He said he was happy with the "next step in development" for his side, who drew 2-2 with their Dutch neighbours in the Nations League on Tuesday.
Since winning in Brazil 10 years ago, the Germans have lost some of their lustre, flopping at the last two World Cups.
They were in some crisis this time last year when Hansi Flick was fired and Nagelsmann took over, and though showing improvement, went out in the quarter-finals of the European Championship they hosted in mid-year.
The 2026 World Cup in North America is a long way off, but Nagelsmann is looking at each match for improvement.
"There is an awareness that every game is important," he said after they came back from conceding their earliest goal in 50 years when the Dutch scored after 100 seconds in the Johan Cruyff Arena.
"We have the Nations League now, the qualifiers next year and then hopefully off to the World Cup. We have 18 games left until then - if all goes well.
"The team believes in itself and that is the key. That is what we all want to see. Today we saw a team that wanted to win," he told reporters.
The coach was particularly pleased with how the Germans recovered after going behind early in the game.
"The way we came back was very good. It took us five or six minutes, but then we were well in the game."
But there is also still much to work on after an exciting match in Amsterdam.
"Both defences were too vulnerable but offensively, we were stronger, tried to create more and took a bit more risk.
Germany started the new Nations League campaign with a 5-0 win over Hungary in Duesseldorf on Saturday.
They are next away against Bosnia on October 11th before a rematch with the Dutch in Nations League Group A3 in Munich on October 14th.
