Löw’s tactics against Spain: withdrawal instead of attack

Löw’s order of the day for the game against Spain is for protection, not for the show. Obviously the players weren’t entirely happy with it either. Especially since the tactic didn’t work out in the end.

Dhat would have been a game for someone of his stature. With his two meters he would have thrown himself into the high balls that sailed into the penalty area in the last few minutes – to avert the disaster that finally fell on the German team, with the Spaniard’s equalizing goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time.

But Per Mertesacker was busy in another role in the Stuttgart stadium, it was his first assignment as an expert for the ZDF. Mertesacker, ZDF? Right, there was something else. The ice bin in which the exhausted Mertesacker wanted to go straight to after the 2014 World Cup round of 16 against Algeria seemed to be prepared for the German national team this time, at least virtually.