It’s official: Germany are no longer a soccer superpower

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — This was a era-defining result. Playing in their first FIFA World Cup knockout game in 12 years, four-time winners Germany were beaten by Paraguay on penalties Monday after a stale 1-1 draw at Boston Stadium.

Germany have never before lost a World Cup penalty shootout, but this is a shadow of the teams from their illustrious past. The players from 1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014 would have found a way to win against a Paraguay team who were thrashed 4-1 by the United States in their opening group game and only reached the last 32 as the seventh of eight third-place qualifiers.

That Germany arrived here in the conversation as possible winners was only because of what they’ve achieved before. Julian Nagelsmann’s version of Die Mannschaft is a pale imitation.

The truth is that even had they scraped through, their World Cup would have ended abruptly against France in the next round anyway. Maybe the shock of losing to Paraguay will be enough to jolt a reaction out of a once-famous national team that has endured a miserable decade at this tournament following group-stage exits in 2018 and 2022.

“If you exit after the first stage, it’s not enough for German football,” Nagelsmann said. “This is now the third elimination in a row, so we are not part of the first-class teams any more.”

While Germany contemplate one of their worst World Cup results, Paraguay enjoyed perhaps their best. And whatever happens to the South Americans for the rest of this tournament, they will always have Boston.

Paraguay had never scored a World Cup knockout goal before facing Germany on Monday. Not only did Julio Enciso do that but Paraguay followed it up with a determined, dogged defensive display to reach the last 16. It was fitting that José Canale scored the winning spot kick after spending most of the second half and extra time throwing himself in front of shot after shot.

When the final penalty hit the net, there were tears in the stands from fans wearing red and white. Germany, who arrived with high expectations, slumped to their knees in the center circle.

The postmortem after this tournament will not be kind to Nagelsmann’s side.

“Probably we need to do a big change, we will see,” said the former Bayern Munich coach. “We need some solutions for the future. I won’t go into details today but there are some things that need to be changed.”

Maybe it’s Kylian Mbappé and France next, but it doesn’t matter. A team that beat Brazil and Argentina in qualifying have added another historic result to their CV. Paraguay fans will never forget where they were when they beat Germany at the World Cup.

While Paraguay move on, the fallout for Germany begins now.

No one scored more than their 10 goals in the first round, and they finished top of Group E, but there was still a sense that this was coming. There were worrying spells in all three group games against Curaçao, Ivory Coast and particularly in the defeat to Ecuador.

Nagelsmann argued that Germany had enough chances to beat Paraguay and branded the decision to rule out Jonathan Tah’s header in extra time after a VAR check “a joke,” but this was no smash and grab. Paraguay deservedly led at halftime and largely kept Germany in check, aside from Kai Havertz’s equalizer.

There was criticism of Nagelsmann and his players before this game, and there is more on the way. Much more.

The first half in particular was dire.

At his news conference Sunday, Nagelsmann described Paraguay as “an uncomfortable opponent,” and that’s exactly what they were.