AS GERMANY APPEAR to increasingly represent the future, they finally seem set to make history.
That was certainly the message from Bastien Schweinsteiger and Jogi Loew on the eve of the team’s Euro 2012 semi-final against Italy.
“We don’t have the crown yet,” the midfielder said, “but we are getting closer and closer.
“I have the feeling that the point has come now that we can beat the next big opponents. We’ve beaten Argentina, Brazil, England and Holland. We hope the next one is the Italians.
“I’m very positive about the match tomorrow.”
Of course, the Germans have every reason to be positive. They’ve won every game so far in this tournament in absolutely exhilarating fashion.
As such, Loew again described the 2006 defeat to Italy — and the fact that Germany have never beaten the Italians in a tournament – as irrelevant. Their revolutionary infrastructure continues to create new realities.
“For the generation of today, it doesn’t mean anything. They know this. It doesn’t have any influence on our preparations. I’m not going to make anything of it. We have a very important game tomorrow.
“Our team is perfectly capable of beating anyone in the world.
“Since 2008, we’ve learned to be more technical. Our philosophy is to embed that. This is what we’ve done with the national team. That’s the football we want to play. That’s why we look for certain types of players, that can play at this level. So, from the point of view, it’s like a product here in Germany; a product of many institutions, the club, the DFB and so on.”
Schweinsteiger offered his personal experience of this.
“Since 2005, we have been going up and up and up… It’s the whole team spirit. There’s a really healthy mixture of players here. It’s very relaxed and also very focused on the football.”
