The Athletic is broadcasting live Germany vs Paraguay at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Is the job done?
For the first time since winning the tournament in 2014, Germany advanced from the World Cup finals group to play in the knockout stages. Considering how painful those early exits were at the Russian 2018 and Qatar 2022 championships, their advancement alone has some restorative value.
This is good news. The bad news is that Germany’s first two group games revealed the problems we suspected they had before the third game, Thursday’s 2-1 defeat to Ecuador, confirmed them.
“We can play better and we must play better,” former Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp said on domestic television channel Magenta TV after that game. Klopp has said a lot during this tournament, but here he is undeniably right: Germany now head to Boston to play their round of 16 tie on Monday (almost certainly against Paraguay) and they have a lot of work to do over the next couple of days.
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Did Julian Nagelsmann’s team play well? Of course, in moments. Especially during the first 7-1 win over Curacao and the final 30 minutes of the 2-1 comeback win over Ivory Coast. There were some positives, such as the form of Nathaniel Brown, whose left-back position provided useful variety in attack.
Ecuador shocks Germany and US fails | World Cup Daily Briefing
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But the list of disappointments is longer.
Center back Nico Schlotterbeck’s ankle injury in the second game weakened a defense that already looked vulnerable. The twin pivot of Aleksandar Pavlovich and Felix Nmechi in midfield has not worked particularly well, while Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala have never broken free from their indifferent club form last season.
Given the disruption caused by the last-minute return of goalkeeper Manuel Neuer to the team after a two-year break from his international career at the age of 40, his performances are also a concern.
This is turning into a strange tournament for Germany, full of dueling energy.
The television audience at home is roughly double that of the previous World Cup four years ago. Many fans were ideologically opposed to this tournament being held in Qatar and would have preferred a German boycott. Those who tuned in were disappointed and disenfranchised by meek performances and another early humiliation.
This time there is an engagement. Red, black and gold flags fly from car hoods and flutter from balconies, especially on match days. On the surface, the country’s relationship with the national team appears healthier. While there was little sign during those weeks in November and December 2022 that the World Cup would even take place, daily life here today is full of reminders; shops are full of tournament-related tattoos, and children have their faces painted.
Still, calling the mood optimistic would be disingenuous. There seems to be a confusion of agendas between the players on the field, the coaches, the pundits and the public.
One German football fan, Achim Klimmek, decorated his local street in Essen (Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images)
Before the game had even been played, Klopp, in his role as pundit, managed to anger almost everyone in the German football industrial complex by suggesting that Nagelsmann ditch Bayern Munich’s Musial and play Stuttgart’s Deniz Undave instead. Klopp wasn’t necessarily wrong. Musiala has not played well since recovering from a broken ankle he suffered at the Club World Cup last year, but his place in the national team has become something of an afterthought and Klopp has stepped on it.
The 59-year-old then made matters worse by trying to brush off the controversy. Don’t worry, he said, because Nagelsmann was the coach… for now.
For now? What did you do What mean?
It was a stupid comment at best, for which Klopp has rightly apologized. However, the original basis of his remark—the Undave problem—has haunted Nagelsmann ever since.
But there is a backstory here too.
Back in April, after the striker scored the winner in a friendly against Ghana, Nagelsmann was asked whether Undave could lay claim to a starting spot at this World Cup. The head coach responded awkwardly, essentially saying that the player was better suited to serve as a substitute and take advantage of tiring opposition defenders.
Nagelsmann put it poorly in that post-Gana press conference and in some ways it sounded like he was taking a dig at Undav’s fitness level. After asking his wife for a second opinion, he wisely called the 29-year-old to apologise.
However, the saga will not go away. Mimicking the memes that have dogged Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti at the tournament and ridiculed his reluctance to select young striker Endrick, thousands of German social media users have done the same with Nagelsmann and Undav. They did this before the World Cup. Now that the finals are in full swing, it has become an epidemic.
Here’s one of the less risky ones:
Undav: “I urgently need a ride to the next game!”
Nagelsmann: pic.twitter.com/1WvA7OOya6
— RobiN™ 📨 (@_RB1N_) June 22, 2026
And one more thing:
Undav: “I have asthma, please don’t smoke near me.”
Nagelsmann:
— Jay (@_JayFC) June 21, 2026
The problem is that no matter how badly Nagelsmann spoke three months ago, he still made valid points. Undava’s two goals from the bench against Ivory Coast proved that. His first goal to level the score at 1-1 showed his best instinctive performance eight minutes after coming on. His second, thanks to a superb first touch and a lightning-fast shot, was one of the most predatory finishes of the entire tournament.
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It showed what a fantastic goalscorer he can be. This perfectly demonstrated how he can exploit mistakes and tire out defenses. But when Undav was not rewarded with a start against Ecuador, he fed the beast; the memes keep multiplying.
The situation is similar with Leroy Sane, only in reverse.
Sane’s place in this lineup is itself controversial. For some, the Galatasaray forward’s selection in the starting XI is incomprehensible and is now being used to portray Nagelsmann as stubborn or unwilling to respond to performances. Whether this is fair is another question, but the noise itself creates an atmosphere that is not entirely positive.
After yesterday’s defeat, another incident occurred.
Sane scored Germany’s first goal in just the second minute against Ecuador (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
German experts can be frank. It’s a world full of ex-players with giant egos and presenters who sometimes ask questions in a confrontational manner.
After the defeat to Ecuador, Johannes B. Kerner, a veteran broadcaster who anchors some of Magenta’s coverage, wondered whether the situation in Group E, where Germany had already moved into first place thanks to those two victories, had affected the players’ desire to fight for third place.
“Stop this nonsense,” Nagelsmann replied. “Honestly, why not give it all to the guys?”
The problem wasn’t what the 38-year-old said, but how he said it. It was an overreaction to an honest, standard question, and it was not received well and did not provide much reassurance after what was, objectively, a bad outcome.
It didn’t help that, when asked what went wrong, team captain Joshua Kimmich and Undav said in other interviews that Ecuador’s players “wanted it more.”
The media responded with deliberate misinterpretations.
Nagelsmann did emphasize the need to take risks with the ball and create chances, while Kimmich and Undave spoke more broadly about the technical improvements that need to be made before Monday’s decider at the Gillette Stadium. But that’s not how headlines actually work, and those who criticized the Germany manager before this tournament now have another reason to do so.
This is another unusual moment in a tournament that has not been harmonious so far.
Germany is done, but they are having strange times.