Germany opens its FIFA 2026 Men’s World Cup campaign on Sunday against Curaçao, and the first question is not the opponent but the shape of the team itself. Julian Nagelsmann has built a side that wants to play through the back line, with Joshua Kimmich at right-back and Aleksandar Pavlović as the single pivot in a 4-2-3-1 that can swell into a 3-1-6.
That matters now because Germany is trying to leave behind the group-stage exits of 2018 and 2022 and reclaim the authority that came with winning the World Cup in 2014. The opener is the first live test of whether this Germany squad can turn a more adventurous setup into control, and whether the pieces Nagelsmann has settled on in June can survive the pressure of a tournament match.
The player who best captures that uncertainty is Nathaniel Brown. He has started both matches in June at left-back, and that is enough to raise a real question about whether he has moved ahead of David Raum, who has long been Germany’s preferred option on the left. If Brown keeps that job on Sunday, it would give Nagelsmann one less decision to make in a defense he clearly wants to keep stable while allowing the rest of the side to push high and combine quickly.
The same logic reaches all the way through the team. Leroy Sané scored against the USMNT in the match that has shaped this conversation, and the setup around him depends on quick, short exchanges in the final third. That is also why the No. 9 debate keeps resurfacing. Germany has not had a settled striker since Miroslav Klose, and Deniz Undav and Kai Havertz are still being treated as the current answers rather than a final solution.
Not everyone agrees with Nagelsmann’s balance. Philipp Lahm has argued that Kimmich should remain in midfield and that Waldemar Anton should play at right-back, a view that cuts directly against the way Germany is being used here. It is a clean disagreement, and it goes to the heart of the team’s problem: whether the best version of Germany is the one that frees Kimmich in midfield or the one that keeps him anchored on the right while the rest of the structure takes shape around him.
For now, the safest read is that Nagelsmann will trust the side he has been using rather than remake it for the opener. Brown’s rise, Kimmich’s role and the unsettled No. 9 spot all point to the same conclusion: Germany still looks like a team searching for its sharpest version, but Sunday is the day that search has to start producing answers.
