The German team had already attracted attention during the semifinals of the tournament, when they won against host country Brazil 7:1. This was one of the biggest victories ever recorded during world cups. Striker Miroslav Klose set a world cup record of his own. He scored his sixteenth world cup goal and was the most successful goalgetter during the tournament.
Klose was also one of the players with the most international matches played for the German national team. However, the record-holding national player based on number of matches was Lothar Matthäus, who completed 150 games for the team and was a sweeper, a position that has since become unpopular. Yet, he was never crowned top goal scorer during a world cup, a title that was awarded to Thomas Müller of Bayern Munich during the FIFA 2010 in South Africa, with five goals scored in the course of the tournament.
The current coach of the German national team is still Joachim Löw. So far he has been able to demonstrate an enormously impressive track record. Joachim Löw was also the most successful coach during the FIFA 2014 – on average his team scored 2.71 points per game.
