On Wednesday evening, 8,000 fans at the Voith-Arena in Heidenheim saw VfB Stuttgart beat third division 1. FC Heidenheim 2-1 in a pre-season friendly. In the 28th minute, the hosts took the lead through former VfB reserve team striker Patrick Meyer. The set-back did little to disrupt the VfB flow though, with the Bundesliga side continuing to control proceedings.
As the game wore on, Bruno Labbadia’s men continued to increase the pressure and eventually leveled the scores just seconds before the break. Taking on a perfectly weighted pass from Vedad Ibisevic, Shinji Okazaki lobbed the on-rushing keeper Frank Lehmann to make it 1-1 at the break. For the second period, the VfB changed his side completely, with the exception of Ibisevic who played the full ninety minutes, to add some fresh impulses. Shortly before full-time, Ibisevic was on target to make the final score 2-1 to VfB.
The VfB line-up: Ulreich (46’ Min’ Weis) – Sakai (46’ Hoogland), Tasci (46’ Rüdiger), Maza (46’ Niedermeier), Molinaro (46’ Boka) – Bah (46’ Gentner), Kuzmanovic (46’ Holzhauser) – Harnik (46’ Hemlein), Stöger (46’ Hajnal), Okazaki (46’ Traoré) – Ibisevic
