Germany Will Have to Do it Without Löw

June 19th, 2008 | By: Laurie | 5 Comments »

Germany will take on Portugal today without a rather key element: their coach.

Official word on Jogi Löw’s punishment came down yesterday: A one-match ban after Monday’s ejection for arguing with the fourth official and Austrian coach Josef Hickersberger. (Hickersberger also faces a ban, but since Austria’s out, it will probably be served when they start World Cup qualifying.)

The ban for Loew, who stood toe-to-toe with the fourth official before referee Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez sent him from the field, prevents him from having any contact with his players from the moment they arrive at the stadium until after the match.

He isn’t allowed to sit on the bench, have a radio link to his assistants, give a pre-match talk or visit the changing rooms at halftime.


My guess would be that the official ban also mentions cellphones. Otherwise we’d have a rather large loophole that might kind of defeat the purpose.

Low’s assistant, Hansi Flick, will carry out coaching duties.

I wonder if they have ban monitors, to make sure they don’t try any kind of sneak communication. Are they going to pat down Herr Flick, to make sure he doesn’t have any kind of receiver-type device, similar to the one that George Bush was so not wearing in the 2004 debate?

Do they make Jogi sit out of sight range, so he can’t communicate through some kind of yawn-stretch-nose-scratch kind of code? (”When I reach up with my right hand and scratch my left nostril, that means get Gomez the hell off the field. But left hand, right nostril, slight penetration with a tissue? Ignore that. I’ve got a cold.)

Are they taking away his German flags to keep him from sending semaphore signals?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Interestingly, Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is not a fan of the Löw ban.

“I would like UEFA to review this punishment and let him stay on the bench tomorrow. I would applaud if UEFA allowed him to coach,” Scolari said. “It’s not my presence or his presence that will make a difference in the game.”

This is a rather refreshing display of sportsmanship.

(And this is completely irrelevant, but isn’t “Hansi Flick” the best name ever in the history of assistant coaching? Especially when you pronounce it with a German accent? Or am I just easily amused and operating on far too little sleep?)



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Comments
Username By diana | June 19th, 2008 at 7:24 am
top comment
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Laurie, the assistant’s name is actually Hans-Dieter Flick. They always call him Hansi in short. But still, I’m fine with both.

Regarding the match ban, I really don’t understand. Jogi Loew was just doing his job on the match when his boys were up against the Austrians. Then things started to get complicated. I am not happy with the verdict. That’s all. I can go on forever actually. Loew does not even have a track record of criticising referees and this is the first time this happens to him. As far as I remember, it didn’t happened in my living memory. And according to team manager Oliver Bierhoff, Loew took it hard on the verdict - http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=afp-fbleuro2008gerporloewuefa&prov=afp&type=lgns

Oh yeah. Reuters has a report on the matter (or kind of) - http://blogs.reuters.com/soccer/2008/06/19/germans-incensed-by-another-harsh-penalty/

Posted from Singapore Singapore

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Username By shehan | June 19th, 2008 at 8:39 am
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im sure daryl could’ve come up with a title headline for this article.

something along the lines of “LOW BLOW!!”. pretty dandy.

Posted from United States United States

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Username By Jan | June 19th, 2008 at 8:45 am
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Sorry shehan, but this title has already been used by teamtalk.com
(http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,3033_3702905,00.html). I think, they are even the first to use it ever. Anyway, we don’t steal other peoples creative headlines so the headline Laurie came up with is the best we could do.

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Username By diana | June 19th, 2008 at 9:11 am
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Jan, I was watching ESPN Sportscenter Asia on the pay-TV here and they even used that on a preview to the match (same as the one teamtalk.com used). I rolled my eyes later on.

Posted from Singapore Singapore

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Username By Jan | June 19th, 2008 at 9:23 am
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And I should have added a ;-) to my comment.

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