{"id":215439,"date":"2026-06-30T10:16:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/germany-were-once-world-cup-kings-now-theyre-simply-not-that-good-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T10:16:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:16:53","slug":"germany-were-once-world-cup-kings-now-theyre-simply-not-that-good-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/germany-were-once-world-cup-kings-now-theyre-simply-not-that-good-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany were once World Cup kings. Now they\u2019re simply not that good – The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

International Football
FIFA World
Cup 2026
German football supporters have had to get used to World Cup pain. Imagn Images via Reuters\/David Butler<\/span>
Get free access to the most comprehensive World Cup coverage in The Athletic app<\/a><\/span><\/i>
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<\/a>. Almost unheard of, in fact.
Sure, big teams have been upset by smaller teams before \u2014 the World Cup would not be the most watched sporting drama on the planet if everyone knows the ending \u2014 and star players have missed penalties in shootouts before.
But not German teams or German players.
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No, they were exempt from such jeopardy and public humblings. They were for everyone else \u2014 English teams and players, for example<\/a>.
If you are under the age of, let\u2019s say 20, though, you might be shaking your head at this point, thinking, \u201cCome off it, Slater, you are pulling my leg \u2014 Germany ain\u2019t all that\u201d.
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\u2019s most shocking final score: 7-1<\/a>.
At that point, only the most shameless Brazilian would have argued with the idea that Germany were the World Cup\u2019s 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\u2019s podium 12 times \u2014 three more than any other nation. So, their highs were higher than almost every other nation\u2019s and their lows were higher than everyone\u2019s.
Since then? Welcome to everyone else\u2019s 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.
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\u201cThis is the third elimination in a row and that means we are not part of the first-class teams anymore,\u201d said Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann afterwards, not knowing whether to sound defiant or downtrodden \u2014 these humiliations are all so new, you see.
\u201cWhen you exit the World Cup against Paraguay, it\u2019s very bitter. If you don\u2019t score enough goals, some teams can hurt you.\u201d
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\u2019s 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\u2019s Kai Havertz flicked on a fine, early cross from Liverpool\u2019s Florian Wirtz.
I mention their club sides on purpose. Paraguay\u2019s squad is comprised of guys who are no longer considered good enough to play for one of Europe\u2019s top teams or never got the chance in the first place. They play in Argentina, Brazil, and the U.S.. Germany\u2019s 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\u2019s back-post header was chalked off.
\"A
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.
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\u201cThe opponent was a bit shaky after the equaliser but we didn\u2019t do enough when we went to two strikers; not enough crosses,\u201d said Nagelsmann.
Erm, there were plenty of crosses, Julian. The other team just headed them away.
\u201cIt has to be said, Paraguay defended very well,\u201d he later admitted.
But then we got to Monday\u2019s 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 shootout since 1982. They had scored 15 in a row.
The new streak was two when Gill saved Nick Woltemade\u2019s fourth penalty. That gave Paraguay two attempts to win it \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is very sad but I don\u2019t put the blame on any of the players who missed the penalties,\u201d said Nagelsmann. \u201cIt happens to big players all the time and it happened to big players today.\u201d
Havertz, so often the man for the grand occasion in club football, was crestfallen.
\u201cI want to apologise because this is my second World Cup and we have failed twice,\u201d the Arsenal star said. \u201cWe 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\u2019t really work out and I don\u2019t think we deserved to win.
\u201cWe 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.\u201d
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.
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\u201cWe have a lot of young players with a lot of quality,\u201d said Amiri. \u201cBut 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\u2019s very difficult to find the right words.\u201d
That job is probably the German FA\u2019s, the DFB.
\u201cI won\u2019t step down,\u201d said Nagelsmann. \u201cIf the DFB want me to continue, I\u2019ll continue, but I know how the industry works. I know a lot of people will want me to leave now but I\u2019ll continue if the DFB wants me to stay.
\u201cIf we were to do a survey in Germany today, the German people won\u2019t speak very positively about me. We haven\u2019t done much in this tournament for people to celebrate. I know that not everyone in Germany will agree with me staying on.\u201d
No, they won\u2019t.
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\u2019s 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\u2019s tactics, trained a new generation of coaches, and immediately started winning again. Former The Athletic<\/em> 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.
Spot the pattern. Connect the terms
Find the hidden link between sports terms
Play today's puzzle<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International FootballFIFA WorldCup 2026German football supporters have had to get used to World Cup pain. Imagn Images via Reuters\/David ButlerGet free access to the most comprehensive World Cup coverage in The Athletic appFor those of you who are relatively new to this World Cup stuff, what we witnessed (near) Boston on Monday used to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":215440,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-215439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}