Shambolic Germany crash out after loss to South Korea
SHELLSHOCKED Pretournament favourites exit group stage after second defeat in three matches
KAZAN: Everyone was waiting for Germany to score another late World Cup-saving goal.
It never came.
Instead, the Germans have become the fourth defending champions in the last five tournaments to be eliminated in the group stage following a 2-0 loss to South Korea on Wednesday.
The four-time champions allowed a pair of injury-time goals while knowing a 1-0 victory would have been enough to advance because of the result in the other group match.
“It’s very, very hard to put it into words,” Germany defender Mats Hummels said. “We believed until the end today. Even when it was 0-1, I think we kept trying to turn it all around.”
Germany ended up last in Group F while Sweden and Mexico advanced to the round of 16. South Korea was also eliminated despite the victory. It was the first time Germany has been knocked out in the first round since 1938. “I couldn’t imagine that we would lose,” Germany coach Joachim Loew said.
Even in Yekaterinburg, nearly 500 miles away, the Mexican fans expected Germany to score. They were still in position to advance despite trailing Sweden, but they were waiting - some with tears in their eyes - for Germany to do the inevitable and ruin their chances of moving on.
That’s when South Korea stepped up. “We deserved to be eliminated,” Loew said. “For us, this is a huge disappointment. But we have young players who are talented and have the potential to go forward. It happened to other nations before. We need to draw the right conclusions.”
Loew changed his line-up to mix youth with experience, calling back Hummels, Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil while also fielding Niklas Suele and new Bayern signing Leon Goretzka. Suele made his first World Cup appearance as a replacement for Jerome Boateng.
Germany made a nervous start, playing slower than it usu- ally does to avoid being vulnerable on the break. But the strategy did not bring much success in the first half. The Germans continued at the same pedestrian pace after half-time and Ozil had another poor display, with many of his passes uncompleted.
Loew brought on substitutes Mario Gomez and Thomas Mueller on either side of the 60-minute mark but his players kept giving the ball away, with most of their attacking combinations lacking precision and speed. Gomez had a decent header stopped by goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo in the 68th minute and could not properly connect with a low cross from Joshua Kimmich in the 72nd as Germany’s hopes vanished. “We did not deserve to be winning the title once again,” Loew said.
CURSE OF THE CHAMPIONS?
Germany are the fourth defending champions to be eliminated from the group stage in the last five tournaments (also France 2002, Italy 2010, Spain 2014).
This is the second time Germany have been eliminated from the first round, having last done so in 1938. However, this is the first time it has happened when the first round has been in a group stage format.
South Korea have been eliminated from the group stage at consecutive editions for the first time since they failed to progress from this stage in each of their first five appearances (1954, 1986, 1990, 1994 & 1998). Germany’s tally of two goals is the second fewest managed by a defending champion, only ahead of France’s zero in 2002. This was Germany’s first ever defeat against an Asian nation in a World Cup match.
Germany have failed to score in two of their three games here, as many as their previous 15 World Cup matches combined. Since the 2010 edition, Germany have lost both their World Cup matches in which Thomas Müller has not started (also lost 0-1 to Spain in the 2010 semi-final), compared to 80% when he has started (12 wins in 15 games).