By Karolos Grohmann
BOSTON, Massachusetts, June 30 (Reuters) - Germany's rollercoaster World Cup ended in another failure on Monday with a 4-3 loss on penalties to outsiders Paraguay in the round of 32, not just dashing the highest of hopes but plunging a once-mighty tournament team into uncharted depths.
The four-time world champions had suffered unprecedented consecutive first-round exits in the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, and had set their sights on a fifth title that would lift them back into the soccer
elite.
Instead, they return home as the first German team to lose a World Cup penalty shootout, after some players hesitated when asked by captain Joshua Kimmich if they would step up to take a spot-kick.
While coach Julian Nagelsmann, who at 38 was the youngest coach in a World Cup knockout game in 40 years, is eager to stay on, the decision now lies with others.
"There are some fundamental issues that need to change and I don't want to go into detail," Nagelsmann, in charge since 2023, said in a gloomy post-match press conference. "I'm not someone to say 'I'm stepping down' just because we were eliminated."
But Nagelsmann himself must shoulder much of the responsibility after repeatedly declaring before the tournament that the Germans were out to win their fifth World Cup trophy.
"The statement stands," he said in May, when announcing his squad. "I think all the teams want to be world champions and so do we."
Germany came into the tournament on a nine-match winning streak and won their first two Group E matches to secure top spot, even though a last-gasp 2-1 win over Ivory Coast raised questions about their ability to play physical, pacy teams.
DOWNWARD SPIRAL
They got their answer in the very next game, losing 2-1 to Ecuador and struggling to match the South Americans' power. Nagelsmann was dismissive, saying his team had already advanced and there was no reason to read too much into that defeat.
But after the first knockout game, their dream was in tatters. Up until the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, which they won, Germany had reached the semifinal or better in every World Cup and Euros since 2006.
Since then, they have suffered three consecutive early World Cup exits and have not reached a Euros final in three attempts, even as hosts in 2024.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
