Germany isn’t used to losing in the World Cup, so they won’t be taking anything from their performance in Russia 2018 into account as they prepare to play Japan in the first match of the 2022 tournament.
Since the turn of the century, the German national team, often known as Die Mannschaft, has reached the semifinals or higher in five of the seven competitions it has participated in and has won the World Cup on four separate occasions.
In contrast, the defending champions Germany were knocked out of the competition in the group stage after suffering defeats at the hands of Mexico and South Korea.
The last time Germany competed in the World Cup in any capacity, they did so in 1950, when they were knocked out of the competition in the first round.
Niklas Sule, a defender, has only participated in a single championship game, and it was a defeat to South Korea by a score of 2-0. He does not want to relive that experience.
He revealed this information to the press, stating, “It is irrelevant at this point.”
In today’s society, there is no space for either success or failure because of the rapid speed of the environment. I also make it a point to emphasize the good aspects. The happenings of the previous day are no longer relevant or interesting.
However, Germany was able to make a strong comeback in qualification despite being put in a tough group along with Spain, Costa Rica, and Japan.
The team captained by Hansi Flick was the first to qualify for the tournament. Their total of 38 goals scored in European qualifying matches was second only to England’s total of 39 goals (36).
A first-time participant in the World Cup named Jamal Musiala said, “We have the quality to go far.” We are going into this competition with the goal of winning the title. As a collective unit, we are positive about its prospects for success and can’t wait for it to get off the ground.
Opponents Even though Japan has only won one of their last eight World Cup matches, they have advanced to the round of 16 thanks to their victory in their first encounter in Russia against Colombia.
They have a great deal of experience competing on the world stage as a result of Samurai Blue’s streak of seven straight years spent in the finals. In spite of this, they have never advanced beyond the first round for the second time in succession.
The Principal Actors
Jamal Musiala, a German citizen
The German national team has relied heavily on Thomas Muller in recent World Cup competitions. Since making his first appearance in a final in 2010, he has scored 10 goals for Germany and assisted on 6 more of their goals. Miroslav Klose (16), Gerd Muller (14), and Jurgen Klinsmann are the only three players in World Cup history to score more goals for their respective teams than Jurgen Klinsmann (11).
But now that Muller’s Bayern Munich colleague Musiala is serving as the leader of this younger squad, it’s possible that Flick won’t count on him to start every game.
The 19-year-old, who was almost likely going to play for England in Qatar, has more than proved his mettle in the Bundesliga, where he has scored nine goals and assisted on another six goals. He was almost certainly going to be playing for England in Qatar. Despite his youth, he leads all players in any of Europe’s top five leagues in the number of goal assists he has contributed (15).
Jamal Musiala’s 2022-23 Bundesliga season
Japan: Takumi Minamino
Mr. Takumi Minamino of Japan
In the same vein as Musiala, Minamino will be making his first appearance at the World Cup despite having been a part of Japan’s preliminary squad as far back as Brazil in 2014.
After a fruitless stint at Liverpool, the forward’s professional career hit a plateau, and he has yet to score for Monaco in Ligue 1 despite playing 333 minutes of the league’s competition and making nine appearances so far this season.
Minamino, on the other hand, was Japan’s key player in the qualifying round. He finished with 10 goals and four assists, figures that he will hope to emulate in the actual tournament.
Japan, Minamino
Prediction
It will be the first time that Germany and Japan play each other at a World Cup, but Germany has never lost to Japan in either of their two previous matches against one other in friendly games, and the prediction model on the supercomputer thinks that they will keep up their winning streak.
Flick’s first game in his new role as head coach of Germany in a major tournament has a chance of 65.4% of ending in victory for Germany.
There is a 14.1% chance that Germany will lose against Japan, and there is a 20.5% chance that the game will end in a draw; both of these results are ones that the squad probably cannot afford while Spain is still in the running.
