The best goal of the evening wasn’t a goal at all. From Enzo Millot the ball flew to Serhou Guirassy, but Guirassy did not turn to score a goal from the turn as usual. He volleyed the ball over to Chris Führich, who nudged the ball back to Guirassy, who retaliated with another nudge, whereupon Führich curled the ball into the goal. As delicate as this millimeter work was, the statement that went with it was just as merciless. It said: We can get through anywhere. Darmstadt had a crowd of grim people gathered in front of their penalty area, but players like Millot, Führich and Guirassy don’t see such crowds as an obstacle at the moment. But rather as a challenge that they take on with great pleasure.
But now: The millimeter work from Stuttgart was followed by micrometer work from the Cologne cellar. Result: One of Guirassy’s toes was offside. No goal.
Perhaps it could prove worthwhile later that Stuttgart had to wait until the 92nd minute. Only then could they be sure that they would win the game against newly promoted Darmstadt 98; In stoppage time, none of Guirassy’s toes were offside, even though the linesman initially refused to allow the neat Heber goal. But the micrometer work from Cologne resulted in a goal, and in the end the scoreboard read 3-1. A victory that was a few goals too low, as one would have to say in technical language. But as I said: Maybe that was a good thing.
Because it’s like this: If VfB had decided the game in the second half in a timely manner, as the game was going, there would hardly have been any room for critical comments. It would have been a near-perfect game, at least for a team that isn’t Manchester City and has found itself in the most grueling relegation battle in the German Bundesliga two years in a row. Two amazing stories can be told from Stuttgart these days, one about the striker Guirassy, who has scored ten goals in five games and seems to become even more irresistible with each new weekend; and one about the team he plays for. In both cases the same question arises: Is he/are they really that good, or is it just a run?
Guirassy gives his team more than goals – his influence can be felt all the way to the back
In the Guirassy case the answer is simple: both. As far as the team is concerned, there is still no reliable information. She plays maturely in a way that you can’t even believe, because it’s VfB Stuttgart – the club whose players have so often been noticed with their self-destructive potential in recent years. The talents always had great moments, but they gave themselves more legs than they had.
Anyone who looks at the current season with four wins from five games cannot help but suspect that the two stories have to be read together if they are not already one and the same story. VfB Stuttgart cannot be understood without Guirassy – and not just because he scores goals with a naturalness that is at least uncanny. It’s not just that the 27-year-old takes advantage of almost every scoring opportunity that comes his way; He also practices the art of scoring goals without a chance to score. When the ball comes near him, he turns, makes a small feint or a short zigzag run, and through the small window of space and time that this creates, he hits the ball with a force that is only surpassed by its precision becomes. And if a goalkeeper gets in his way somewhere, he just lobs the ball over it, and if the goalkeeper thinks about the lob, he puts the ball over.
Open detailed view
Wonderful final point: Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy (left) lifts the ball into the goal of Darmstadt’s goalkeeper Marcel Schuhen.
(Photo: Tom Weller/dpa)
Anyone who ever claimed that a team could play without a center forward should have turned red with shame long ago, unless they were the young Guardiola storming with a young Messi. Stuttgart’s Guirassy is an example of how an accurate nine can give an eleven more than goals. Guirassy plays up front, but his influence is felt all the way back – an eleven can experience great composure when they know that the effort they put in is not in vain. That there is someone up front who gives direction to the game and, when in doubt, scores one more goal than you concede at the back.
VfB is taking every win in reserve – in January they will have to make do without Guirassy
This also explains the people of Stuttgart’s sudden resistance to stress. After falling behind 0-1 thanks to Zagadou’s own goal (17th), they simply continued to combine with enormous calm, and so it only took five minutes until Pascal Stenzel found Guirassy up front, whose lay-up Millot pushed in to equalize. Stenzel was once a technically excellent right-back, but far too slow. This season he is a technically excellent right-back who helped prepare three goals against Darmstadt and whose lack of speed is hardly noticeable because the system absorbs it – installed by coach Sebastian Hoeneß, who leads the team as coherently as few people would have believed him capable of.
That sounds like a cool division of labor: Hoeneß improved the team and Guirassy improved his teammates. The center forward is a demanding man, he challenges his colleagues because they know full well that the boss up front knows how to distinguish a good pass from a not so good one. Next weekend, the development of Hoeneß-Guirassy-VfB will be put to another test; they will have to learn to travel to Cologne as favorites, to a passionate team with a passionate coach.
At VfB they don’t assume that the run will last forever, at the moment they are taking every win in reserve. They suspect that they will need the points when Guirassy leaves for the Africa Cup of Nations in January. They’re already trying to make light of Guirassy’s absence, because maybe it’s true: no Englishman will buy a striker who can use up his strength in a strenuous tournament until mid-February during the winter break.
