RIO DE JANEIRO, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Although no European teams have ever managed to claim the title of World Cup in America, Germany boss Joachim Loew believes his side can write the history in Sunday's final.
"Regardless of what happened before, we know we can write history," Loew told a pre-match press conference here on Saturday. "Latin Amereican (teams) on this continent have been able to dominate all the time. But why can't it be considered as an additional joy for us if we were the first to win here as Europeans."
Loew's Germany will face Argentina in the final clash in the Maracana Stadium here on Sunday. It will be the third time for the two titans to face each in World Cup final matches after the Albiceleste won 3-2 in 1986 and the Germans took the revenge with a 1-0 victory to claim the title in 1990. The last time the two sides meet in World Cup was in 2010 when Germany, led by Loew, trounced Argentina 4-0 in the quarterfinals.
"Indeed Argentina in the tournament has shown great performance. They are much better organized and stronger in the defence than the team in 2010," Loew said.
"We have seen Argentina change a few things during the tournament. I think Argentina can play different styles. It is a team that can defend early and pressure on the opponent. And sometimes they try to attack rather quickly and sometimes again they just sort of fall back and wait," the coach said. "So (in the final) it could be that Argentina try to attack us very early and fall back. We have to look forward to that."
Loew did not want the final to be decided by penalty shootout but also stressed that his goalkeepers are always prepared to face penalty shooting.
"We hope we can decide the match before, because penalty shooting is depending on so many things. Taking the penalty means extra pressure and it concerns all the players," Loew said. ""
In the 2006 World Cup, Germany labored past Argentina after a 4-2 penalty shot win in the quarterfinals. Before the shootout, the German keeper Jens Lehmann was presented with a note with detailed information about the Argentinian players' penalty preference on it. And Loew indicated his keeper Manuel Neuer can also have such a note for Sunday's final.
"So of course we have tried to analyse (the opponents). We have seen their players shoot penalties," Loew said.
"Some players changed their corner constantly. And you can not say that somebody will always shoot in the same angle," he said. "But we have carried out analysis of these players and work to decide which side they will prefer."