The German media was licking its wounds yesterday after Wednesday's result, a very different tone to pre-match coverage that verged on arrogant."The goal-rush against the Saudis made us all drunk with joy. But now we've been brought back down to earth," said Bild, Germany's equivalent of the Sun
Franz Beckenbauer weighed in with his own judgement: "We lack a team leader." He said the only German on the field with leadership skills was goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, but he had too few chances to get involved.
"I could have seen it coming from high up on the stands in Ibaraki. A team that goes into retreat in the second half will be punished," wrote Beckenbauer.
He said they had only themselves to blame for not yet being in the final 16. "It wasn't bad luck, it wasn't fate. In a critical situation situation we lacked a boss."
The Suddeutsche Zeitung was similarly hard on the German side, headlining its coverage "Deeply Shaken on Japanese Soil".
"Eighty, 90 seconds is not much more than a few passing moments in the life of an adult. In football, as the Germans once again experienced on their traumatic tour, it is the difference between wailing and celebrating," the newspaper said.
"The Germans should now do everything except one thing: complain of an unfair fate . . . they had the victory in their own hands.
"There is obviously that something extra that makes good footballers. Whatever it may be, mental strength, tactical intelligence, in the meantime we can just call it 'that thing that the Irish have'," the paper continued.
The Berlin tabloid B.Z., leader of the polemic against the Irish, was notably downbeat yesterday. "One:One! The Island Children show Germany the Yellow Card," proclaimed the newspaper.
"Disgusted faces, empty gazes and silent bewilderment. Hundreds of fans stood paralysed in front of the big screen in Berlin yesterday, as if we had lost the World Cup," the newspaper wrote.
"What a great result," Dublin student Alan Cahill told B.Z. He added that he felt the Republic would definitely get through to the final 16." The newspaper said over a million Berliners watched the game, judging from the number of toilets flushed in the city at half-time.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung told its readers: "The fairytale promotion ended suddenly in the last minute." It added that "the team of Rudi Völler still isn't counted amongst the great teams".
The newspaper praised Irish fans, saying "a disproportionate share of the noise in the stadium came from people wearing green. More than 7,000 patriotic Irish fans turned the traditional anthem-singing into a moving choral event".
One of the newspaper's columnists commented: "A victory over the Saudis and a tie with the Irish are results that reflect the performances of a German team that barely qualified."
