Manuel Neuer became Germany’s all-time World Cup appearance leader on Monday night in Boston. He celebrated by watching Julio Enciso’s 42nd-minute shot sail past him into the net. That goal meant Neuer has now conceded in 10 straight World Cup matches — a streak that ties the tournament’s worst such run by any goalkeeper.
The timing could not be worse for a German program that still hasn’t won a knockout game since 2014. Neuer’s last World Cup clean sheet came in the final of that tournament, when Germany beat Lionel Messi’s Argentina 1-0 in Rio. Since then, it’s been a decade of defensive leaks and early exits.
Enciso’s opener for Paraguay was the 10th consecutive game at this level where Neuer has been beaten. The only other keeper who can match that dubious run is some guy from the 1950s, which tells you how rare and how bad this is for a player of Neuer’s stature. He’s 40 years old. He’s still the starter. And the debate over whether that should be the case got a lot louder in the second half of the first period.
Kai Havertz bailed Germany out early in the second half with an equalizer, and suddenly the four-time champions had a pulse again. But the underlying issue didn’t go away. Neuer has been the face of German stability for more than a decade. Now he looks like a vulnerability every time a decent forward runs at him.
The record for most World Cup appearances by a German player used to belong to Lothar Matthäus. Neuer passed him in this game. It’s a hell of an achievement for a guy who won it all in 2014. But the stat that sums up Germany’s current reality isn’t the appearance number. It’s the 10 consecutive games without a shutout.
Germany hasn’t advanced past the Round of 16 since lifting the trophy. That’s a decade of tournament failure for a nation that used to measure its summers by deep runs. Neuer has been the constant through all of it, but constants age. Eventually they become problems.
The question nobody in the German setup wants to answer out loud is simple: Is Neuer still the best option, or is he just the familiar one? Monday night didn’t settle that debate. It just gave both sides more evidence.
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