Germany’s Joachim Löw reflects on his final tourney, the future, and the disappointment with losing to England

Germany manager Joachim Löw held his farewell press conference earlier today and was still feeling the sting of Tuesday’s loss to England.

“It takes a bit of time to process this disappointment. It was 15 very long years with many beautiful moments & disappointments. This team has a very bright future ahead of them. I wish my successor Hansi Flick all the best. My heart will continue to beat black, red and gold,” said Löw as captured by Twitter account @iMiaSanMia. “I spoke to the team and everyone who worked behind the team. Many of them have accompanied and supported me for a long time, players and coaches. It was important to thank them for their commitment and trust. We said goodbye this morning, the players left & went on vacation.”

Löw was happy with the way Germany evolved in during the training camp and throughout the tourney, but the veteran manager knew the team had not yet reached a point where they were completely in sync.

“We had a lot of players who hadn’t had that much tournament experience. I know that it sometimes takes two or three tournaments for the players to peak, to be able to deal with stressful situations in the tournament. Some players are not yet at their peak,” said Löw. “The team was really ambitious and developed an incredibly good spirit. In the end, in some moments something was missing, not only yesterday, but you could also feel it in games like against Portugal or Hungary. This is what the players will learn from”

As for now, though, Löw is just “grateful” for his time with the DFB.

“I’ve experienced many tournaments, many qualifiers. At some point everything will be put into perspective a bit, including this defeat. Maybe in a few years it won’t be all that important. For me personally, friendships and the human side remains. I’m grateful for that.” said Löw.