Print Triangle - Loop Is Not Working

I am trying to make a program that prints triangle... and I did various test on each method to realise that the problem lies with this segment.When I call this method, nothing prints out, I figure there is something with the loop that I am not realizing.the loop is backwards because it's supposed to have the right side edge parralel (when I try to print it out the spaces do not appear, imagine the x are space...), so as each line is looped the # of spaces diminishes

xxxx*
xxx*x*
xx*xx*
x*xxx*
*****

public class test {
public static void main(String[] args){  
for (int countdown = 5; countdown <= 1; countdown = countdown--){
showNTimes(countdown, ' ');
showNTimes(5- countdown, '*');
System.out.println("");
}
}
public static void showNTimes ( int nbTimes, char carac ) {
for ( int i = 1 ; i <= nbTimes ; i = i + 1 ) {
System.out.print( carac );
}
}
}