The Soccer World Cup 2018

I was counting the days until the first game of the FIFA Soccer World Cup 2018 in Russia. It is always exciting to watch the countries best players to compete on the field. My team, the current champion, Germany, started the cup with a myriad of controversy in regards to the player selection by the trainer, Joachim Löw, but that was more a political issue and, in my opinion, has nothing to do with soccer. The biggest question this time was if Germany can successfully defend the title they fought for four years ago. Brazil was the last team in 1962 to accomplish this feat. Germany's first game was against Mexico in which a stunning upset marked the state of the team. After barely surviving the second game against Sweden with a game winning goal in extension time, I started questioning the advancement out of the group stage. The team looked slow, sluggish, and uncoordinated, although the average age of the team is 27.1 years according to statisa.com. Mexico (29.4), Sweden (28.1), and South Korea (27.8) were older on average but seemed much more nimble. After loosing the last game against South Korea 0:2, the team (die Mannschaft) ended up on the last place in Group F and did not advance to the next round.

Group F

Team		MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Sweden	3	2	0	1	5	2	3	6
2	Mexico	3	2	0	1	3	4	-1	6
3	South Korea	3	1	0	2	3	3	0	3
4	Germany	3	1	0	2	2	4	-2	3

A truly national embarrassment for Germany, the German newspaper der Stern published this minutes after the loss:

Natürlich ist das das Ende der Ära Löw!

Die historische Blamage ist perfekt: Deutschland scheidet in der Vorrunde einer Fußball-WM aus und diese sportliche Schande kann nur eine Konsequenz haben - unabhängig davon, dass die Wunde noch sehr frisch ist.

Von Finn Rütten

Naturally this is the end of the era Löw
The historic embarrassment is perfect: Germany does not advance out of the group stage and this sporting shame can only have one consequence - irregardless that the wound is still fresh... 

Back to the drawing board, they have four years to rebuild, however, nobody will ever forget, it will be referenced and questioned over and over again next time around.