Spain-Germany matchup is not the same old

Reporting from Cape Town and Durban, South Africa — The World Cup semifinal Wednesday between Spain and Germany is a rematch of the last European Championship title game. But that's where the similarities end — at least on the German side.

"Two years later for us there are many changes while the Spaniards are similar," Coach Joachim Loew said Tuesday.

Loew took over the German team after the last World Cup, where Germany finished third.


"We have made progress in the style of football we play and the results we get," he said.

With an average age of 25, the German squad is the country's youngest in 76 years. Yet, Germany goes into Wednesday's semifinal having beaten veteran teams from England and Argentina by a combined 8-1 in its last two games. Spain is coming off 1-0 victories over Portugal and Paraguay.

"They have undertaken a renewal with an important base of young players," said Spain Coach Vicente del Bosque, who took over after the 2008 European final.

That doesn't mean everyone on the German team has forgotten that game, though. Striker Lukas Podolski, one of nine players to play on the 2008 team and the World Cup squad, said memories of the loss to Spain remain fresh.

"I keep thinking back to that final and it's painful still," he said. "But now we have a chance against Spain again."

And Podolski said the fans at home are almost as excited as the players in South Africa.

"Sometimes when I call my family, I can literally feel the excitement in my own country," he said.

Octopus makes pick

Among those in Germany who are not excited about the team's chances is Paul the octopus, who says Spain will win. That could be bad news for Germany because Paul the prognosticator has erred only once, when he picked Germany to beat Spain in the 2008 European Championships.

The British-born octopus, who lives at the Oberhausen's Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany, made his pick by choosing a mussel from a glass tank marked with a Spanish flag and ignored a tank emblazoned with Germany's colors, spokesman Daniel Fey said.

Amid intense anticipation of Wednesday's game, Paul's pick was even carried live by two national all-news television stations. Paul's record at this World Cup has been flawless so far. In the first round he predicted German victories over Australia and Ghana and a loss to Serbia. In the second round, he said Germany would beat England and Argentina, and it did.

Not everyone is following Paul's pick, however. An unidentified telephone bettor called in a wager of more than $628,000 on Germany, at odds of 10/11, to beat Spain.

"We cannot recall ever having taken a bigger stake on a World Cup match and the potential profit from the bet is $571,000," said Graham Sharpe, spokesman for the English betting service William Hill.

Good guys

Spain is the best-behaved World Cup team, according to standards set by a FIFA panel.

Spain leads the so-call fair play standings with 925 points, 44 ahead of South Korea. Spain was not given a yellow card in group play and has received only three yellow cards in winning two knockout games.

Mexico, with 84 fouls and nine yellow cards in four games, is last of the 16 teams eligible to be ranked.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com

grahame.jones@latimes.com

Times wire services contributed to this story.