AL KHOR, Qatar (AP) — Another World Cup, another failure.
Former soccer powerhouse Germany is facing another round of soul-searching after being knocked out of the sport’s top tournament in the first stage for the second time in a row.
The players from Germany spoke after good performances and missed opportunities, as they have done before.
But no one had real answers to the team’s problems.
“There are 25 experts gathered here. Everyone can get advice and then agree on some details,” said Thomas Müller after Germany’s 4-2 win over Costa Rica. Thursday.
Germany’s fate was effectively decided when they lost their opening game 2-1 to Japan, and then followed that up with a 1-1 draw with Spain.
It left Germany bottom of Group E and dependent on a favor from Spain. It never came when Japan defeated Spain in their last match to top the group. Spain beat Germany on goal difference.
“I never look at another team, it depends on us,” Germany coach Hansi Flick said of trusting Spain. “I think that in the end the sum of everything contributed to us being eliminated. We had enough chances, either in the first half or in the first 60 minutes of the game against Japan, or even at the end against Spain, when we had another great chance. You really have to take those risks.”
What Flick failed to mention is that Spain also missed a plethora of chances to put their game against Germany out of reach before Niclas Füllkrug’s late equalizer.
That goal turned out to be the highlight for Germany, though it proved to be of little value in another disappointing performance on a big stage.
“We haven’t been able to live up to expectations in tournaments in recent years because as a team I would say we don’t have specialists running all over the place. We have many players who are very talented. Yes,” Müller said before stopping and leaving those at the media conference to finish his thoughts.
Germany, the 2014 World Cup champion, also fell during the group stage at the 2018 tournament in Russia. In last year’s coronavirus-postponed European Championships, Germany were knocked out in the second round.
“I really think we can’t say where we are,” Germany captain Manuel Neuer said of the team’s place in world soccer.
Prior to the 2018 World Cup, Germany had reached at least the semifinal stage of every major competition they have participated in since the 2006 World Cup, which they hosted.
“I joined the team in 2016. Germany was always in the semi-final before that,” midfielder Joshua Kimmich said. “Then I enter and we are out (of the World Cup) in the first stage and last year in the second round (of the Euro Cup), it is difficult to accept.”
___
AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
