SHOOTOUT SCHADENFREUDEWhen Germany crashed out of the 1998 World Cup – a miserable 3-0 quarter-final defeat to Croatia – the DFB hit the factory reset button. Youth coaching was overhauled, as was the scouting system designed to spot the talent, and it was made compulsory for the 18 top teams in the country to build performance centres. Euro 2000 came too soon for any meaningful impact on the German national team – the defending champions finished bottom of their group – but the wheels were in motion. Das Reboot was born, and a generation of footballers later, Germany would again be world champions in 2014. “At least 10 players who are involved in the national team today we would have never found otherwise,” swooned Dietrich Weise in 2015, a key figure in the earlier revamp. “Think of Toni Kroos. He hails from a small place in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. No one would have looked at him.”It’s hard to know where the next Kroos will come from, or what steps the DFB will take following Germany’s Geopolitics World Cup humiliation: a penalty-shootout defeat (!!!!) to plucky Paraguay, who had never previously scored a goal in World Cup knockout football. One suspects another German factory reset is needed, but the country was too busy sticking Das Boot into Julian Nagelsmann and co on Tuesday to think about that. Bild’s front page described the result as “the next German football nightmare”, while columnist Marion Horn went a step further: “German football is now living solely off its past reputation. And if I’m to believe Lothar Matthäus, then within the team, it was a more important issue whose mother was allowed to fly on the private jet and whose was not, than how we would win the cup.”The hottest take, though, surely belonged to Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz: “Even though the elimination hurts: What a game, @DFB_Team!,” he finger-on-the-pulsed. “With your commitment and team spirit at this World Cup, you have thrilled our country. We are proud of you.” That freezing cold take from a politician wasn’t quite as bad as David Cameron, supposedly a long-time Aston Villa fan, telling an audience he supported West Ham, but it wasn’t far off. The Paraguay president, Santiago Peña, read the room a little bit better, immediately declaring a national holiday on Tuesday following his country’s historic win. For Germany, the road to 2030 starts now. Unfortunately for Nagelsmann – or Jürgen Klopp, or whoever else is put in charge of this mess – the revolution will be televised.LIVE ON BIG WEBSITEWe go again: join Scott Murray for Côte d’Ivoire 1-2 Norway from 4pm BST (1pm EDT). Then it’s over to Will Unwin for France 3-1 Sweden (10pm BST/5pm EDT), before Mexico 1-1 Ecuador (aet, 5-4 on pens) at 2am BST (9pm EDT). Vamos!QUOTE OF THE DAY“When we have the ball we don’t have a problem, when we don’t have possession we’re going to have to be efficient. But we have a ­capacity to generate danger, which is a strength, and I want us to keep it” – France head coach Didier Deschamps issues a warning to the rest of the tournament.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionFOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS