Germany surprises with its elimination

The German national team, four times champions, were again eliminated from the group stage, four years after their performance as defending champions in Russia.

Germany got a 4-2 victory over Costa Rica, which was still not enough to secure a place in the round of 16.

“I think that for the future of German football we must do things differently in training. 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 is very important to focus on the new generation of players,” said coach Hansi Flick, who took over as coach after last year’s Euros.

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.

The game, very marked by what happened from a distance in the duel between Japan and Spain, which conditioned the options of both to continue in the competition, was a German monologue in the first half, but it got out of control in the second, when the Ticos They even got ahead, a result that placed them among the top 16 and also left Spain out.

Despite not feeling like celebrating, Manuel Neuer became the first goalkeeper to reach 19 appearances in World Cup history, surpassing Sepp Maier and Taffarel (18 each).

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. We had to go back to what made us qualify for the World Cup”, said the coach of the Ticos, Luis Fernando Suárez.