Thomas Tuchel may have been booed by the English crowd before kickoff in the third-place match, but he believes his team made great strides at the World Cup, and that effort isn’t overshadowed by the collapse in the final half-hour of the semifinal against Argentina.

“This game will definitely help us—even if we can never celebrate a bronze medal. It’s still our first World Cup medal in 60 years, our first on foreign soil, and I hope the players will be able to take pride in that someday. We set our sights on the highest possible goal and were very ambitious in our dream of reaching the World Cup final. So it’s very, very painful to lose; the pain will linger for a while. We’ve built something truly special over the past seven weeks, and we’ll never take that for granted,” the German coach emphasized.

“At yesterday’s press conference, I felt as if we’d been eliminated in the group stage without a single win. I firmly believe that we’ve built more in this World Cup than we could lose in 30 minutes. I still stand by what I said: that we need to play better soccer, manage games under pressure better, and make better decisions under pressure. “We need to defend more efficiently,” he added.

As for the 6-4 victory over France in the third-place match, he said: “The best thing you can do is react on the field and secure the next win. Everything else is just talk, and talk doesn’t earn you points, and talk doesn’t earn you a win. I’m glad we showed that response. We wanted that response, and it’s very impressive.”

*photo source: AP