By Matthias Bruegelmann
Germany was eliminated from the World Cup in Qatar. What’s next?
Of course, the extremely controversial millimeter decision in the parallel game between Japan and Spain is bitter. And it’s possible that Spain didn’t give their all during the second half to equalize because they preferred to go through second.
That shouldn’t hide the fact that losing the World Cup in the preliminary round is a huge disgrace despite the final 4:2 against Costa Rica!
Dejected DFB stars Photo: REUTERS/Matthew Childs
And that not others, but the DFB, the national coach and the national players are responsible. Nobody else!
On this December 1st, 2022 we witnessed the end of a once great and proud soccer nation. Four times world champion, three times European champion – that was once!
The brutal reality: World Cup preliminary round 2018, European Championship round of 16 2021, World Cup preliminary round 2022.
Soccer dwarf Germany!
The problems are deeper than they could be solved with the change of coach from Löw to Flick alone.
Germany was eliminated from the group stage again at the World Cup Photo: Tom Weller/dpa
But Flick also made mistakes. He has not built up a strong axis in his one and a half years. He coached the 1: 2 against Japan with his changes. He was too stubborn to succumb to the desire of millions of fans and start the new favorite pitcher against Costa Rica. The national coach must learn quickly from these mistakes.
The fact is: none of us are world class anymore! But nobody in the DFB camp wanted to admit that.
We wobble at the back, we hesitate at the front and in the middle the trio of Goretzka, Kimmich, Gündogan is overrated.
DFB star Ilkay Gündogan and Costa Rica’s Johan Venegas in a header duel Photo: Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
Manager Bierhoff failed miserably in his own claim to lead German football back to the top of the world. Is he really the right man to lead the DFB to the home EM 2024?
Together with President Neuendorf, Bierhoff managed the topic “One Love” bandage miserably. If we had at least had the courage to run out with this arm bandage – then the millions of fans in Germany would at least have a reason to be proud of their national team.