World Cup 2010: Manuel Neuer wants Joachim Löw to stay as Germany coach

Germany's goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, has led the calls for Joachim Löw to extend his stay with the national team as the young squad come to terms with elimination in the World Cup semi-finals. The Schalke 04 player, who has excelled for Germany in South Africa, blamed a "lack of confidence" for the team's 1-0 defeat to the European champions, Spain, last night. While they departed with a sense of regret, there is an acceptance within the German set-up that the young team remains a work in progress, with the squad keen for Löw to be retained. • Follow the Guardian's World Cup team on Twitter • Sign up to play our daily Fantasy Football game • Stats centre: Get the lowdown on the top scorers • The latest news, features and more on the final Germany's coach of four years is out of contract after his deal expired at the end of last month, with the German Football Federation scheduled to open talks with him when the team returns from South Africa. "He has to stay," said Neuer. "He knows every player in the squad, and we all hope he will stay. We are sad because we wanted too much to reach the final, but Spain were better than us. "We weren't able to play as we had in previous games. We lacked confidence for some reason and couldn't play our best game when we needed it most. Spain were good defensively and we couldn't break them down on the counterattack as we had done England and Argentina. If we'd played as we had done previously, we could have beaten them. But I think they'll go on now and win the final. "For us, this has been a good World Cup, even if there is a sense of anti-climax at the moment. When you get this far, you obviously want to go that extra bit and win it. But we beat some good teams to reach this stage and we can be proud of that. All in all, it was a good tournament for us." Those sentiments were echoed by the Germany general manager, Oliver Bierhoff, who believes this young side is destined for even greater things. "We hope this is the beginning, not the end for this team," he said. "We have some very young players with a very big future. This will be an important experience for them to go forward. "For sure, it is tough to have lost in a semi-final. If you dream, if you believe you are going to get a big performance and it doesn't happen, then you are disappointed. We have put England and Argentina out but everyone saw Spain were better on the night. They kept the ball better and deserved to win. They are the best team: probably in the world, but certainly in Europe. We maybe showed a lack of experience, and some of our players were tired, but we have to live with that. Overall, we are very satisfied with the tournament."