Jogi Loew: Spain’s Number One Fan

July 8th, 2010 | by: chris | View Comments

I’m always taken aback a bit whenever a losing coach in a big game turns to the microphones and says “well they’re just brilliant!” – less because of his feelings toward the other team and more the delicate psyche of his own team at that point. However, Jogi Loew and his not-so-lucky blue sweater – now washed, hopefully – were full of sincere praise in the wake of Germany’s exit from meaningful games at the World Cup, despite having exited at the hand of the same team two major tournaments in a row.

So chalk one more up to the Spanish bandwagon.

Jogi’s says…

“Spain are a wonderful team,” he said. “They are the masters of the game. You can see it in every pass. They can hardly be beaten. They are extremely calm and convincing. Spain were just better than we were and they deserved to win.

“In 2008 they won the European Championship in a very convincing way and they have been unchanged over the past two or three years. They play in an automatic way and I am confident they will win the title. They have put on top performances in all matches they have played and they can beat everyone.”

He added: “Over the past two or three years they have been the most skilled team of all. They circulate the ball quickly and we were not able to play like previous matches. We were not able to get rid of our inhibitions.”

Pretty difficult to argue otherwise. Spain have been the best collection of talent on one team for years and all that was left was to see if they could put it together on the pitch while dispatching of that nasty curse business; Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010 seem to have firmly put the choking to bed. They also gave Germany, going into the game the most impressive team this World Cup and one which had scored 8 in their last two games, very few chances and rendered Jogi’s counter to a shell of its former self.

Alright, it’s impossible to argue otherwise: Spain are positively brilliant. And they’ll have one more blue sweater-wearing fan on their side come Sunday.