Houston, home of NASA’s Mission Control, hosted Germany’s 2026 World Cup opener against Curacao, and the four-time world champions took flight!
Despite some warning lights after Curacao’s 21st-minute equaliser, Germany steadied its course and avoided collapse, responding with six unanswered goals to keep their World Cup mission on track.
These are the standout players in Germany’s 7-1 win.
Jersey swap: Livano Cominencia
The history of football in Curacao has Comenencia’d!
The 22-year-old right-back-turned-midfielder scored Curacao’s first ever World Cup goal, taking advantage of a complacent and neglectful German defence. Cominencia was part of all of Curacao’s attacks, albeit a few, completing one key pass in the process.
Although Cominencia’s goal was insignificant, the joy it brought to thousands of Curacao supporters certainly was not.
Emperor: Nathaniel Brown
World, meet Nathaniel Brown.
There was a time when the left-back position in Germany was hotly contested. David Raum and Maximilian Mittelstadt often swapped positions under Nagelsmann, but both failed to secure a position for themselves ahead of the World Cup. Mittelstadt have been left at home – pun intended – as Raum finds himself warming the bench, for one important reason: Nathaniel Brown.
The 22-year-old continued his impressive form from Eintracht Frankfurt by scoring and making his first appearance in his World Cup debut. His goalscoring contributions were the cherry on top of a solid all-round performance from one of Germany’s brightest talents.
Bayern Munich had better get a deal done for Brown soon, because his value will continue to rise every time he sets foot on a football pitch.
Football God: Jamal Musiala
Musiala was the talk of the town as Germany entered their World Cup opener against Curacao. Should it start? Isn’t it? Well, Nagelsmann stuck to his guns and the 23-year-old started the attack at the behest of German legends, Lothar Matthäus and Thomas Müller, and thankfully he did.
After a season in which he spent months out of action, recovering from injury and regaining his balance, Musiala has become a step slower and lacks confidence, a far cry from his usual level. But against Curacao, he was on the cusp of returning to his best.
Musiala was nimble, agile and a threat on the ball, and he caused all sorts of problems for the Curacao defence, which they couldn’t solve. Moss The 47th-minute goal may seem insignificant among Germany’s other six goals, but the impact on his confidence cannot be understated – and if Germany are to have any chance of World Cup glory, they will need to unleash Musiala at full force.
Talk about a spinoff effect.
Julian Nagelsmann criticized Undaf ahead of the World Cup, suggesting that the 29-year-old only scored because he came up fresh against a defense with tired legs. Well, UNDAF didn’t help his case against Curaçao. He came off the bench in the 64th minute and scored one goal and assisted two others.
Hear me out: Nagelsmann may actually be a genius. Naturally, after receiving such criticism, Undav wanted to prove his coach wrong, which made him hungry to show his quality on the field. So what does he do? Well, he’s trying to prove Nagelsmann wrong by coming off the bench and contributing to a string of goals… which actually proves Nagelsmann’s super theory right. Well played, Julian, well played.
Jokes aside, whether he started as a substitute or Undav started, he once again proved to be a very useful cog in the German attacking toolkit.
Master of the match: Felix Fenech
Felix Nmecha moved like Paul Pogba.
One goal scored, another set up after earning a penalty from Richedli Bazwer, the main source of Curacao’s midfield misery, Nmecha was a surprise surprise for Julian Nagelsmann’s German side. The Borussia Dortmund midfielder combined physicality and agility, dominating the midfield and providing a contender for the goal of the tournament.
Germany’s midfield is in good hands.
If you’re looking for more coverage of Bayern Munich and the German national team, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get Acast, Spotify, appleOr any leading podcast distributor…
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