Germany were once World Cup kings. Now they’re simply not that good | Football News

For those of you who are relatively new to this World Cup stuff, what we witnessed (near) Boston on Monday used to be very, very unusual. Almost unheard of, in fact.

Sure, big teams have been upset by smaller teams before – the World Cup would not be the most watched sporting drama on the planet if everyone knows the ending – and star players have missed penalties in shoot-outs before.

But not German teams or German players.

No, they were exempt from such jeopardy and public humblings. They were for everyone else – English teams and players, for example.

If you are under the age of, let’s say 20, though, you might be shaking your head at this point, thinking, “Come off it, Slater, you are pulling my leg – Germany ain’t all that”.

And you would be right. Something changed.

When Germany beat Argentina in 2014 to claim their fourth World Cup title in 17 attempts, it capped a four-tournament run since 2002 that had seen them finish second, third, third and then first. It also came five days after they beat the hosts Brazil in arguably the World Cup’s most shocking final score: 7-1.

At that point, only the most shameless Brazilian would have argued with the idea that Germany were the World Cup’s top nation. OK, Brazil had one more star on their jersey than Germany but Germany had also been runner-up four times and had won four third-fourth play-off matches.

Add all that up and Germany have finished on FIFA’s podium 12 times – three more than any other nation. So, their highs were higher than almost every other nation’s and their lows were higher than everyone’s.

Since then? Welcome to everyone else’s world, Die Mannschaft, where disappointment is on tap.

They failed to get out of the group at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, losing against Mexico and South Korea either side of a scratchy win over Sweden. In Qatar, four years later, they lost their opener to Japan, drew with Spain and beat Costa Rica, but by then their fate was out of their hands as they failed to reach the knockout rounds.

At least they managed that here, I suppose, but that is where the consolations must finish. Losing against Paraguay, who were ripped apart by the United States two weeks ago and are currently ranked 34th in the world, is a disaster for Deutschland.

“This is the third elimination in a row and that means we are not part of the first-class teams anymore,” said Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann afterwards, not knowing whether to sound defiant or downtrodden – these humiliations are all so new, you see.

“When you exit the World Cup against Paraguay, it’s very bitter. If you don’t score enough goals, some teams can hurt you.”

Neither team looked capable of hurting anyone for the first 42 minutes of this one but Paraguay took the lead with the first decent move of the game. Germany cleared a corner but Miguel Almiron picked up the loose ball, shaped to cross but found the overlapping Matias Galarza (his Atlanta United team-mate last season) with a lovely reverse pass. His first-time cross found Strasbourg forward Julio Enciso’s forehead and Paraguay were 1-0 up.

Nagelsmann sent his team out a few minutes early and that appeared to poke them from their slumber. Their equaliser came nine minutes into the second half when Arsenal’s Kai Havertz flicked on a fine, early cross from Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz.

I mention their club sides on purpose. Paraguay’s squad is comprised of guys who are no longer considered good enough to play for one of Europe’s top teams or never got the chance in the first place. They play in Argentina, Brazil, and the U.S.. Germany’s squad, on the other hand, comes from the top sides in the Bundesliga and Premier League.

With the scores level, most experienced World Cup-watchers relaxed a little. There would be no history made here today, I thought to myself, and started to think about which restaurant I might make for dinner.

However, the second goal never came. OK, it probably did come, but the video assistant referee from Nicaragua did not like the way Waldemar Anton looked at Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill, so she told referee Jalal Jayed to see for himself. Whatever it was, he saw it, too, and Jonathan Tah’s back-post header was chalked off.

What we did get, though, was some very stout Paraguayan defending, particularly from centre-backs Jose Canale and Gustavo Gomez, who headed away almost everything Germany threw at them, despite being half a foot shorter than the giants Nagelsmann was sending on.

“The opponent was a bit shaky after the equaliser but we didn’t do enough when we went to two strikers; not enough crosses,” said Nagelsmann.

Erm, there were plenty of crosses, Julian. The other team just headed them away.

“It has to be said, Paraguay defended very well,” he later admitted.

But then we got to Monday’s main turn-up-for-the-books: German inefficiency from 12 yards.

Havertz stepped up to take the first penalty. Jayed made him wait for longer than seemed necessary and Gill did the rest, saving to his left. It was the first German miss in a penalty shoot-out since 1982. They had scored 15 in a row.

The new streak was two when Gill saved Nick Woltemade’s fourth penalty. That gave Paraguay two attempts to win it – attempts they squandered, which suggests even they were confused by what was going on.

However, Tah then put his sudden-death penalty into orbit, giving Canale the chance to give everyone in Paraguay a day off and send Germany home.

“Everybody is very sad but I don’t put the blame on any of the players who missed the penalties,” said Nagelsmann. “It happens to big players all the time and it happened to big players today.”

Havertz, so often the man for the grand occasion in club football, was crestfallen.

“I want to apologise because this is my second World Cup and we have failed twice,” the Arsenal star said. “We are all very disappointed because we had many plans for this World Cup and it is not a good feeling to go out so early. We tried to hurt them out wide but it didn’t really work out and I don’t think we deserved to win.

“We played good football but something was always missing throughout the tournament, and it was the same today. As players, we need to look at ourselves and see what we can do better.”

Mainz midfielder Nadiem Amiri was an extra-time substitute and he did what he was brought on to do: score his penalty. Maybe that is why he was a little more positive than Havertz and Nagelsmann, although this a very relative statement.

“We have a lot of young players with a lot of quality,” said Amiri. “But at the moment, to think about the future is the wrong decision. I feel for everybody. It was very sad, a shocking end to the game, and it’s very difficult to find the right words.”

That job is probably the German FA’s, the DFB.

“I won’t step down,” said Nagelsmann. “If the DFB want me to continue, I’ll continue, but I know how the industry works. I know a lot of people will want me to leave now but I’ll continue if the DFB wants me to stay.

“If we were to do a survey in Germany today, the German people won’t speak very positively about me. We haven’t done much in this tournament for people to celebrate. I know that not everyone in Germany will agree with me staying on.”

No, they won’t.

When asked for his take on what went wrong, the former RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich boss said he had some ideas but was not going to go into them now. He did, however, suggest that Germany did not have any left-backs once Nico Schlotterbeck got injured.

Not enough fit full-backs you say? Sounds familiar.

But a shortage at one particular position does not sound like a reasonable explanation for 12 years of relative failure. Germany had won 75 per cent of all the games they had ever played at the World Cup when they came off the field in Rio de Janeiro in 2014. They have won only 40 per cent of them since, and their record at the Euros has been very similar.

This is why they have not been higher than ninth in FIFA’s world rankings since 2018 and will be plummeting into the teens now. Germany are simply not that good anymore.

The last time something like this happened, when they went out of the 1998 World Cup and 2000 Euros early, the DFB embarked on a radical overhaul of the German youth development system, revamped the team’s tactics, trained a new generation of coaches, and immediately started winning again. Former The Athletic writer Raphael Honigstein wrote a very good book about it, Das Reboot.

Raphael, it is time for a reboot of the reboot. There could be a sequel in it.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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