Group E: Germans washing away shame, rising forces, and dwarfs smaller than Klaipėda

The World Cup will take place from June 11 to July 19 in Canada, the USA, and Mexico.

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Group E teams will play in Houston, Philadelphia, Kansas City, New Jersey (USA), and Toronto (Canada).

You can find all the news about the World Cup here.

Germany

Only behind Brazil in the number of World Cup trophies, the Germans are heading across the Atlantic to wash away the shame experienced in 2018 and 2022.

Previously, for 60 years, the Germans always reached the top eight teams in the World Cups, but both in Russia eight years ago and in Qatar four years ago, they failed to get past the group stage and returned home with their heads down.

Julian Nagelsmann, who took over the team three years ago, began to fix Germany’s football situation and will be the youngest coach at this World Cup, although he has been working as a head coach at the highest level for a decade.

The team coached by the German, who will celebrate his 39th birthday after the World Cup, showed attractive football at the European Championship in Germany two years ago, but then Die Mannschaft was stopped by the Spaniards in the quarterfinals with a scandal involving Marco Cucurella’s hand.

The performance in the World Cup qualifiers did not inspire either – a 0:2 loss to Slovakia seriously disrupted Nagelsmann’s team situation, which was eventually corrected by avenging the same Slovaks with a 6:0 win.

Germany’s talent pool in the forward lines is hard to match. At the World Cup, Florian Wirtz, who played his debut season at Liverpool, Kai Havertz, who reached the final with Arsenal, Jamal Musiala, who recovered from a serious injury and is gradually regaining form, and 18-year-old super talent Lennart Karl will try to make their mark.

In midfield, the symbol of this generation of German football, Joshua Kimmich, is again ready to manage affairs, but defense may once again become the Achilles’ heel of the Germans.

Famous for producing goalkeepers for many decades, the Germans only managed to convince 40-year-old Manuel Neuer, who had previously announced his retirement, to go to the tournament just before the World Cup, and alongside him, Antonio Rudiger, who had a turbulent season in Madrid, Bayern’s defensive pillar Jonathan Tah, and one of Borussia’s symbols Nico Schlotterbeck will guard the German goal.

Despite a less than ideal lineup, the Germans are considered one of the tournament favorites. And what happens when this team gains momentum and races like on an autobahn without speed limits can be told by the 2014 Brazil team.

Ecuador

For many years lurking in the shadow of South American football giants Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Colombia, Ecuador is experiencing its football blossoming.

In the qualifiers for this year’s championship, they surpassed Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, and six other teams, losing only to Argentina, confidently securing a ticket to the World Cup – and that alone is a big achievement for Ecuador.

Moreover, Ecuador did this despite a 3-point penalty, which was deducted due to a forged document of one of the players during the 2022 tournament qualifiers.

Now the country, whose name is derived from the equator, is set for another feat – it hopes that the Ecuadorian team will repeat or even improve the 2006 achievement when they reached the round of 16 in Germany.

Inspired by Jorge Sampaoli and Marcelo Bielsa, 45-year-old Argentine S. Beccacece promotes high-intensity, aggressive pressing, and fast attacking football, bringing sharp weapons to implement his ideas at the World Cup.

Ecuador’s goal will be guarded by defenders Willian Pacho (PSG) and Piero Hincapie (Arsenal), who recently played in the Champions League final, as well as AC Milan’s pillar Pervis Estupinan. In midfield, Moises Caicedo, who cost the highest fee in Premier League history to Chelsea a few years ago, will manage affairs. Enner Valencia, who scored six times in the qualifiers, will be responsible for goals.

However, the attack and chance creation and conversion may be Ecuador’s weakness, especially in a group with two potentially weaker opponents, against whom they may have to play as the “number one.”

If they handle these challenges, Ecuador could become a real thorn for the world’s football giants in the knockout stages.

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Ivory Coast

Les Éléphants return to the World Cup for the first time since 2014 and for the first time without national and international icons Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure.

The current Ivory Coast team does not have such bright superstars as it did one and a half or two decades ago, but already in 2023 they showed that this team must be taken seriously – that year the “elephants” became African champions.

They proved their solidity in the World Cup qualifiers as well, going undefeated in 10 matches.

Fae, who represented the national team in the past, prioritizes solidity in defense, best reflected by the fact that the team conceded no goals (!) in the qualifiers.

In defense, Evan N’Dicka from AS Roma, Odilon Kossounou from Atalanta Bergamo, and Emmanuel Agdabou from Istanbul Beşiktaş manage affairs, while former Barcelona and AC Milan midfielder and current team captain Franck Kessie takes care of midfield duties.

But even in attack, the “elephants” have enough options, although they play quite conservatively. The young Manchester United diamond Amad Diallo, former Arsenal signing and now Villarreal player Nicolas Pepe, and young RB Leipzig talent Yan Diomande participate in the goal creation process.

The president of the country’s football federation has already set the team a goal to play six matches at the World Cup, which would mean that the “elephants” must reach at least the quarterfinals.

But the defending champion Ivory Coast’s run in the African Championship ended in the quarterfinals in January, so to make noise in North America, they will have to raise their level of play back to previous years’ standards, or even higher.

Curaçao

The Caribbean island with fewer inhabitants than Klaipėda has already achieved more than anyone could have expected.

Curaçao, which broke Iceland’s record and became the smallest country to participate in the World Cup, will face four-time world champions Germany in their first match. The game at Houston stadium will be watched by 72,000 spectators – almost half of Curaçao’s population.

Curaçao, an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, became a FIFA member only in 2011 but took advantage of three open spots in the World Cup qualifiers when hosts USA, Mexico, and Canada automatically qualified for the tournament.

But the Curaçao footballers, mostly born, raised, and trained in the Netherlands, proved they deserve to participate in the biggest football celebration: in 10 matches, they did not suffer a single defeat, won seven times, and surpassed Jamaica in the decisive stage.

It is difficult to single out stars in this team, but if one player had to be mentioned, it would be Leandro Bacuna. This 34-year-old midfielder has represented Curaçao for more than a decade, played the most matches (71), scored the most goals (16), and previously played three seasons for Birmingham’s Aston Villa in the English Premier League.

Together with his younger brother Juninho, he forms the backbone of the Curaçao team and continues the football traditions of another brother Johnsen and their father John – former players who represented the now-defunct Netherlands Antilles team.

However, undoubtedly the biggest star of this team is coach Dick Advocaat. The former coach of the Netherlands, South Korea, Belgium, Russia, Serbia national teams, as well as PSV Eindhoven, Glasgow Rangers, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Sunderland, Istanbul Fenerbahçe, and Rotterdam Feyenoord clubs, will break the all-time record by becoming the oldest coach ever to work at a World Cup.

The legendary specialist will turn 79 in September, while no coach older than 71 has worked at the World Cup so far.

However, the Dutchman who led the tiny country to the World Cup could have missed the football fiesta in North America as he resigned from the team in February due to his daughter’s serious illness.

Nevertheless, he returned in May and, firmly holding the reins of the Curaçao team again, will seek to continue Caribbean miracles at the World Cup.

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Prepared based on AP and The Guardian publications.