German Chancellor Friedrich Merz found himself in the eye of a storm after showering the country’s national football team with praise in the wake of their humbling exit from the World Cup.
“Even if elimination hurts: what a game,” Merz wrote on social media, immediately after Germany’s defeat on penalties to Paraguay.
“With your commitment and team spirit at this World Cup,” Merz continued, “you have thrilled our country. We are proud of you.”
On Tuesday, the Chancellor’s office told German newspaper Tagesspiegel that the post was made in mistake — a case of “wrong tweet, wrong time, wrong button”.
The four-time champions are still struggling to come to terms with the humiliation in the World Cup. Why did this happen? That is the question now being asked by a proud footballing nation.
Manager Julian Nagelsmann has faced much of the blame because of his selection of players and strategy.
Former player and manager Juergen Klinsmann has flayed his tactics. “It seemed like the team was not prepared to take control of matters during the 120 minutes. They were not energetic enough, decisive enough, aggressive enough to win this battle with a very strong Paraguayan team, which we knew it’s going to be a difficult game.
“At the very end it looked like they were not prepared for a penalty shootout, which for us is insane, because we love penalty shootouts, usually,” Klinsmann said.
Lothar Matthaeus spoke to Bild, claiming that families of players had been too close to the training camp and that there had been an excessive number of “distracting” family days. He blamed the players’ dogged efforts to have their families, even parents, in tow, which he said had led to tension within the team
and a lack of concentration on the football.
Much of the conversation will focus on Juergen Klopp, who has always been assumed to covet the national manager’s job though Nagelsmann wants to continue.
“I haven’t thought about that yet,” Klopp said. “I understand that when the national coach position is discussed, my name is mentioned in some form, but it’s not the moment to really talk about it. There’s nothing to say. I have a job that I enjoy very much, and it’s not part-time.”
But a change of coach will not solve Germany’s problem.
Germany is outstanding at creating multi-positional footballers, but no longer produces world-class specialists. Gone are the days of Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Michael Ballack, Oliver Kahn, Mats Hummels, Per Mertesacker, Miroslav Klose. The list is endless and it is hard to replace their aura.
Germany have now failed to make the Round of 16 in three straight World Cups.
