Different standards of adversity unite Germany, Paraguay on Monday in Foxborough

FOXBOROUGH — When former England striker Gary Lineker talks about Germany, people tend to listen. It started in 1990, after losing to Die Mannschaft in the World Cup, Lineker said: “Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and, at the end, the Germans always win.” As a television presenter, Lineker was criticized for social media comments comparing immigration policies to Nazism. Lineker left the business, but last week he returned, and was quoted in the French sports daily L’Equipe as saying, “This is one of the weakest German national teams I’ve ever seen.”

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Though Germany started the World Cup with victories over Curaçao (7-1) and Ivory Coast (2-1), it squandered the lead and lost, 2-1, to Ecuador. The result did not prevent the Germans from winning Group E, sending them to a Round of 32 match against Paraguay on Monday. But, maybe, Lineker has a point.

“Everyone has their own opinion,” Germany striker Kai Havertz said at a press conference Sunday. “I don’t have [a] problem with it. In big tournaments, people start talking about you. I don’t listen to what other people say. We already have experts in our country and, when you start looking at other countries, I don’t really care what other people say.”

Since winning its fourth title in 2014, Die Mannschaft has definitely been in a World Cup slump, failing to advance from group play two successive times. That’s one reason Julian Nagelsmann, 38, was hired to replace Hansi Flick. Nagelsmann made his national team debut in 2023, running practices in Foxborough and taking a 3-1 win over the Americans in East Hartford, Conn. Three days later, Germany drew, 2-2, with Mexico at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

The Germans were looking ahead to this World Cup. Sure enough, they are not only back where Nagelsmann started, a win will send them to Philadelphia for a possible showdown with France.

“It’s always about winning when you talk about Germany,” Nagelsmann said. “We try to win every game. Tomorrow, the expectations are we do the right things on the field and they show what good players they are. The game is all about winning. In soccer, if you win everything is good. If you lose everything is [spit].”

This could be a defining match for the Germans, their first elimination game in 12 years.

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“I haven’t seen one bad training session, they give 100 percent every session,” Nagelsmann said. “This is a do-or-die match. I never thought the mentality was lacking. [Against Ecuador] we pulled out all the stops and tried to create many chances. We brought in players who were maybe not in rhythm, but we will bring our ‘A’ game tomorrow.”

Paraguay “plays a very straightforward type of game, strong physically. They are an uncomfortable opponent for us,” Nagelsmann said. “They play directly and fight for second balls. We need to play a perfect game tomorrow.”

Paraguay recovered from a 4-1 opening loss to the Americans, edging Turkey, 1-0, and tying 0-0 with Australia.

“We are the team everybody wanted to be out, and we made it,” Paraguay coach Gustavo Alfaro said. “I’m happy we competed, and our competitiveness allowed us to move on to the next stage. We’ve faced powers — Argentina and Brazil are even bigger than Germany — they are all candidates to win the World Cup.

“Is it going to be difficult? Of course. Germany has so many set pieces prepared and I don’t have time to prepare my team. This is a big, and nice, challenge. It’s important how we face adversity. It’s complex, and maybe impossible, but we must face it the way we should, in a positive way.”

Said defender Gustavo Gómez: “This is a huge challenge for us. I tell people in Paraguay it’s difficult to promise results in football, but in three matches, we’ve shown our team will compete, pull out all the stops on the field, and tomorrow won’t be different. That’s our identity and, hopefully, we can get a result.”

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