Stuttgart Celebrate First Bundesliga Win

STUTTGART, GERMANY. The whistles from the hardcore VfB Stuttgart supporters in the Cannstatter Kurve were deafening. With their team chasing a second goal to kill off Mainz in their first home game of the season, striker Simon Terodde went down in the box. It looked like a certain penalty but the referee indicated that goalkeeper René Adler got the ball. 

“Football mafia, DFB!” they screamed in anger at the German football association who they consider to be corrupt and who they believed to have denied them a clear penalty. 

Luckily, the video assistant referee (VAR) saw the incident differently. The penalty was given and the jeers turned to cheers. The football fan is a fickle beast.

Dante’s Karawane

Three hours earlier, thousands of fans had gathered in Bad Cannstatt to the north of Stuttgart city centre for the “Karawane Cannstatt” – a fan march to Stuttgart’s Neckarstadion, catchily re-branded the Mercedes-Benz Arena. 

The “Caravan” takes place before the first home game of each season as well as ahead of the big local derby against Karlsruher SC – which won’t take place again for a while after KSC were relegated to the third tier. 

With temperatures reaching 30°C, the caravan set in motion, Stuttgart fans young and old in white shirts stretching as far as the eye could see. Not that anyone could see very far once the march reached the tunnel. 

Pyrotechnic devices of every variety were ignited, filling the tunnel with red smoke and lighting the darkness. It was like stepping into Dante’s Inferno, the taste of smoke in the mouth and the fans’ chants echoing off the walls.

“A bit of fog and smoke is normal,” commented one Stuttgart fan who seemed totally unfazed by the hellish scene. “It’s the Karawane; we do this at the start of every season.” 

Emerging from the tunnel into the Swabian sunshine, the caravan continued, eventually reaching the stadium where the fans spilled into the Cannstatter Kurve, the sprawling standing terrace behind one goal. 

“So long as we stand in the Kurve, we’ll keep your flags flying,” they sang, as they had done throughout last season in the second division, pushing their club to an immediate return to the top flight.

The kids are alright

Stuttgart are young team with a young manager. Hannes Wolf (36) is the third youngest head coach in the Bundesliga after Hoffenheim’s Julian Nagelsmann (30) and Schalke’s Domenico Tedesco (31). 

Like Huddersfield Town’s David Wagner and Norwich City’s Daniel Farke, Wolf’s formative years as a coach were at Borussia Dortmund, where he led BVB’s U17s and U19s to league titles before taking charge at Stuttgart in September 2016.

In Germany, young managers who didn’t necessarily enjoy high-profile playing careers are increasingly being given the nod over the regulars on the managerial merry-go-round. Wolf’s opposite number this weekend, Mainz coach Sandro Schwarz (38), was also internally promoted and follows in the footsteps of Thomas Tuchel and Jürgen Klopp. 

Holger the hero

With an average age of just 23 last season, there was a feeling that Stuttgart would lack the experience needed to cope in the Bundesliga – enter Holger Badstuber. 

The central defender, who made 119 league appearances for Bayern Munich after coming through the ranks with the likes of Philipp Lahm, Thomas Müller and Thomas Hitzlsperger, injured his cruciate ligament in December 2012 and struggled to regain his place in Munich. Following a short loan spell with Schalke last season, he joined Stuttgart and has made an instant impact. 

A leader on and off the pitch, Badstuber has stamped his experience on the young dressing room from day one. On Saturday, he could be seen shouting encouragement and marshalling the defence right from kick-off – but the 52,000 home fans held their breath when he remained down after a typically full-blooded last-ditch tackle in the 18th minute. 

But Holger hobbled on and it was a good job he did when, ten minutes into the second half, he headed Stuttgart into the lead from a corner in front of a jubilant Cannstatter Kurve.

Stuttgart had chances to increase their lead, the best opportunity falling to last season’s top scorer Terodde after the VAR had eventually decided that he had indeed been fouled in the box, but his spot-kick flew back off the post.

A late reflex save from former Leicester City and Manchester United goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler preserved Stuttgart’s slender lead and the stadium erupted at full time. 

Three points on the board for VfB Stuttgart and the Karawane is on the move.