<figure id="attachment_281757" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-281757" style="width: 2353px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a03db1ce"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/12/aflo_204557433.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-281757" class="wp-caption-text">Germany&#8217;s goalkeeper Neuer (left, photo: AFLO) at the moment Asano (far right) scored the game-winning goal for Japan.</figcaption></figure>
 Japan&#8217;s national soccer team defied pre-tournament expectations at the World Cup, defeating the powerful Germany and Spain teams, both of which have won the World Cup. The team surprised the world. On the other hand, the German national team was humiliated for the first time in its history, being eliminated from the first round for the second consecutive tournament. Furthermore, after the tournament, the world-class goalkeeper Neuer, who was the captain of the German team, suffered a skiing injury while on vacation. He suffered a serious injury that doomed him for the rest of the season, and he was bashed domestically. In fact, even before the World Cup, the German national team had been in a state of death on and off the pitch, and the Japanese team had caught a glimpse of this &#8220;atmosphere&#8221; before the tournament.
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 The four-time World Cup champions suffered the indignity of being eliminated from the first round for the second consecutive tournament, and the news on December 11 that Neuer was out for the season with a skiing injury was met with criticism in Germany.
 According to the sports news website THE ANSWER, Markus Babel, who played for Bayern during Neuer&#8217;s playing days and helped the German national team win the 1996 European Championship, said, &#8220;It was a big shock. I wish Neuer all the best in his recovery,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s hard to understand skiing because it&#8217;s well known that it&#8217;s a dangerous sport,&#8221; he criticized.
 A journalist based in Germany revealed, &#8220;I was disappointed with the German team.
 The fans are so disappointed with the German team that the national uniforms of the model worn by the athletes are being sold at half price on the website. This has never happened before. But if you follow Neuer&#8217;s actions, you can see that this humiliating outcome was no coincidence.&#8221;
 What does this mean?
 A few days before Germany&#8217;s match against Japan, FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) announced that beer sales, which had been allowed for spectators, had suddenly been banned. Neuer took aim at FIFA at a press conference about the beer ban, citing human rights issues such as &#8220;restrictions on women&#8217;s rights&#8221; under Islamic doctrine and the custom of not drinking on a daily basis in Qatar.
 The fans aren&#8217;t convinced. They should have said so from the beginning.&#8221;
 FIFA president Infantino responded by saying, &#8220;Even in stadiums in France, Spain, and Scotland, alcohol is forbidden, and you will not die if you cannot drink beer for three or four hours a day. The atmosphere at the press conference by the president was bizarre, with his one-sided speech lasting for more than an hour.
 The representatives of European countries participating in the World Cup in Qatar had decided to wear a captain&#8217;s mark with the message &#8220;One Love&#8221; to show their opposition to discrimination, in protest against the current human rights problems in Qatar, including &#8220;restrictions on women&#8217;s rights,&#8221; as well as their dissatisfaction with the fact that the World Cup was held in the middle of the European season. In particular, Germany&#8217;s winning captain of the 2014 tournament, Philipp Lahm (39), even made statements that incited a boycott of the tournament, and public opinion in Germany became &#8220;anti-Qatar World Cup&#8221;.
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 In response to this public opinion, Neuer declared before the match against Japan that he would wear the &#8220;One Love&#8221; captain&#8217;s mark, but FIFA imposed a penalty of up to 10,000 euros. However, he was eventually forced to abandon the idea after FIFA suggested disciplinary measures. Instead, just before the start of the match against Japan, the German team made a &#8220;counteroffensive statement&#8221; in which all 11 players lined up on the pitch closed their mouths in a gesture, although it is not clear whether this was an alternative or not. FIFA was also upset by this action. FIFA was furious at this action as well, and retaliated by completely cutting out the German team&#8217;s behavior from the international video broadcast around the world.
 If Germany&#8217;s first match had been against Spain instead of Japan, Neuer would not have talked so much off the pitch. If Germany&#8217;s first match had been against Spain instead of Japan, Neuer would not have talked so much off the pitch. I think he let his guard down because he thought, &#8216;We can beat Japan first.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Two &quot;major factions&quot; had formed in the German national team."></div>
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<figure id="attachment_281759" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-281759" style="width: 2153px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f2702117"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/12/aflo_204549920.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-281759" class="wp-caption-text">Just before the match against Japan, the German national team made an &#8220;anti-offensive statement&#8221; in which all 11 players lined up on the pitch and closed their mouths in a gesture, reportedly in protest against FIFA&#8217;s refusal to allow the captains of some European teams to wear rainbow-colored armbands, which they planned to wear to support LGBTQ people (photo: Afro). The statement was reportedly a protest against FIFA&#8217;s refusal to allow the captains of some European teams to wear the rainbow armbands they planned to wear in support of LGBTQ people (Photo: Afro)</figcaption></figure>
 How much did the Japanese national team know about the German national team, which had been &#8220;dead&#8221; before the tournament? A veteran journalist who covered the World Cup in Qatar revealed the following.
 The Japan Association is opening a European office in Germany in October 2020. They were well aware of the turmoil in the German national team, the factional strife in the team, and the booing of Qatar in Germany.
 Maya Yoshida, who has been playing for Schalke in Germany since this summer, stated.
 It was really important for us to play Bayern Munich in the league before the World Cup. There was an atmosphere among the Bayern players that they didn&#8217;t want to get injured before the World Cup.
 Yoshida played against Bayern and lost 0-2. These words may sound innocuous, but they have a deeper meaning than what they appear to be on the surface.
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 Germany has won the world championship four times with its &#8220;Germanic spirit&#8221; of never giving up, no matter the adversity. In his two years in charge of Bayern Munich (November 2019-May 2021), Frick, who took over last July, has lost only two official matches. He was appointed coach of the German national team with the ringing endorsement of a &#8220;winning coach. He easily passed the grueling World Cup European qualifying rounds with nine wins and a draw, including seven consecutive victories, and his coaching ability was commensurate with his salary, which is said to be in excess of 900 million yen.
 In March of this year, however, he was unable to win, drawing four consecutive games against strong European opponents. This was due in part to the poor form of Bayern, the team that had been the source of the national team&#8217;s supply. After Poland&#8217;s Lewandowski, Bayern&#8217;s long-time ace striker, moved to Barcelona, Bayern&#8217;s lack of wins had an impact on the German team&#8217;s performance.
 In March, when Bayern began to lose ground, the dissatisfaction that had been simmering in the team began to surface. The national team began to look uncomfortable, as coach Frick&#8217;s decision to select Bayern players only raised doubts. Then came the whispering: &#8220;The German national team has two teams, Bayern and Dollar.
 Bayern and Dortmund were the two major factions in the German national team.
 Bayern and Dortmund have had a long-standing rivalry, and Bayern had seven players in the German national team this time, while Dortmund had five. When it became clear that the players most used on the pitch were from Bayern, another &#8220;faction&#8221; was formed with players and alumni from Dortmund. Mario Goetze, who has been with Frankfurt this season, was a surprise call-up for the first time in five years to replace Werner, the main center forward who was ruled out just before the World Cup due to an injury. Goetze is a member of Bayern and Dortmund, and was a key figure in scoring the fourth World Cup-winning goal at the 2014 tournament. However, the addition of the veteran who knows both clubs did little to connect the two major factions and made little domestic headlines.
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 Japan&#8217;s national coach, Hajime Moriyasu, was clear about the fact that the team defeated Germany and Spain on the World Cup stage, saying, &#8220;We have shown that we can compete on the world stage. In addition to the fact that each of the players had improved their abilities by playing for overseas clubs, eight of the 26 members of Japan&#8217;s national team had played in the Bundesliga, and were able to get a firsthand feel for what the opposing country&#8217;s atmosphere was really like. The fact that eight of the 26 members of Japan&#8217;s national team played in the Bundesliga and were able to get a firsthand feel for what the opposing country&#8217;s atmosphere was like must have been a positive factor, leading to a mental relaxation.
 In Japan&#8217;s official YouTube video released after the win over Germany, Maya Yoshida is seen in the locker room rubbing shoulders with the rest of the team and issuing the following words of encouragement: &#8220;Germany can&#8217;t lose to us.
 Germany never thought they would lose to us, not even for a second. We have a chance to win. They will definitely have a chance, and there will definitely be an opening there.
 Yoshida was aware of this in his own body in Germany, where he usually plays.
 On November 23, ARD (Association of German Public Broadcasting) televised Germany&#8217;s first-round match against Japan, which was a factor in Germany&#8217;s elimination from the first round, to 9.2 million viewers, according to the ratings research firm AGF. According to AGF, the number of viewers was approximately 9.2 million, a significant decrease from the 25.96 million who watched the first match of the previous tournament. The German people themselves had lost heart even before the World Cup began. Japan&#8217;s defeat of Germany was not a coincidence, but undeniably inevitable.
<figure id="attachment_281760" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-281760" style="width: 3203px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="823dca1b"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/12/aflo_204557796.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-281760" class="wp-caption-text"> Immediately after Ritsu Doan scored a late equalizer against Germany. Maya Yoshida, the captain of the team, was in full gut-pose. Perhaps he was already convinced of victory (photo: AFLO).</figcaption></figure>

 Japan's national soccer team defied pre-tournament expectations at the World Cup by defeating Germany and Spain, two of the most powerful teams in the world that have won the World Cup. The Japanese national soccer team surprised the world. On the other hand, the German national team suffered the first-ever defeat in the first round of two consecutive tournaments.

The team was &#8220;dying&#8221;&#8230;Moriyasu Japan&#8217;s defeat of Germany was inevitable, as revealed by the &#8220;captain&#8217;s skiing injury after the World Cup

The team was “dying”…Moriyasu Japan’s defeat of Germany was inevitable, as revealed by the “captain’s skiing injury after the World Cup

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