WM 1994 - Elf Helden, ein Albtraum

Certain of victory over Bulgaria, Germany suffers a stunning quarterfinal defeat and crashes out of the 1994 World Cup. As the players struggle to come to terms with the loss, the media intensify their attacks on Berti Vogts. Ready to step down, he is convinced by Chancellor Helmut Kohl to continue. Vogts responds by rebuilding the national team from the ground up ahead of Euro 1996. With Matthäus gone and Klinsmann and Sammer taking on greater responsibility, Germany finally becomes a team in his image - and is rewarded with the European title. Yet despite his redemption, Vogts' tenure ultimately comes to an end in 1998.

Vogts tries to prevent the team’s disintegration by giving the players more freedom, but control begins to slip from his hands. He loses trust in captain Matthäus and has to constantly put out fires. When Effenberg shows the middle finger to fans during the match against South Korea, Vogts removes him from the squad. The team turns against him, and the media start discussing Beckenbauer as a possible replacement. The Round of 16 match against Belgium becomes a crucial test for Vogts, and Germany wins convincingly. Some already see a semifinal against Italy, but first, Bulgaria awaits.

Franz Beckenbauer monitors the performance of both the team and the coach for a TV network, keeping in touch in the U.S. with “his World Champions,” especially Lothar Matthäus. This increases the pressure on Vogts and stirs unrest within the squad, which increasingly splits into three factions: the veteran World Champions around captain Matthäus, the younger players around Effenberg, and the former East German players, Sammer and Kirsten. Additional conflicts arise from players’ wives, who, much to Vogts’ annoyance, seek closeness with their husbands. With Stefan Raab’s mocking song, the players increasingly lose respect for their coach.

Berti Vogts was already under pressure during the World Cup preparations – living in the shadow of his predecessor, Franz Beckenbauer. If he was the “iconic figure,” Vogts was the honest worker who clung to traditional ideals. But in the 1990s, those ideals were outdated – instead of community and cohesion, the “me-first” mentality had entered professional football. Because Vogts refused to cooperate with the BILD newspaper, it painted him as a loser and a failure – an image that also took hold in the public eye. Vogts therefore retreated into pragmatic optimism, promising the title.