AL KHOR, Qatar (AP) — Back-to-back World Cup early eliminations that Germany coach Hansi Flick wants to go back to basics.
The four-time champions were once again knocked out of the group stage, four years after their embarrassing performance as defending champions in Russia.
Something has to change, Flick said after a 4-2 win over Costa Rica on Thursday still wasn’t enough to secure a place in the round of 16.
“I think for the future of German football we need to do things differently in training,” said Flick, who took over as coach after last year’s Euro Cup. “For years we have been talking about new goalkeepers and full-backs, but Germany always knew how to defend well. We need the basics.
“For the future, for the next 10 years, it’s very important to focus on the new generation of players.”
Just eight years ago, Germany won their fourth World Cup title, beating a team from Argentina led by Lionel Messi in his prime in the final at the Maracanã Stadium. With that victory, Germany became the only European team to win a World Cup in North or South America.
In Qatar, it was an opening loss to Japan that set the stage for the disappointing finish this time. Germany were beaten 2-1 in that match last week, and followed that up with a 1-1 draw against Spain.
That gave the Germans a chance in their last game at Al Bayt Stadium, and for a few minutes during Thursday’s simultaneous final group games, it was enough. At halftime, for example, Germany was beating Costa Rica and Japan was losing to Spain, results that would have put the Germans through to the round of 16.
It was Japan’s 2-1 victory over the Spanish that essentially cost the Germans the chance to play at least one more game in Qatar.
Flick cited Spain as an example for his country to follow.
“Spain is very good defensively,” he said, even though the 2010 World Cup champions ultimately lost to Japan at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha. “It focuses on training young players. They know the tactics well.”
It all started very well for Germany on Thursday with Serge Gnabry scoring a 10th-minute header and Spain taking an early lead against Japan.
Both parties turned around in the second half.
Yeltsin Tejeda equalized the score at minute 58 and Juan Vargas scrambled at minute 70, putting Costa Rica up 2-1 and suddenly on target to advance.
“There were a lot of individual mistakes and these are things that make me very angry,” Flick said.
But Germany substitute Kai Havertz made it 2-2 in the 73rd minute and then restored Germany’s lead in the 85th minute. Another substitute, Niclas Füllkrug, added the fourth.
Costa Rica had lost its first match against Spain 7-0. Then the team put on a much better display and beat Japan 1-0.
“We are not what we saw in our first game,” Costa Rica coach Luis Fernando Suárez said. “We had to go back to what made us qualify for the World Cup.”
STORY MADE
The match was also notable because French referee Stéphanie Frappart she became the first woman to referee a men’s World Cup match.
RECORD SET
Manuel Neuer played in his 19th World Cup match to set a record for a goalkeeper, beating German great Sepp Maier and Brazilian goalkeeper Cláudio Taffarel.
WAITING FOR GINTER
Matthias Ginter was participating in his third World Cup, but before the match against Costa Rica he had not yet played a single minute in any of those tournaments. That all changed when he came on as a substitute in the 89th minute.
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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
