Stuttgart, Wolfsburg off in style
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Shanghai Daily, August 8, 2011
VFB Stuttgart and VfL Wolfsburg, both German Bundesliga strugglers last season, got off to flying starts on Saturday with 3-0 wins in their opening matches of the new campaign.
Stuttgart, which spent most of last season fighting relegation and hired three coaches, beat last season's German Cup winner and Champions League semifinalist Schalke 04 to celebrate the opening of its rebuilt stadium.
Wolfsburg overcame the absence of playmaker Diego to win at FC Cologne, which looks to be in for another arduous season and was jeered off by the 47,000 crowd.
Brazilian Diego has been told by coach Felix Magath that he has no future at the 2008/09 champion after walking out when he was dropped on the final day of last season as the club escaped the drop.
Promoted Augsburg, playing in the top flight for the first time, twice came from behind to hold SC Freiburg 2-2 and Werder Bremen, hoping for a vast improvement on last season's 13th place, beat Kaiserslautern 2-0. Hanover 96, a surprising fourth last season, began with a 2-1 win at home to Hoffenheim.
Kicked off
Champion Borussia Dortmund kicked off the campaign on Friday with an emphatic 3-1 win over Hamburg SV.
Stuttgart, which has avoided the temptation to splurge in the transfer market, took the lead when forward Cacau diverted Francisco Rodriguez's header into the net eight minutes before halftime.
Schalke had plenty of openings but the hosts struck again with another header from Austria striker Martin Harnik just before the hour.
Japanese substitute Shinji Okazaki completed the scoring in the 89th, when he cut in from the right, left his marker standing and scored from the edge of the area.
"That was a special day for Stuttgart, a newly opened stadium and a win against such strong opponents," said coach Bruno Labbadia, who took over halfway through last season and led the underachieving side to safety.
Patrick Helmes scored twice and Marcel Schaefer also had a goal in Wolfsburg's win at Cologne.
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