Pascal Stenzel and his team-mates had an open training session to begin preparations for the home game against SC Freiburg this coming Saturday (kick-off at 15:30 CEST) – a fixture that’s a special one for the VfB defender for various different reasons. “First of all, my wife’s from Freiburg,” Stenzel explained. “Then there’s the fact that I played for SC for three and a half years, so I’ve got lots of links to Freiburg. My family and friends who make the trip from Freiburg to the Mercedes-Benz Arena will be on my side, though. I’ve arranged for VfB jerseys and scarves – they’ll all be cheering for the right team!“
The VfB No.15 has family ties with Freiburg but also started his professional career with SC. “I came to Freiburg without any Bundesliga or second-division experience and they gave me a chance,” the 26-year-old said. “It really was the start of something for me – I had a lot of great times there and got plenty of experience along the way. Freiburg have certainly been going in the right direction since then. They’ve developed as a club over a number of years and it promises to be a very tough game for us.“
Stenzel is taking some pointers from the away match at Bremen into Saturday’s meeting: “We’ve managed to pick something up from both matches so far, which is good. Even more important, however, are the performances that we put in. The first 20 minutes in Bremen were simply not good. Against Freiburg, we need to change that and make sure we get right into the game from the off. We need to be on high alert and totally focused to start the game.”