The World Cup winners’ curse has struck again and nobody thought it would ever befall the Germans. “We were missing the ease of play we normally display. We deserved to be eliminated.” Calm but grim-faced, that was the assessment of Joachim Löw after his team were audaciously upset 2-0 in the heat and humidity of Kazan by South Korea. On a night that will never be forgotten in German football, Die Mannschaft are going home from the group stage for the first time since 1938.
How does a side go from being the best team in the world, World Cup and then Confederations Cup winners 12 months, to being decidedly average and beaten by both Mexico and South Korea in humiliating fashion? How do they go from being favourites to raise the trophy to first round losers? How does their fortune change so quickly and dramatically?
Löw didn’t have all the answers in his post-match press conference, but some might say that small signs were there before the tournament in Russia kicked off. Friendly losses to Austria and Brazil in the lead-up to the World Cup, along with a tepid display against Saudi Arabia, raised a few eyebrows. So did the omission of Manchester City star Leroy Sane from their final 23-man squad. “We had a good training camp, the team had worked well. [But] the two matches with Austria and Saudi Arabia were not good,” Löw admitted. “We thought before the match [with Mexico] we thought we were going to shift gears – but it didn’t work out.”