What adds up eventually, is another World Cup flop. But no one had any real answers to the team’s problems.
Doha, Qatar: Former football power Germany are facing another round of soul-searching after going out of the sport’s most important tournament at the first stage for the second time in a row, a report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
What adds up eventually, is another World Cup, another flop. But no one had any real answers to the team’s problems.
Germany’s players spoke afterward of good performances and missed chances — as they’ve done before. Germany’s fate was effectively decided when they lost their first game 2-1 to Japan, then followed up with a 1-1 draw with Spain.
Germany forward Thomas Muller wraps up the situation rather succinctly when he says with an unmistakable note of bitterness in his voice: “There are 25 experts standing together here. You can all advise each other and then agree on a few details,” Thomas Muller had said after Germany’s 4-2 win over Costa Rica on Thursday.
Muller adds: “We haven’t been able to live up to expectations at the tournaments in recent years, because as a team, I would say we don’t really have specialists running around everywhere. We only have a lot of players who are very talented”.
Germany’s coach Hansi Flick making his assessment of matters as they stand now was even more forthcoming and direct.
“I never look at another team, it’s up to us,” Flick said of relying on Spain. “I think ultimately the sum of everything contributed to us being eliminated. We had enough chances, whether in the first half or the first 60 minutes of the game against Japan, or even at the end against Spain, when we had another huge opportunity. You really have to take those chances.”
In the end it left Germany at the bottom of Group E hopelessly hanging onto hopes of a favour from Spain which never came. Japan defeated Spain in their final game to top the group. Spain moved up ahead of Germany on goal difference.
What Flick failed to mention is that Spain also missed a host of chances to put their game against Germany out of reach before Niclas Fuellkrug’s late equaliser.
That goal proved to be the highlight for Germany, though it proved to be of little worth in yet another disappointing big-stage performance.
Costa Rica coach proud of his wards
Costa Rica coach Luis Fernando Suarez was proud of the team’s performance at the World Cup despite their elimination in the group stage, saying his players could exit the tournament with their “heads held high”.
Their 2-4 defeat to Germany marked consecutive World Cup group-stage exits. “We showed what Costa Rica are. I am very calm that we can leave with our heads high,” Suarez said. “I am so proud, they are so special.”
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