Two group stage exits at the World Cup in a row. Two times sent home before the EURO semifinals. Results have not flattered the German men’s national team of late, and it is a cloud that is hanging over
the head of the generation that has followed in the large footsteps of champions.
“Sure, we didn’t exactly fare well at the EUROs and World Cup, especially when you compare it to the generation before us, who were very successful, who almost always reached the semi-finals and of course also won the big title in 2014,” Bayern Munich and Germany midfielder Leon Goretzka acknowledged in comments captured by via @MiaSanMia.
Goretzka is busy at national team camp, helping his side mount a World Cup Qualification campaign that this month will test them against Luxembourg and Slovakia. If the ghosts of failures past weigh heavily on him, they do so even more on his club teammate and national team captain, Joshua Kimmich, who has spoken of the sense of responsibility he feels for being associated with this less-than-stellar era.
What else to do but keep eyes focused forward?
“I understand Jo’s statement; we’ve had these defeats, the early exit in the group stage, things that are very rare in Germany. So the hunger and desire to change that are big,” Goretzka concluded.
