The list of Americans in the Bundesliga just got a bit smaller.
Pellegrino Matarazzo was dismissed by VfB Stuttgart on Monday, one day after a 1-0 home loss to Union Berlin pushed their winless start to the 2022-23 season to nine games. That poor start has left the club in 17th place with over one-quarter of the schedule played, and Stuttgart is the only Bundesliga club without a league win this season.
“Our journey together at VfB has come to an end,” said Matarazzo in a club statement announcing the move. “They’ve been eventful and wonderful years with a lot of incredible moments and memories, which will last forever. I’ll always be grateful for being given the chance to get my foot on the coaching ladder here. VfB are a special club, which you only understand once you’re a part of it. I wish this team, this club with these fans all the very best and the maximum success.”
Stuttgart sporting director Sven Mislintat said Matarazzo “more than met our expectations, and even surpassed them in many respects,” but added that “(Stuttgart) started this season with high hopes. Results thus far have unfortunately not lived up to these hopes. We’ve now reached a point at which we believe that parting with (Matarazzo) is unavoidable.”
Club CEO Alexander Wehrle praised Matarazzo, saying that “I got to know him as a special person, which makes the decision to end our work with him even harder. Ultimately, though, we came to the conclusion that a change in the coaching position was necessary in order to bring about a turnaround.”
The 44-year-old New Jersey native was hired in December of 2019, having climbed rapidly into a role as the top assistant coach at Hoffenheim under Julian Nagelsmann and Alfred Schreuder. All in all, he lead Stuttgart for 100 competitive matches, leading them to promotion in 2019-20, and following that up with a solid finish in ninth.
Last season, Stuttgart barely survived the drop, needing a stoppage-time goal on the final day of the season to keep them in the Bundesliga.
Too many red cards, not enough goals
Stuttgart were not getting blown out or looking hapless this season, despite the lack of wins. They’d picked up five draws — including coming back for a 2-2 draw at Bayern Munich — and their -5 goal difference underlines that their losses were all close.
However, they scored one or zero goals in seven of their ten total competitive matches, with a 1-0 cup win over Dynamo Dresden on July 29 representing their only competitive victory on the season. Only Bochum, who are at the bottom of the table, have scored fewer than Stuttgart’s nine league goals on the season.
That DFB Pokal win came despite a red card for defender Waldemar Anton, which began an unfortunate trend for Stuttgart. In 10 total games on the season, Stuttgart has already suffered four red cards, including one given to Serhou Guirassy in what turned out to be Matarazzo’s final game in charge. Stuttgart has been down a man for 88 minutes already in their 2022-23 competitions, nearly 10% of the minutes they’ve played thus far.
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