and their keeper read it.
Zimmer converted his but they made both of theirs.
1-1 (4-5 on PKs)
Stuttgart are through to the third round.