Germany is one of the world’s most recognizable national teams, particularly when it comes to the World Cup, where they almost always advance to the finals.
Of course, they were eliminated in the group stages four years ago due to the reigning champions curse, and their shocking opening loss to Japan last week made it seem as though it would happen once more.
However, before 2018, they had advanced at least to the semifinal round in the previous four competitions, with the only exception occurring in 1978 when there were two group stages.
Along with the team, their uniforms are legendary. Their traditional white color is frequently paired with a lovely pattern, and their iconic 1990 World Cup-winning shirt is one of the all-time greats.
Unlike teams like England, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, Cameroon, and many others, Germany’s uniform is unrelated to their nation’s flag.
The European nation uses the tricolor of red, black, and yellow but chooses to play in white rather than any of those hues.
This is because of the color of the Prussian flag, which represented the state that spanned from the western border of France to the modern-day Russian border.
The region referred to as the German empire had a white flag that had a black eagle in the center instead of the cross that originally adorned it.
When the German national football team was founded in 1899, it was decided to use Prussian colors, and they remained in use even after the Kingdom of Prussia was dissolved nearly two decades later.
After losing to Japan in their opening match, Germany appeared to be destined for group-stage elimination from Qatar.
It meant that if Japan defeated Costa Rica, who had lost their opening match 7-0 to Spain, and if Spain had won, Germany would have been eliminated.
The fact that Costa Rica recovered from their embarrassing loss in the first game to draw a point against Japan, however, actually saved Flick’s team.
With Niclas Fullkrug’s late equalizer—possibly the most unlikely of heroes—Germany then earned a much-needed point against the 2010 world champions.
