SOCHI, Russia -- Joachim Low has claimed that the secret of Germany's dominance of penalty shootouts is to not to waste time practising them in the first place.
The world champions face Mexico in the Confederations Cup semifinal in Sochi on Thursday facing the prospect of a shootout to qualify for Sunday's final in St Petersburg should the game be level after extra time.
With Germany's team booking their place in the European Under-21 Championship final in Poland by defeating England on penalties on Tuesday, the subject of the nation's mastery of the shootout has once again been raised.
Germany have not lost on penalties since the 1976 European Championship final against Czechoslovakia and, despite missing three during their Euro 2016 quarterfinal against Italy, Low's team still progressed to the semifinal by winning 6-5 after the shootout went into sudden death.
And Low admits that, rather than become fixated by practising the perfect spot kick, he urges his players to wait until the game before taking a penalty.
"I don't know if we will train penalties before the Mexico game," Low said at his prematch news conference. "Sometimes the players do it after training on their own, but it is not something I ask them to do during the session.
"In 2016, I told them that every time they score so many in training, there's an occasional one that won't go in and then, against Italy in the quarterfinal, we missed penalties and were fortunate to go through.
"Sometimes it is good not to train penalties too much because everything will be different during the game."
Low admitted that choosing a reliable penalty taker is often more about emotion rather than technical ability.
"I check the faces of my players," he said. "You know their characteristics and need to be able to read you players and get some visual feedback as well.
"You know which players have missed one before and that also gives you an idea as to who might take one."
German media have focused on the team's laid-back approach to practising penalties during their stay in Russia for the Confederations Cup. But defender Jonas Hector insists the players are happy not to spend too much taking spot kicks on the training ground.
"We haven't practised penalties a lot and I think the press in Germany has been commenting on that," Hector said. "We have done a bit, but not a separate session on it.
"We will see what happens, but it depends who your opponent is and who is feeling well and confident to take a penalty and score."