Loew says time for party to wind down

There is nothing wrong with savoring July's fourth World Cup win as far as Germany coach Joachim Loew is concerned, but he said it was now time for the party to start winding down.

Loew was surprisingly unperturbed after his team's woeful performance in a 4-2 home defeat to Argentina in a rematch of the World Cup final.

He even found positive things to say about the young and inexperienced team he fielded, that trailed 4-0 early in the second half.

Yet after a final celebration in Duesseldorf on Wednesday, where the recently retired Philipp Lahm, Miroslav Klose and Per Mertesacker were presented with gifts before an appreciative crowd, Loew said it was time to get back to work and get ready for the Euro 2016 qualifiers.

"It's nice to come together one last time to say farewell to all the players who are not with us anymore," Loew said.

"It wasn't really possible to do that after the World Cup in Berlin. But after tonight's gathering that is going to be the end of the World Cup (celebrations)."

The German players flew directly to Berlin from Brazil to celebrate with hundreds of thousands of fans at the Brandenburg Gate but the celebrations got slightly out of hand when some of the squad mocked the beaten Argentina players.

They chanted: "This is how Gauchos walk, Gauchos they walk like this", before jumping up to shout: "This is how Germans walk, Germans they walk like this!"

The incident caused a major stir in the German media and there was speculation the chants might give Argentina's players extra motivation to exact revenge on the pitch.

But Argentina coach Gerardo Martino said he did not think that controversy had played any role in Wednesday's result.

Reuters

(China Daily 09/05/2014 page23)