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| World Cup 2014: Jürgen Klinsmann has a point to prove to Joachim Löw | World Cup 2014: Jürgen Klinsmann has a point to prove to Joachim Löw |
| (about 7 hours later) | |
| It was 10 years ago and Jürgen Klinsmann was on the lookout for an assistant to help him lead Germany at the World Cup on home soil. Klinsmann wanted Holger Osieck but the 55-year-old said no. So they asked the highly-rated Ralf Rangnick. He, too, did not want the job and it did not work out with Guido Buchwald either. | It was 10 years ago and Jürgen Klinsmann was on the lookout for an assistant to help him lead Germany at the World Cup on home soil. Klinsmann wanted Holger Osieck but the 55-year-old said no. So they asked the highly-rated Ralf Rangnick. He, too, did not want the job and it did not work out with Guido Buchwald either. |
| “Don’t worry, we will find you someone,” Franz Beckenbauer said. And they did. His name was Joachim Löw. His CV was not particularly impressive, including spells at Stuttgart, Fenerbahce, Karlsruhe, Adanaspor, Tirol Innsbruck and Austria Vienna, never lasting more than two seasons at one club, but Klinsmann had met Löw at a coaching course years before and Löw had made an impression. | “Don’t worry, we will find you someone,” Franz Beckenbauer said. And they did. His name was Joachim Löw. His CV was not particularly impressive, including spells at Stuttgart, Fenerbahce, Karlsruhe, Adanaspor, Tirol Innsbruck and Austria Vienna, never lasting more than two seasons at one club, but Klinsmann had met Löw at a coaching course years before and Löw had made an impression. |
| It proved a masterstroke. Klinsmann and Löw complemented each other perfectly and together they took Germany to the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup, completely changing the philosophy of the Nationalmannschaft. At Euro 2004 Germany had been exposed as an old team lacking ideas and talent and Rudi Völler’s Michael Ballack-reliant team went out in the group stage. That all changed two years later. | It proved a masterstroke. Klinsmann and Löw complemented each other perfectly and together they took Germany to the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup, completely changing the philosophy of the Nationalmannschaft. At Euro 2004 Germany had been exposed as an old team lacking ideas and talent and Rudi Völler’s Michael Ballack-reliant team went out in the group stage. That all changed two years later. |
| Klinsi and Jogi, as they are affectionately known, wanted their team to play positive football and that summer they did. Germany produced a wonderful brand of attacking football throughout the tournament, starting with a 4-2 win against Costa Rica and ending with a 3-1 victory over Portugal in the third-place play-off. | Klinsi and Jogi, as they are affectionately known, wanted their team to play positive football and that summer they did. Germany produced a wonderful brand of attacking football throughout the tournament, starting with a 4-2 win against Costa Rica and ending with a 3-1 victory over Portugal in the third-place play-off. |
| “He changed a lot,” said Oliver Bierhoff, part of the coaching team in 2006, of Klinsmann. “He introduced speed, quick passing, movement, going forward, and got the team to play the ball forwards and not, like we have in the past, sideways.” | |
| It is remarkable now, as the two managers prepare to take on each other as Klinsmann’s USA face Germany in the Group G decider in Recife , to look back at that summer. It seems not only to have been a watershed for football in the country but for the country itself. Germans allowed themselves to love their own country again, having just organised the most brilliant of World Cups with a team to match. | It is remarkable now, as the two managers prepare to take on each other as Klinsmann’s USA face Germany in the Group G decider in Recife , to look back at that summer. It seems not only to have been a watershed for football in the country but for the country itself. Germans allowed themselves to love their own country again, having just organised the most brilliant of World Cups with a team to match. |
| After the tournament Klinsmann announced that he was not renewing his contract, recommending that Löw take over. The former assistant tinkered and tweaked and made his Germany side, arguably, an even better team. They reached the final of Euro 2008 and the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup, losing to Spain on both occasions, but that was without the advantage of playing on home soil. | After the tournament Klinsmann announced that he was not renewing his contract, recommending that Löw take over. The former assistant tinkered and tweaked and made his Germany side, arguably, an even better team. They reached the final of Euro 2008 and the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup, losing to Spain on both occasions, but that was without the advantage of playing on home soil. |
| Klinsmann and Löw remain friends, that is without doubt. It is also true that it rankles somewhat with Klinsmann that Löw emerged from the 2006 tournament as the tactical genius and he came across as the motivator, shouting instructions to the players in the dressing room. This is mainly because of the film “Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen” (Germany. A summer’s tale) which portrayed the two managers in exactly that way. Klinsmann later told the magazine 11Freunde that he would not have allowed the film to be cut that way had he known but he did not see it before it was out. | Klinsmann and Löw remain friends, that is without doubt. It is also true that it rankles somewhat with Klinsmann that Löw emerged from the 2006 tournament as the tactical genius and he came across as the motivator, shouting instructions to the players in the dressing room. This is mainly because of the film “Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen” (Germany. A summer’s tale) which portrayed the two managers in exactly that way. Klinsmann later told the magazine 11Freunde that he would not have allowed the film to be cut that way had he known but he did not see it before it was out. |
| Klinsmann does not bear a grudge towards Löw for this but it will work as extra motivation for the game in Recife, where a draw will see both teams through. He was also severely criticised in the German press in the months leading up to the 2006 World Cup, some of the reporting focusing on the fact that he lived in California when, some papers felt, he should be living in Germany. | Klinsmann does not bear a grudge towards Löw for this but it will work as extra motivation for the game in Recife, where a draw will see both teams through. He was also severely criticised in the German press in the months leading up to the 2006 World Cup, some of the reporting focusing on the fact that he lived in California when, some papers felt, he should be living in Germany. |
| Klinsmann, meanwhile, has also had a few small digs at the country of his birth and in Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen he said: “There is a mentality in Germany where we just moan and complain about things, whether it is about football or about any other job. There is also a mentality where we want to hold on to things, and not sacrifice ourselves to reach the next big target.” | Klinsmann, meanwhile, has also had a few small digs at the country of his birth and in Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen he said: “There is a mentality in Germany where we just moan and complain about things, whether it is about football or about any other job. There is also a mentality where we want to hold on to things, and not sacrifice ourselves to reach the next big target.” |
| In the buildup to Thursday’s game they have both been very complimentary about each other while also being at pains to rule out any suggestion that they may have come to an agreement to draw the game and so eliminate Ghana and Portugal in one Freundschaft pact. | In the buildup to Thursday’s game they have both been very complimentary about each other while also being at pains to rule out any suggestion that they may have come to an agreement to draw the game and so eliminate Ghana and Portugal in one Freundschaft pact. |
| “We are having no contact during this tournament, we are too busy with our own teams,” said Löw while Klinsmann seemed outraged that the subject had even been raised. After one reporter had mentioned “Gijón”, where West Germany beat Austria 1-0 at the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain in a result which meant they both went through to the next phase while Algeria were knocked out, Klinsmann fumed: “That game in Gijón was years ago. That is completely alien to an American team. Americans always fight for the victory. That is our spirit and that is our strength. We are confident enough to prove that. | “We are having no contact during this tournament, we are too busy with our own teams,” said Löw while Klinsmann seemed outraged that the subject had even been raised. After one reporter had mentioned “Gijón”, where West Germany beat Austria 1-0 at the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain in a result which meant they both went through to the next phase while Algeria were knocked out, Klinsmann fumed: “That game in Gijón was years ago. That is completely alien to an American team. Americans always fight for the victory. That is our spirit and that is our strength. We are confident enough to prove that. |
| “This is not the time for friendship. This is business time,” he added. “We are not a team that plays for a draw. We want to win the group and go through as the best team to the last 16. It is going to be a very interesting game against an opponent who have a lot of respect for us.” | “This is not the time for friendship. This is business time,” he added. “We are not a team that plays for a draw. We want to win the group and go through as the best team to the last 16. It is going to be a very interesting game against an opponent who have a lot of respect for us.” |
| So there we are. The scene is set for two old friends to be reunited without having the chance of being friendly to each other. Klinsmann arguably has an advantage in that his USA team are underdogs despite their impressive performances against Ghana and Portugal. All the pressure is on Löw and his players. As one German newspaper neatly summed it up: Klinsmann has everything to win while Löw has everything to lose. | So there we are. The scene is set for two old friends to be reunited without having the chance of being friendly to each other. Klinsmann arguably has an advantage in that his USA team are underdogs despite their impressive performances against Ghana and Portugal. All the pressure is on Löw and his players. As one German newspaper neatly summed it up: Klinsmann has everything to win while Löw has everything to lose. |
| This article has been amended to reflect the fact that Jürgen Klinsmann is younger than Joachim Löw, and not the other way round as was originally implied |