Day -5 until kickoff
Five days before Germany's opening match, Julian Nagelsmann is sitting on a decision that could define his entire tenure — and it's not the one most people expected him to face.
The question isn't whether Germany can compete at this World Cup. It's whether Nagelsmann will have the nerve to start the kids.
The Setup Nobody Saw Coming
Cast your mind back to Germany's qualifying campaign last autumn. The performances were, to put it charitably, uneven — five mediocre-to-poor results including a 2-0 defeat in Slovakia that could have been heavier. The squad looked like a team still searching for its identity. Experienced names dominated the lineup. The results were fine — Germany won the group — but nobody was exactly trembling.
Then something shifted. In Sunday's 4-0 win over Finland, Nagelsmann gave significant minutes to 18-year-old winger Lennart Karl, 22-year-old midfielder Aleksandar Pavlovic, and 22-year-old left back Nathaniel Brown — and all three impressed. The indications now, per reporting ahead of the final tune-up against the United States, are that Nagelsmann is seriously considering starting that trio over veterans Leroy Sané (30), Leon Goretzka (31), and David Raum (28).
That would be a stunning call. And it might be exactly the right one.
Who These Kids Actually Are
It's worth slowing down here, because the names can blur together in a squad announcement. These aren't just promising youngsters filling depth spots.
Pavlovic has been one of Bayern Munich's most consistent performers this season. He's expected to partner Felix Nmecha in central midfield — and Nmecha himself, at 25, would also be playing his first major tournament. The engine room of a potential World Cup contender could be almost entirely first-timers.
Brown is the fastest player in Germany's squad — and he's already proven he can handle elite opposition. When Eintracht Frankfurt faced Barcelona in the Champions League last autumn, Brown was tasked with containing Lamine Yamal. He did it well enough that he called it his best game to date. That's not a player who's going to be overawed by a World Cup crowd.
And then there's Karl — Nagelsmann has praised him as a "street footballer" who needs freedom, the kind of player you don't cage with tactical instructions, you just let loose and watch. He's 18. He's starting a World Cup. If Nagelsmann pulls the trigger, Karl will be one of the youngest players at the entire tournament.
Crucially, Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz are also only 23 — a fact that often gets lost when people talk about Germany's "experienced" attack. Germany's forward line could look very, very young. And very, very dangerous.
The 2010 Ghost in the Room
Nagelsmann has a historical precedent to lean on, and he knows it. In 2010, a wave of youngsters — Neuer, Thomas Müller, Mesut Özil, Toni Kroos, Jerome Boateng — took the World Cup by storm, finishing third before the same core won it all four years later in Brazil. That generation didn't arrive with résumés. They arrived with hunger.
Captain Joshua Kimmich, who at 31 would be one of the elder statesmen of a youth-heavy starting XI, has been actively pushing Nagelsmann toward the gamble. "It is very, very important for us to have many young players on the pitch," Kimmich said. "The youngsters have no pressure. They don't have to shoulder responsibility. They can enjoy their game."
That's a captain giving his coach permission to be bold. It's also a captain who understands something the stats don't fully capture: Germany's experienced players haven't delivered at the last two World Cups — knocked out in the group stage in both 2018 and 2022. Maybe the answer isn't more experience. Maybe it's less.
The Guardian's team guide puts it plainly: individual class is in "worryingly short supply" in this squad. Wirtz had a difficult start to his season at Liverpool before finding form. Musiala is still working back from a serious injury and has been used mostly from the bench in recent weeks. The ceiling is high — but it's not guaranteed.
What to Watch on June 14
Germany open against Curaçao in Houston on June 14, which is about as favorable a first fixture as you can draw. It's a match Germany should win regardless of who starts. But the lineup Nagelsmann fields will tell you everything about his intentions for the tournament.
[Nagelsmann has opted for a mix of international experience, established key players, and those who have come to the fore with strong performances in
