GERMANY coach Joachim Löw has arguably achieved more than predecessor Jürgen Klinsmann by reaching the European Championships final with the same core of players that finished third at the 2006 World Cup.
Klinsmann's team played an all-attacking style two years ago, while Löw had gone back to three old German qualities – stamina, commitment and efficiency. The Germans had only three shots on target during Wednesday's semi-final against Tu
rkey, and all three went into the net in a 3-2 win.
Turkey's three late comebacks at Euro 2008 had a German quality about them, but the three-time European champions showed how it's done when the stakes are high.
"We are now looking forward to the final. Now, the pressure is over and we can have fun," said Löw yesterday.
Germany will be bidding for a record fourth title against either Russia or Spain in Sunday's final at Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna.
There was little flair in Germany's performance, but the will to fight until the end meant the team escaped with a 90th-minute winning goal from Philipp Lahm, a defender who also set up the second goal by Miroslav Klose, but made glaring mistakes for both Turkish goals.
Germany have displayed a mystifying inconsistency at the tournament. It began with a strong 2-0 win over Poland, but they then fell into disarray in a 2-1 loss to Croatia before securing progress to the quarter-finals by labouring to a 1-0 win over Austria.
The team beat Portugal 3-2 in easily their best performance, only to be followed by the plodding effort against Turkey, who had 17 shots to Germany's seven overall and outplayed their more illustrious opponents over long stretches of the game in Basel despite being depleted by injuries and suspensions.
"There has been absolutely no consistency in teams in this tournament," Löw said at Germany's training base in southern Switzerland. "We were not permanently at high level, we know it. But the most important thing is to win.
"We are in the final and that's what counts. Our morale is high."
Germany had six days of rest between the quarter-final and semi-final, and Löw thought that may been one cause for his team's poor performance. "All teams that had long breaks and rested players had big problems. It may be better to keep the rhythm of playing every three or four days, we always played better when we had shorter breaks," he said.
Löw said there was "enormous relief" in the team when Lahm scored as he "thought the game was going into extra time."
Germany fell behind when Ugur Boral gave Turkey the lead in the 22nd minute. Bastian Schweinsteiger equalised in the 26th and Klose seemed to have closed out the match for Germany in the 79th. But the never-say-die Turks again came back with a late goal when Semih Senturk scored in the 86th.
Most teams would then opt to settle for extra time. The Germans, however, looked for the goal and got it.
"We have the experience of this kind of tournament over the years and we do believe we can win such games. We do have a winner's mentality," Löw said.
Germany's performance may not have been great in Basel but defender Per Mertesacker was able to take one huge positive heading into their final showdown with either Russia or Spain. "It was our worst game in this tournament, but if you play that bad and still win then you are able to do great things," said the Werder Bremen centre-back.
Forward Lukas Podolski, who set up Germany's first-half equaliser for Schweinsteiger, felt the way his side played was secondary when compared to the result.
"It doesn't matter how bad or good we were, the thing that matters is that we are in the final," he said.
Podolski's Bayern Munich team-mate Schweinsteiger added: "We let the Turkish play too much and we didn't stop them and that was our fault.
"Nobody knew before we went onto the pitch how we would play following our performances in this tournament, but the good thing is that our opponents don't know how good we can be either."
Löw can now become only the second German coach to win a major title in his first tournament. Jupp Derwall won the 1980 European championship.
"It's a nice experience to be in a final. It's something special for me personally and I am enjoying it," Löw said.
Löw's previous two tournament experiences were as Klinsmann's assistant and both ended in the semifinals: at the 2005 Confederations Cup against Brazil and against Italy at the World Cup at home a year later.
"I am very pleased that we managed to get over that hurdle now," he said.
Germany's fun ride through the World Cup brought millions of fans to party in the streets and gave the national team a cult status. The entire experience is known in Germany as the "Summer Fairytale," which was also the title of a popular documentary.
The Germans are partying on the streets again, with an estimated 500,000 watching Wednesday at Berlin's "fan mile" strip that was also used at the World Cup. Löw showed his team a compilation of celebration scenes in a video clip to motivate them against Turkey.
If the Germans win their first title since 1996, it could be a long night in Berlin and elsewhere.
The full article contains 929 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
