{"id":750019,"date":"2026-06-20T18:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T18:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/750019\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T18:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T18:46:13","slug":"world-cup-2026-netherlands-germany-and-sweden-in-action-on-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/750019\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Netherlands, Germany and Sweden in action on Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germany look to get past group stage for first time since 2014published at 13:42 BST<\/p>\n

13:42 BST<\/p>\n

Germany v Ivory Coast (21:00 BST)<\/p>\n

\"Germany\"Image source, Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it was a Japanese cross, kept in play by millimetres before being bundled into the Spanish net, that caused Germany’s group-stage exit from Qatar 2022. <\/p>\n

The thickness of a thermally-bonded polyurethane panel \u2013 the difference between going on, and going home.<\/p>\n

But even the most die-hard fan of Die Mannschaft would accept there were more macro factors at play to explain Germany’s second World Cup failure in a row.<\/p>\n

Some commentators said their traditional values, centred around physicality, were outdated, and that the coaching system should instead promote freedom of expression. <\/p>\n

In defence of tradition, Germany legend Bastian Schweinsteiger blamed former Bayern coach Pep Guardiola for importing “short-pass” football into the Bundesliga, which spread contagiously, wiping out those traditional values.<\/p>\n

It’s doubtful any of the old guard, who triumphed through mental fortitude and reliability, would ever have imagined a German World Cup campaign unravelling in chaos as the goalkeeper lost possession while dribbling around the edge of the opposition box, as Manuel Neuer did in 2018.<\/p>\n

Germany’s victory against Curacao matched their 7-1 semi-final success over Brazil in 2014 – the last time they lifted the trophy – and took them past the Selecao as the World Cup’s leading scorers with 239 goals.<\/p>\n

A win over Ivory Coast will gurantee a spot in the round of 32- so can they finally get past the group stage for the first time in 12 years?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany look to get past group stage for first time since 2014published at 13:42 BST 13:42 BST Germany…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-750019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}