False hope and schadenfreude: Familiar feelings for Germany after another World Cup flop
BERLIN: Another World Cup, another early exit. Germany should be getting used to disappointment, but they don’t make it any less painful for a traditional soccer heavyweight that had been tentatively hoping for a fifth World Cup title to restore lost pride. Germany did manage to survive the group stage for the first time since winning the trophy in 2014, but their little consolation after Monday’s loss to unheralded Paraguay on penalties sent the team home after the first knockout game. “We messed it up,” Joshua Kimmich told reporters after the match in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It was a familiar feeling for the Germany captain who also struggled for explanations after the team’s group-stage exit at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. “As a child, when you watched the national team during tournaments, it was always semifinals, finals, or world champions. There was always lots of success.
