With three wins from three games, the German national team have enjoyed the perfect start to their World Cup qualifying campaign. After the 2-0 victory over Northern Ireland, the world champions are sitting pretty at the top of Group C. Head coach Joachim Löw offered his views after the game, and spoke about the task ahead for the next few weeks and the performances put in by Sami Khedira and Ilkay Gündogan.
Question: Joachim Löw, what did you make of the two wins against the Czech Republic and Northern Ireland?
Joachim Löw: We picked up six points without conceding a goal, which is a big plus. Overall, we did very well in overcoming both challenges. It was a fairly straightforward win against Northern Ireland thanks to the early goals, and we took a bit of pace out of the game after that, so it wasn’t quite as sparkling as it was against the Czechs.
Question: Northern Ireland coach Michael O’Neill was full of praise for your team. Was that justified?
Löw: We have been able to bring an incredible level of dominance into our game, and put an awful lot of pressure on the opposition. Our opponents have to work extremely hard to close the gaps we create. But our style is flexible enough, and the players are able to change positions a lot. The team is looking very solid, although we haven’t played against one of the very top teams.
Question: You started with the same line-up in both games. Have you found your best team?
Löw: A lot can change between now and the next World Cup, so you can’t really say that you’ve found your best team for it.
Question: So the door is still very much open to young players?
With three wins from three games, the German national team have enjoyed the perfect start to their World Cup qualifying campaign. After the 2-0 victory over Northern Ireland, the world champions are sitting pretty at the top of Group C. Head coach Joachim Löw offered his views after the game, and spoke about the task ahead for the next few weeks and the performances put in by Sami Khedira and Ilkay Gündogan.
Question: Joachim Löw, what did you make of the two wins against the Czech Republic and Northern Ireland?
Joachim Löw: We picked up six points without conceding a goal, which is a big plus. Overall, we did very well in overcoming both challenges. It was a fairly straightforward win against Northern Ireland thanks to the early goals, and we took a bit of pace out of the game after that, so it wasn’t quite as sparkling as it was against the Czechs.
Question: Northern Ireland coach Michael O’Neill was full of praise for your team. Was that justified?
Löw: We have been able to bring an incredible level of dominance into our game, and put an awful lot of pressure on the opposition. Our opponents have to work extremely hard to close the gaps we create. But our style is flexible enough, and the players are able to change positions a lot. The team is looking very solid, although we haven’t played against one of the very top teams.
Question: You started with the same line-up in both games. Have you found your best team?
Löw: A lot can change between now and the next World Cup, so you can’t really say that you’ve found your best team for it.
Question: So the door is still very much open to young players?
Löw: Of course. With the games in November and the Confederations Cup, I’ll have the opportunity to bring in some new faces. I’ll meet with the rest of the coaching staff next week and we’ll start making plans and thinking about November and the Confederations Cup. It’s very possible that I’ll give one or two players a rest during that period. Obviously there’s the U21 European Championship as well, and we’ll be talking about a few players with an eye on that. We have to keep a good balance and think about whether we keep the team together or give younger players some experience.
Question: Which areas will you look to work on further?
Löw: We have to maintain these stable performances, which we did not always manage to do in European Championship qualifying. It is important that the team stays stable and works through the qualification as swiftly and effectively as possible. We want to improve a few of the smaller details, and working on our efficiency remains important.
Question: What did you think of Sami Khedira’s performance?
Löw: It was important for Sami that he could arrive in the penalty area from deep. That kind of run is very difficult to defend against, and Sami does it well – he is very dynamic.
Question: A few people had expected Ilkay Gündogan to play from the start. Why did he only come on in the second half?
Löw: I had thought about it a lot before the game, but I could see from training that he was still not completely at 100 percent. He still needs some more game time to find his very best form.
