Die Mannschaft, having won their two opening games, would surely be expected to dispatch their Group E opponents with relative ease, though complacency would always be their foe, were they to believe that the job was already done prior to the fixture at MetLife Stadium outside of New York.
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Sane with an early breakthrough
Given that Ecuador hadn't scored in the 2026 World Cup before this game, and Germany had scored in each of their last 11 games across all competitions, the European side were the heaviest of pre-match favourites.
In the last game between the two sides back in May 2013, the Germans had won 4-2, and once Leroy Sane put Julian Nagelsmann's side ahead inside two minutes here, the writing already seemed to be on the wall for the South Americans.
Florian Wirtz, who had assisted Sane, then saw his effort blocked before Ecuador's Nilson Angulo stunned their opponents by scoring with a low right-footed shot from outside the area, before 10 minutes were even on the clock.
That goal ended a run of 242 minutes without a goal in the World Cup for La Tri, their longest since going 214 minutes without scoring from 15th June 2006 to 15th June 2014.
Caicedo's battling performance
Germany's collective 76% possession in the opening quarter hour suggested it was going to be a very long night indeed for Sebastian Beccacece's men, but with Moises Caicedo battling for every ball in midfield and attempting four tackles within the first 33 minutes, his was a performance that his colleagues began to feed off.
Three of the back four in Willian Pacho, Piero Hincapie, and Joel Ordonez would win all of their tackles over the course of the match, with Pacho also making four interceptions in what was also becoming a notable individual showing.
In midfield too, Ecuador's players were really putting in a shift, and the silkier German machine couldn't cope with the physicality at times.
Nilson Angulo's 14 attempted one-on-one duels, along with 11 more from Caicedo and an astonishing 20 from Pedro Vite, meant that if Germany wanted to win this one, they'd need to go all out to do so, and given their prior qualification, there was little need for them to be gung-ho.
Tah leading by example
They certainly had the edge on Ecuador in terms of their passing accuracy, however.
Jonathan Tah completed 94 of the 99 that he attempted by the end of proceedings, giving him a 94.9% showing, the best from either side.
Wirtz was strangely subdued in this regard, though. Marked out of the game for long periods, he was unable to affect the play to any great degree, as only 27 accurate passes would attest.
Though Germany continued to knock the ball around with relative ease, when chances arose, they were finding it difficult to get their attempts on target. Just three in total tells a story that Nagelsmann would probably rather forget.
Musiala gets busy but Sane misses a sitter
What they needed was a player to grab the game by the scruff of the neck, so it was with some surprise that Jamal Musiala would be the player to do just that.
The 23-year-old was involved in everything, attempting 19 one-on-one duels, 10 of which he won, going on four dribbles, three of which he completed successfully, and making four clearances, the joint second-most of all the Die Mannschaft players to make an appearance.
With three touches in the opponent's box, too, only Wirtz and Sane had more, and the latter missed an absolute sitter in the second half, which almost certainly would've helped take the game away from a desperate Ecuadorian outfit.
Directly after Sane's miss, Ecuador went down the other end, and Kevin Rodriguez was equally guilty of failing to take advantage of the great opportunity presented to him.
Neuer's mistake hands Ecuador a late winner
Within a minute of that, however, Manuel Neuer's inability to claim the ball saw Gonzalo Plato nip in front of him and poke home Ecuador's second with only 13 minutes left to play.
Neuer, who had actually only needed to make one save all night, looked a little off colour throughout the game, and it does beg the question as to how much longer the selectors can justify keeping him holding the No.1 jersey, when there are plenty of pretenders to his throne.
Any more performances like the one we saw against Ecuador would arguably bring the curtain down on a stellar international career, and that would be a sad way for one of the modern game's greats to end.
The final quarter hour and injury time became a frantic affair for the underdogs, and just clearing the ball anywhere quickly became a theme as they battled to run the clock down.
Decent passing numbers will be no consolation for Nagelsmann
Taking the ball into the channels during that period arguably contributed to their successful dribble stat of 40%, significantly more than Germany's 29.2%.
12 interceptions to Die Mannschaft's four won't have pleased Nagelsmann, who saw his team also outfought in the tackling stakes, winning 13 of their 20 attempted, compared to Ecuador's 16 successful tackles from 26 attempted.
With more total shots (11 to seven), Germany should really have done better than only managing three on target, the same as their opponents.
Even a much bigger percentage of possession (61.1% to 38.9%) will have been of little consequence to Nagelsmann, who will almost certainly want to see a higher standard of output in his side's Round of 32 match against an as yet unnamed opponent.