Germans put brave face on soccer defeat as their world wobbles

Soccer Football - World Cup - Germany Departure - Vnukovo airport, Moscow Region, Russia - June 28, 2018. Team members queue while passing through a security checkpoint before the departure. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans started adjusting to a new world on Thursday, brushing off any notion that a shock humiliation in the soccer World Cup, which coincides with a rare moment of political instability, was symptomatic of national decline.

German newspapers fused the fates of German team coach Joachim Loew and Chancellor Angela Merkel who, after 12-1/2 years looking unassailable, is fighting for her political survival due to a row over migration with her Bavarian allies.