On Wednesday, Lineker, now a BBC pundit, updated his old quip, tweeting: “Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans no longer always win. Previous version is confined to history.”

The Germans certainly have historical company, however. The list of defending champions to lose very early shows how difficult it is to maintain momentum and focus with national teams whose players practice and play together much less frequently than they do with their clubs.

Asked if this was the end of an era of German domination, Hummels shook his head and referred to the team’s loss in the 2016 European Championship after winning the World Cup.

“We didn’t dominate; we won one tournament; you have to be honest,” he said. “We’ve always been one of the strongest national teams. We wanted to prove that once again when we came back together again in September, but this tournament we haven’t been on the level we have to be at a World Cup. I think many teams have big problems, but somehow they survived. We did the same against Sweden when it was almost over for us, but we didn’t make it a second time.”

The struggles of soccer powers to remain soccer powers also reflects the increasingly global nature of the sport, where talent now finds its way to the highest level of the club game.

Son, the South Korean forward who scored the second goal on Wednesday, plays for Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League. Midfielder Koo Ja-cheol plays for F.C. Augsburg in Germany’s Bundesliga, where many of Germany’s stars make their excellent livings.

The intimidation factor is not what it was, but Germany was still among the rightful favorites entering this World Cup. Löw, at least in public on Wednesday, was grasping for answers, but did suggest self-satisfaction had played a role.