After Jamie Leweling's consolation prize hit 5-1 at the last minute, the five hundred fans of the game association Greuther Fürth who traveled to Stuttgart at least showed gallows humor. “Only Greuther Fürth will be the German champion,” they sang and laughed at themselves. In fact, on the first day of the new season, apart from a decent first half hour, the newcomer appeared more like a relegated player. The team, which had spoiled its supporters with courageous attacking football last season, looked inhibited, unfinished and too impressed by the unfamiliar atmosphere.

So VfB had a very easy game. The White-Greens, who arrived in the Bundesliga for the second time after the 2012/13 season, were ultimately nothing more than a welcome sparring partner for the White-Reds from Cannstatter Wasen. In view of numerous other opportunities, the victory after the hits by Endo (30th), Klement (36th), Kempf (51st/76th) and Al Ghaddioui (61st) spoke volumes about the one-sided balance of power.

The fact that the Swabians were not entirely happy with their opening success, the first in the Bundesliga in ten years, was due to an accident in their own ranks when the 17-year-old Dutch striker Sankoh (65th) who had just been substituted on a minute later a fast counter-attack in a collision with the Fürth goalkeeper Burchert seriously injured and had to be taken off the field on the stretcher.

“Unfortunately, the injury looks very bad,” was the first diagnosis made by Stuttgart sports director Sven Mislintat, “the whole ligamentous apparatus is broken.

We assume a break of up to six months. "

Many rookie mistakes from Fürth

The horror of the one shocking moment clouded the Stuttgart joy of their own appearance and the return of 18,109 spectators to the home stadium after a year of corona-related emptiness a little, but not so lastingly that the flowing flow in VfB's game was lost afterwards would. The Swabians once again proved to be masters of the standard situations, which the left wing sprinter Borna Sosa initiated with precise flanks and the end users Kempf and Al Ghaddioui refined with massive headers.

It goes without saying that Stefan Leitl, the newcomer's trainer, will put these faulty moments in his own defensive behavior on the to-do list for the coming training week. “We have to defend these standard situations better,” he urged his players to take prophylactic action at the next opportunity next Saturday in the home game against Arminia Bielefeld. The middle Franconians also have to improve what he called “individual tactical behavior” of his unstable defenses in front of the first two VfB goals, in which the goal scorers Endo and Klement had free rein, if they want to calculate realistic chances of staying in the class.

The many rookie mistakes clouded the view of the few positive moments in the Fürth game.

The fact that attackers Hrgota and Nielsen could pose a threat to opposing defenders was indicated at the beginning of the first and second half when the Swedes and Norwegian shots just missed their target.

“We're not getting any cracks now”, promised Leitl for the next appearances of the game association, in which his team has to get rid of their naivety in order to be able to play with a prospect of success in the Bundesliga.

Leitl tried his hand at being the first reconstruction worker on Saturday and at the same time was already preparing for the next case.

"Perhaps there will be one or the other slap."

Nevertheless, he did not let his mood be completely spoiled. "Today we got one on the lid, now we have to shake it off quickly and also take the positive things out of the game." His captain Branimir Hrgota, who knows the Bundesliga well from his years at Borussia Mönchengladbach and Eintracht Frankfurt, referred in his game analysis on the much higher pace first class. "We had to chase a lot," he said, describing an essential disadvantage for the people from Fürth. Despite the rather depressing premiere experience of his team, he called on everyone involved to "forget this as quickly as possible". If it were that easy!

Quite differently the Stuttgart, who greeted from the top on Saturday as the first league table of the new season. They assessed the psychological value of this clear opening success against an opponent who remained below the Bundesliga standard, without giving him too high a rating. "The performance can give us a broad chest," said coach Pellegrino Matarrazzo, "but we can classify that and focus on the next game." That will be difficult enough next Friday when VfB will compete at championship favorites RB Leipzig.