FRANKFURT: Germany’s chastened national team arrived home on Thursday after their shock World Cup exit plunged the football-mad nation into mourning and left the future of coach Joachim Loew in the balance.

The four-time champions landed at Frankfurt airport shortly after 3:00pm (1300 GMT), a day after their humiliating 2-0 defeat against South Korea at Russia’s Kazan Arena sent them packing in the first round.

“The Mannschaft did not demonstrate what it can usually do,” Loew said at Frankfurt airport of the team’s uncharacteristic finish at the bottom of the table in the group stage.

“As coach, I bear the responsibility and must of course ask myself why we didn’t succeed. That will require a bit of time, and we will hold talks about it,” he said, adding “we need far-reaching measures, we need clear changes.”

After 12 golden years in charge crowned by the 2014 World Cup win in Brazil, Loew is under fire as a dismayed Germany question if he has placed his faith in too many former stars past their prime.

The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said only Loew’s departure could give Germany the ‘new start’ it needed.

German Football Association chief Reinhard Grindel said the sports management would put forward their analysis of the disastrous World Cup campaign to federation chiefs in the coming week.

“Then I would also expect the coach to comment about his future,” Grindel told reporters at the airport.

The DFB extended Loew’s contract as Germany head coach until 2022 just before the World Cup kicked off, and Grindel had previously stated his job was safe regardless of how Germany perform at the tournament.

Germany captain Manuel Neuer had Loew’s back, saying that the coach had prepared the team well.

“The players see ourselves in the first line of responsibility,” he said on arrival in Frankfurt.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2018