Joachim Loew believes Germany can create history
Rio de Janeiro, July 13 (IANS) Although no European team has ever managed to claim the FIFA World Cup title in America, Germany boss Joachim Loew believes his side can create history in Sunday's final.
"Regardless of what happened before, we know we can write history," Loew told a pre-match press conference here Saturday, reports Xinhua.
"Latin Amereican (teams) on this continent have been able to dominate all the time. But why can't it be considered as an additional joy for us if we were the first to win here as Europeans."
Loew's Germany will face Argentina in the final clash at the Maracana Stadium here Sunday.
It will be the third time for the two teams to face each other in World Cup finals matches after the Albiceleste won 3-2 in 1986 and the Germans took the revenge with a 1-0 victory to claim the title in 1990.
The last time the two sides met in World Cup was in 2010 when Germany trounced Argentina 4-0 in the quarterfinals.
"Indeed Argentina in the tournament has shown great performance. They are much better organised and stronger in the defence than the team in 2010," Loew said.
"We have seen Argentina change a few things during the tournament. I think Argentina can play different styles. It is a team that can defend early and pressure on the opponent. And sometimes they try to attack rather quickly and sometimes again they just sort of fall back and wait," the coach said.
"So (in the final) it could be that Argentina try to attack us very early and fall back. We have to look forward to that."
Loew said he did not want the final to be decided by penalty shootout but also stressed that his goalkeepers are always prepared to face the dreaded penalty shootout.
"We hope we can decide the match before, because penalty shooting depends on so many things. Taking the penalty means extra pressure and it concerns all the players," Loew said.
In the 2006 World Cup, Germany laboured past Argentina after a 4-2 penalty shootout win in the quarterfinals.