Evaluating the German game with national-team coach Joachim Löw

Is German soccer in trouble? A German club hasn't won the Champions League in eight years, and success in the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) has been few and far between as well. World Soccer chats with German national-team coach Joachim Löw, who explains the need for speed at the top level, not just in the legs, but in the mind, too.

World Soccer: Do you believe it is a problem that Germany doesn't have enough players in the top teams who play regularly in the Champions League?

Löw: It's a little bit of a problem. Brazil and Argentina have 40 players. Spain has 35. With Germany, sometimes we have 10 players in the Champions League. Or rather, 10 until December. Then, in the second half of the Champions League, we have Michael Ballack and one or two from Bayern Munich. The Champions League is the best place for young players, but we have this problem: a lot of players here in Germany with no experience of the Champions League. Last year, when we played Spain in the Euro final, the Spanish players in the starting lineup had played 80 Champions League matches between them that season and our team had played only 20 -- so 25 percent of what Spain had.

World Soccer: Does that make the UEFA Cup more important? Is Germany now in the second tier?

Löw: For German football, it's very important to have a club in the final [Werder Bremen lost to Shakhtar Donetsk in May] because for a long time, we have had no teams in a final. Bayern Munich was the last team to win the Champions League, in 2001. We've not had a lot of success in the UEFA Cup, either. Some people might say it's only the UEFA Cup, but it's still important for us.

World Soccer: If your players are not playing in the Champions League, how does the national team stay at the top level?

Löw: The national team has been successful in the last four or five years. We were third at the World Cup and ['05] Confederations Cup, then second at the European Championship. Currently we are top of our World Cup qualification group, so we've been successful, but I'm getting tired of telling everyone in Germany that we still need to educate. We need to do something special, that's very important. I see the top teams in the Premier League in England, or in Spain, and they are really high quality. I have spent some time with ArsèneWenger and Alex Ferguson, watching their training. It's speed, speed, speed. The mentality is to go at high speed all the time. I'm talking about training. In the matches you can see it, but in training I have also seen unbelievable speed.

World Soccer: But you need to have a clear picture of what is going on as well, don't you? It's not just about the ability to run fast.

Löw: Last year we did some analysis of different leagues in Europe because you can observe everything now with cameras. Then you can see the speed in the match. Some clubs are working on a super level because they have a philosophy for the whole club. I was in Barcelona and I saw the Under-17 team play a game in training against the first team. I didn't see any difference. Seventeen-year-old players from Barcelona with perfect technique, perfect position, perfect speed. Of course, maybe they did not have the 100 percent motivation of the professionals, but I saw something special. They practice in training from the age of 12, 13, 14, so when they go into the first team, they know what they have to do.

World Soccer: In Germany, they don't do that?