SOUTH AFRICA: FOOTBALL / SOCCER - WORLD CUP 2010 - Germany's striker Miroslav Klose says they played a tremendous game against Australia

Record ID: 454396

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: FOOTBALL / SOCCER - WORLD CUP 2010 - Germany's striker Miroslav Klose says they played a tremendous game against Australia
  • Date: 15th June 2010
  • Summary: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (JUNE 14, 2010) (REUTERS) ***CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** GERMAN COACH JOACHIM LOEW AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE GERMAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION (DFB), THEO ZWANZIGER IN FRONT OF PICTURE SHOWING GERMANY TEAM PHOTOGRAPHER LOEW AND ZWANZIGER POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS LOEW LOOKING ON LOEW AND ZWANZIGER WITH PHOTOGRAPHERS PHOTOGRAPHER LOEW AND ZWANZIGER AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN COACH, JOACHIM LOEW SAYING: "Australia was not the team against whom we need to measure ourselves in this World Cup. We managed to find the Australians' weak points but there are teams, for example Serbia or Ghana, which are more experienced and stronger and also have better individual players. So it is important for me to put this match into the right context." VARIOUS OF LOEW JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN COACH, JOACHIM LOEW SAYING: "Now we will have an opponent who is pretty much damaged, after a 0-1 defeat just before the end of the game, but therefore more dangerous for us, because the Serbs are a team which is able to dominate a match with their players. For sure, they are in a position where they need to win this game. So that means we have to be extremely careful with the Serbs. We will also analyse our match once again very carefully because I saw things we could improve." PAN FROM LOEW TO JOURNALISTS LOEW IN A CAMERA VIEWFINDER GERMAN PLAYER MIROSLAV KLOSE STANDING WAITING PAN FROM HIS SHIRT TO HIS FACE PAN FROM JOURNALISTS TO MIROSLAV KLOSE, SITTING IN NEWS CONFERENCE FACE OF KLOSE KLOSE DURING PRESS-CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN STRIKER, MIROSLAV KLOSE SAYING: "With Bayern Munich we play a system whereby we let the opponent run and I think that yesterday we saw many similarities. So the opponent had to run a lot. We easily created our chances, the combinations forward were very good. I think that's our idea of soccer and one has to say that we played a tremendous game yesterday." JOURNALISTS WIDE OF KLOSE DURING NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 30th June 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA7CS2ZGI4UX0BDJVFE68FTNPGU
  • Story Text: German striker Miroslav Klose, who ended his eight-month Germany goal drought by scoring in their 4-0 win over Australia on Sunday (June 14), said in Pretoria on Monday (June 14) he had never doubted his abilities and even placed a bet with himself.
    Germany's third-top scorer of all time, with 49 goals in 97 appearances, the 32-year-old had been seen as past his best after netting only three goals for Bayern Munich last season.
    His last international strike, against Russia in October, had sent Germany to the finals in South Africa.
    But even before scoring his 11th World Cup goal and Germany's second in Durban, Klose knew he would hit the target.
    "One has to say that we played a tremendous game yesterday," Klose told reporters at a news conference.
    Klose, who also scored three goals in the 2002 World Cup opener and two in their first match at the 2006 tournament, said despite being on the bench at his club for much of the season, playing for Germany always gives him a special feeling.
    Klose, who was picked to start ahead of the in-form Cacau, could not have chosen a bigger stage to silence his critics back home, with close to 28 million Germans glued to their TV sets when he headed home a Philipp Lahm cross in the 26th minute.
    Germany coach Joachim Loew told reporters after the game that "Australia was not the team against whom we need to measure ourselves in this World Cup."
    "We managed to find the Australians' weak points but there are teams, for example Serbia or Ghana, which are more experienced and stronger and also have better individual players. So it is important for me to put this match into the right context," Loew said.
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