Germany opened its World Cup campaign in Houston with a 7-1 win over Curazao, and the match turned after Julian Nagelsmann changed his shirt at halftime and watched his team pull away from a 2-1 lead. For a side that had spent months under a cloud, it was the kind of start that changes the temperature around a coach in a single night.
The scoreline lands with extra force because Germany had come into the tournament carrying two straight group-stage exits from previous World Cups and a qualifying campaign that began with a 0-2 defeat to Eslovaquia. Nagelsmann, almost 39 and the youngest coach in the tournament, is also the only one younger than his players, a rare position that has put his choices under constant scrutiny.
Germany’s first-half shape offered the first clue. Florian Wirtz, Kai Havertz and Jamal Musiala formed the attacking triangle, Leroy Sané and Nathaniel Brown stretched the game on the wings, and Felix Nmecha moved freely and intelligently between lines. Joshua Kimmich played as a defender and stayed close to Aleksandar Pavlovic in midfield shape, giving Germany a structure that let it keep pressure on Curazao even before the floodgates opened.
That is what made the second half matter. Nagelsmann never played professional football, but he has been building this career step by step since becoming the youngest coach in Bundesliga history at 28, and the trust he has placed in movement and control finally had a scoreline to match it. Musiala’s presence also carried its own weight after he had not played since a serious injury in the previous year’s Club World Cup until early this year.
The win does not erase the criticism that followed Nagelsmann into the tournament over selection and tactics, but it gives Germany a clean opening and a margin that should buy time. What it does not answer is whether this version of Germany can keep that edge once the opening match noise fades; for now, the only certainty is that the team has put its first statement on the board.
