Joachim Löw at VfB Stuttgart, 1996-98

New to my website is a spotlight on Jogi’s career at VfB Stuttgart.

Taking over from Rolf Fringer (to whom he had been assistant) after the 1995/96 season, Joachim Löw coached Stuttgart to two fourth places in the Bundesliga (1996/97 and 1997/98 – and at one point heading the table), a DFB-Pokal win and a European Final appearance in the Cup-Winners Cup the season after. Appointed in the first instance as the ‘caretaker’ manager, he was given the position permanently after five games without a defeat. The skepticism was never to go away though, with constant inferences from the dinosaurs that are still inhabiting the planet of his demeanour being ‘too nice’ to take such a position of responsibility, conjuring up the “Der Nette Herr Löw” tag that stayed for so many years. Exactly a week after the Final in Stockholm, Jogi’s contract (due to end in 1999) was ‘unanimously’ terminated by the Stuttgart board. A succession of coaches followed and they have not reached a European final since.

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Germany 1 – 0 France, Looking back at 4 July 2014

We celebrate Germany’s victorious World Cup campaign – now exactly a year ago.

4 July 2014

Germany 1 – 0 France
Rio de Janeiro

Germany are through to the last four – with a victory over France

Goalscorer Mats Hummels receives particular praise from Joachim Löw, as does Per Mertesacker who has to step down in a starting eleven reshuffle, with again much praise forthcoming for his tactical decisions.

Jogi was later to comment on how Per’s attitude typified the superb team spirit in the side, a team spirit that Jogi himself had done so much to create and develop.

We began to dare to ask ourselves the question: Could Germany could be back at the Maracana in nine days’ time?

Later that day they learned their next opponent: Hosts Brazil!

I had the pleasure of watching the match from a sunny Brighton Beach!

What do Sepp Blatter and Helene Fischer have in common?

The answer?  Both are the subject of conversation from Joachim Löw, in what is one of my largest ever Archive Pages.

My June 2015 Archive

Not only in June did we have two internationals for Germany, Jogi also took to the field himself for the Sami Khedira Foundation (scoring two goals in the process!).  In addition to this there were the Champions League Final in Berlin, an exciting end-of-season relegation play-off, news of the DFB Academy proposals, and a host of interviews with Jogi on varying topics!

As Jogi jets out to Sardinia for some well-deserved rest and relaxation, things will undoubtedly go a little quiet over the next couple of months.  However do keep calling back to the website as I nitend to add one or two new pages and features while we wait for the ‘Hot Autumn’ to arrive!