A difficult debut

The United States are ranked 11th, while Germany are 15th in the latest FIFA rankings. This is a rare occasion when the United States is in the position of the top team when entering the confrontation with the leading force of world football, a four-time World Cup champion. However, this correlation reflects the development trend of the two teams in the past 2 years.

Germany's crisis continued after their elimination from the 2022 World Cup. Consecutive defeats, culminating in a 1-4 home defeat to Japan, saw coach Hansi Flick - a World Cup and Champions League winner who had a perfect run-up to the World Cup - sacked.

Coach Nagelsmann leads the German team after being appointed 1 month ago.

Germany won their first match under interim coach Rudi Voller. However, the new era for the team nicknamed Die Mannschaft only begins with tonight's match against the United States.

Julian Nagelsmann is not the first coach to be put in such a role. He was "given the seal" at Bayern Munich after they parted ways with coach Hansi Flick. The young coach's tactical characteristics became famous in Europe a few years ago, when he made his mark at Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig.

The current German squad is still strong enough for coach Nagelsmann to have many options. The problem for the world's 15th-ranked team is to create new points to restore the inspiration of a squad with too many veteran legends, while also having a more suitable approach to the game with the current personnel.

Meanwhile, the US team is in its best form in years. Coach Gregg Berhalter's team has lost only two games since the 2022 World Cup. The home team has a young, high-quality squad. Only two US players play domestically, Miles Robinson and DeJuan Jones - neither of whom are regulars.

This is the moment when the US team can be most confident of defeating Germany. However, despite the higher FIFA ranking of the US team, they are still the underdogs in this match. The home team can cause many difficulties for their opponents, but it would be a mistake to rate their chances of winning higher than the visitors from Europe.