How Do You Stop Erling Haaland? You Don’t.

Credit...Andrew Yates/EPA, via ShutterstockMANCHESTER, England — Pellegrino Matarazzo starts with the bad news. In theory, he should be in possession of what may be the most valuable single piece of knowledge in world soccer. Twice in his time as the coach of VfB Stuttgart, Matarazzo has faced a team that featured Erling Haaland. And twice, he has managed to shut him down.

Haaland was part of the Borussia Dortmund team that visited Stuttgart in April 2021. He was on a hot streak then, in the middle of a run that would see him score 20 goals in his final 19 games of the season. He did not, though, score against Matarazzo’s Stuttgart.

A year later, Haaland arrived in town again. The next week,…