On Thursday afternoon, coach Hannes Wolf’s men took on the Regionalliga (fourth division) side on the VfB club grounds. The game saw new signing Josip Brekalo pull on the jersey with the infamous red hoop for the first time, with the Croatian beginning on the left wing. Further new signings Jérôme Onguéné (in Sochaux) and Ebenezer Ofori (at the African Cup of Nations) missed out on Thursday’s test.
Their new team mates got off to a good start and took the lead through a Takuma Asano header after nineteen minutes. The Japanese international had further good chances (36‘, 42‘), as did Daniel Ginczek (26’, 40’), but neither could extend the VfB advantage before the break. In addition, Timo Baumgartl was forced out after just ten minutes of action with adductor problems.
To begin the second period, Hannes Wolf sent out an almost completely changed eleven, who extended the VfB lead to 2-0 through Simon Terodde (55’), 3-0 through Alexandru Maxim (70’) and eventually 4-0, with Julian Green firing a shot under the crossbar late on (88’).
The VfB line-up
First-half
Mitch Langerak (C) – Timo Baumgartl (C, 10‘ Dijon Ramaj), Takuma Asano, Carlos Mané, Florian Klein, Benjamin Pavard, Josip Brekalo, Joel Sonora, Berkay Özcan, Daniel Ginczek, Marcin Kaminski
Second-half
Mitch Langerak (60‘ Benjamin Uphoff) – Emiliano Insua, Jean Zimmer, Hajime Hosogai, Anto Grgic, Simon Terodde, Alexandru Maxim, Kevin Großkreutz, Christian Gentner (C), Julian Green, Stefan Peric