Germany national team coach Joachim Löw pointed out the positive aspects of his team’s performance in the 2-1 friendly match loss to the United States. Speaking with the media after the game, Löw discussed the defeat, his insights to the game, Patrick Herrmann's debut and the upcoming challenges in the European Championships qualifying campaign.
Question: What is your assessment of the test match defeat against the United States?
Joachim Löw: Considering the circumstances, I was quite happy with our performance in the first half. We had clear chances to add to our lead after scoring the opener. The United States would unlikely have recovered from a two- or three-goal deficit. In the second half we started to run out of energy, were not as active anymore and unable to react. Our opponents looked more focused and in a better rhythm. Looking at the entire situation however, the defeat is not something that will throw us off track and we will get over it quite easily.
Question: You've criticised the lack of clinical finishing in previous games. What are the reasons for this?
Löw: Some players are lacking that absolute urge to score the goal. The same thing happened against Poland and Georgia, and now against the United States as well. A clinical finish is very important and therefore it will remain to be an area that we will discuss, work on and look to improve, if we want to be successful in autumn when the crunch time begins.
Question: Could it already be an issue come Saturday, when you take on Gibraltar in Faro in the EURO qualifier?
Löw: No. We will show a good performance against Gibraltar and take the three points home with us. I'm fully convinced of this. Then we can sit back and enjoy the summer break. It's completely normal for players to feel tired or strained after a long and busy season. But we must and will keep the tension high one more time this season on Saturday.
Question: Were you satisfied with Patrick Hermann's performance in his debut?
Germany national team coach Joachim Löw pointed out the positive aspects of his team’s performance in the 2-1 friendly match loss to the United States. Speaking with the media after the game, Löw discussed the defeat, his insights to the game, Patrick Herrmann's debut and the upcoming challenges in the European Championships qualifying campaign.
Question: What is your assessment of the test match defeat against the United States?
Joachim Löw: Considering the circumstances, I was quite happy with our performance in the first half. We had clear chances to add to our lead after scoring the opener. The United States would unlikely have recovered from a two- or three-goal deficit. In the second half we started to run out of energy, were not as active anymore and unable to react. Our opponents looked more focused and in a better rhythm. Looking at the entire situation however, the defeat is not something that will throw us off track and we will get over it quite easily.
Question: You've criticised the lack of clinical finishing in previous games. What are the reasons for this?
Löw: Some players are lacking that absolute urge to score the goal. The same thing happened against Poland and Georgia, and now against the United States as well. A clinical finish is very important and therefore it will remain to be an area that we will discuss, work on and look to improve, if we want to be successful in autumn when the crunch time begins.
Question: Could it already be an issue come Saturday, when you take on Gibraltar in Faro in the EURO qualifier?
Löw: No. We will show a good performance against Gibraltar and take the three points home with us. I'm fully convinced of this. Then we can sit back and enjoy the summer break. It's completely normal for players to feel tired or strained after a long and busy season. But we must and will keep the tension high one more time this season on Saturday.
Question: Were you satisfied with Patrick Hermann's performance in his debut?
Löw: Patrick Herrmann played well and always generated pace and a sense of urgency when going forward. He created problems for our opponents' defence a couple of times and showed good overview when assisting the opener. Mesut Özil and Mario Götze also had good spells in their performances, especially in the first half.
Question: Are you already thinking ahead to the next season?
Löw: Of course. Next autumn will be decisive in our outcome in the European Championships qualifying segment. I'm certain however, that we will comfortably qualify for the EURO's and that we will play a good role there too. We did a lot of things correctly in the first half against the United States, which will also be important for our game in the future. We kept calm in possession and patiently passed our way out of pressure moments at the back. It's good that we have become a team that looks to have possession. But we also have to find the right timing to drop back and then suddenly shift gears into attack at a high pace. That's something that we've done better already in the past. And that's what we are aiming for.
Question: How do you rate your teams' defensive performance?
Löw: You have to consider, that this was the first time we played with these players in defence. Young players like Antonio Rüdiger or Sebastian Rudy do not have much experience yet, which can be seen in some situations. Jonas Hector played well, especially going forward. Nevertheless, we undoubtedly made individual mistakes today and it was certainly not perfect.
