Loew to stay on as coach of Germany

Ecuador sack Rueda, hand reins to Vizuete

BERLIN, July 23, (Agencies): Germany coach Joachim Loew said on Wednesday that he never considered leaving his post after winning the World Cup title and insisted he would see out his contract which runs until Euro 2016.

“I didn’t think of stopping for one second,” said Loew, 54, in an interview published on the German Football Federation (DFB) website.

Loew took over as German head coach in 2006 after two years as assistant and extended his contract until 2016 before the World Cup in Brazil.

“I didn’t extend my contract with the DFB until 2016 to prematurely break it,” said Loew, who had refused to answer questions about his future after guiding his side to a 1-0 defeat of Argentina in this month’s World Cup final.

“I simply kept to what we had agreed before the World Cup that we were going to calmly sit down and analyse the tournament as we have done after every tournament,” he explained.

Loew said that he was already looking forward to leading Germany to Euro 2016 which will be played in France.

“I can’t imagine anything more beauti- ful than to continue working with this team, to lead them to the European championship in France, to continue to develop the group and each of the players,” he said.

“I’m as motivated as the first day. We celebrated a huge success in Brazil, but there are other objectives that we want to achieve. The 2014 World Cup was a summit but it wasn’t a conclusion.”

Loew led Germany to their fourth World Cup title in Brazil and the first since reunification in 1990.

One of his first tasks will be to find a new captain after defender Philipp Lahm’s surprise international retirement, with Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger favourite for the job.

Meanwhile, have sacked World Cup coach Reinaldo Rueda following the team’s failure to progress beyond the group stage in Brazil.

“Professor Reinaldo Rueda will go no further with the national football team,” Ecuadorean Football Federation (FEF) president Luis Chiriboga said.

Colombian Rueda, who had also been to the 2010 World Cup finals with Honduras, is being replaced by Ecuadorean Sixto Vizuete on a short contract until January 2015.

“Professor Vizuete will coach the senior team in the (upcoming) friendly matches,” Chiriboga told reporters in Quito on Tuesday.

Ecuador will play friendlies against Colombia, the United States, Brazil and either Chile or Bolivia later in the year, the FEF said on its website (www.ecuafiurbol.org).

Rueda’s contract ended with Ecuador’s elimination at the World Cup when they drew 0-0 with France in their final group match on June 25 but he was open to a new deal.

Ecuador lost their opening match 2-1 to Switzerland before beating Honduras 2-1.

Vizuete, who has worked with the Ecuador juniors teams and coached local first division side El Nacional for the last two years, was in charge of the seniors for a year from November 2008 until their narrowly failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

Rueda took charge of Ecuador, who had reached the 2002 and 2006 World Cup finals, in 2010 when he left the Honduras team. This photo taken on July 15 shows Germany’s coach Joachim Loew during a victory parade of Germany’s football national team in Berlin. (AFP)