46 minSeason 1 • Episode 4
LatestCertain 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.
For the 1994 World Cup, Germany entered as the favorite and defending champion, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals. Internal conflicts, media campaigns, and public criticism of coach Berti Vogts led the so-called "eleven friends" – players like Lothar Matthäus, Jürgen Klinsmann, Stefan Effenberg, Bodo Illgner, and Matthias Sammer – to maneuver themselves into a collective nightmare within just a few weeks. This documentary takes a behind-the-scenes look at Germany’s memorable World Cup and shows how one of the strongest German teams of all time spectacularly failed.
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