July 2 – Germany went out of the World Cup on penalties for the first time in their history. Then their Chancellor made it worse. 

Minutes after Paraguay dumped the four-time winners out at the last-32 stage, a post appeared on Friedrich Merz’s official X account praising the beaten players. Their “commitment and team spirit” had thrilled the nation, it read. “We are proud of you.” 

The response was brutal. Merz was accused of being “detached,” of using football to talk to voters while missing the mood entirely. One user compared his read of the match to “turning up to give a book report when you haven’t read the book.” 

The Chancellor’s office blamed a communications error saying the wrong pre-written post went out. “Wrong tweet, wrong time, wrong button,” it told Berlin’s Tagesspiegel, calling the episode “unfortunately very annoying.” 

His rivals pounced. Die Linke’s Christian Goerke said Merz “must have been watching a different game,” tying it to the Chancellor’s unpopular crackdown on sick leave. 

A second post the next day said “whoever wears the eagle on their chest has earned our support and not our scorn” landed no better. Germany had won all five of their previous World Cup shootouts since 1982 before Paraguay ended the run. 

Merz, one user quipped, “was the only German who could miss a penalty twice.” 

Germany last lifted the trophy in 2014 but suffered group-stage exits in 2018 and 2022.