‘Germany lacked passion at World Cup’
london — More than two months after Germany’s embarrassingly brief World Cup title defense, Joachim Loew offered a reason for the failure to his coaching compatriots on Sunday: The squad lacked motivation.
“After such a long time at the top,” Loew said, “we were missing the last percent, the fire, the passion, and this greed to win a title no matter what.”
Loew had been summoned from the floor to address FIFA’s World Cup coaches’ debrief by Cameroon coach Clarence Seedorf. He was asked to explain what had been done to try to “maintain the proper spirit” in a squad featuring nine champions from Brazil in 2014.
A couple of hours later, under the chandeliers of a London hotel ballroom, the tables were turned. In a session dedicated to France’s triumph in Russia, coach Didier Deschamps reflected on the challenge of preventing his newly crowned champions becoming complacent in Qatar in 2022.
The question came from St. Kitts and Nevis coach Jacques Passy who wondered how Deschamps would ensure France “do not fall into the trap” as Germany did. Deschamps did suggest “Joachim would be better at answering” before divulging his concerns.
“A certain doubt perhaps creeps in sometimes but not the same way it used to,” Deschamps said through an interpreter. “They think maybe it’s easy to do it again and it’s very, very difficult to stay focused to stay at the top level.”
A task for Deschamps is keeping his players grounded.
“Sometimes you see players run into difficulties because maybe success goes to their heads,” Deschamps said. —