VfB Stuttgart’s problems continued after a 1-0 home defeat by SC Freiburg on Sunday left the 2006-2007 champions firmly in a Bundesliga relegation battle.
Johannes Flum grabbed the winner after 24 minutes for the visitors, who are enjoying a sparkling season. They moved up to sixth.
Stuttgart were joined on 16 points from 20 games by bottom side Borussia Moenchengladbach, who stunned Eintracht Frankfurt five minutes from time with a goal from Belgian Igor de Camargo to win 1-0.
Both teams are three points adrift of Cologne, who occupy the relegation playoff place.
Stuttgart, suffering their first defeat since the league resumed after the winter break, were dominant in the second half, but with Brazilian Cacau missing, they lacked a cutting edge. Stuttgart’s Martin Harnik struck the post a minute from time.
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
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