Loew lauds total team effort in historic triumph
Updated: 2014-07-15 06:59
(China Daily)
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Joachim Loew revealed he told Mario Goetze to "prove he's better than Lionel Messi" before Germany's "miracle boy" scored the extra-time goal to win the World Cup final.
Goetze came off the substitutes bench to score a stunning 113th-minute goal as Germany beat Argentina 1-0 at Rio de Janeiro's Maracana Stadium.
"I told Mario, 'Go out and show the world you are better than Messi'," said Loew.
The German coach basked in his team's historic win, the first by a European team in South America. It came after four consecutive near-misses in major tournaments stretching back to 2006.
"We have been together for 55 days, we have started this project years ago and this is the culmination of a lot of hard work," Loew said.
"We have been able to improve our performances, we believed in it and worked a lot for it.
"This team really deserves it, with the likes of Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker.
"We have had disappointment in the past having gone close despite playing good football.
"I think we put in the best performances over all the seven matches of all the teams here."
Loew said the tournament triumph was forged on team spirit.
"This team has developed an unbelievable team spirit and has developed a marvelous mental capacity," he said.
"And we are proud to become the first European country to win the title in South America, in Brazil, this football-loving country - and that makes us very proud.
"This deep joy and happiness will last forever, the team gave all they had, led by the marvelous Schweinsteiger in midfield and Lahm, who ran a number of kilometers.
"I told the team before the match that they would have to give more than they had ever given before, because they wanted to achieve something we had never previously achieved."
The praise heaped on Loew by German media after Sunday's victory was in marked contrast to Brazilian media's treatment of Luis Felipe Scolari, who resigned as coach of the national squad hours after the final, according to the Globo newspaper.
In the wake of Brazil's 7-1 loss to Germany in the semifinals, newspapers across the country had been demanding Scolari be fired.
Agence France-Presse
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