Defending chumps book next jet home

Germany ‘deserve to go’ says Low, after loss to Korea

Here is a sentence that you do not often read: Germany are out of the World Cup before England. All that talk of England coach Gareth Southgate worrying about the best route to avoiding them in the quarter-final was rendered irrelevant in Kazan.

There was to be no Teutonic great escape, no last second reprieve, no playing for 90 minutes and the Germans winning in the end.

With a couple of late goals, South Korea ensured Joachim Low’s side became the fourth champions in the last five World Cups to be eliminated at the group stage in the defence of their title. This is how humiliating defeat was for the Germans: in the last four World Cups they have reached at least the semifinals.

Never before have they failed to qualify from the group stage. To add to the statistical brickbats, this is now the first World Cup since 1966 when England will have progressed further than the Germans.

And Low was nothing if not philosophical. “We didn’t deserve to be winning the title again, we didn’t deserve to progress to round of 16, we deserve to be eliminated,” he said. The truth is, nobody will be arguing with him.

On paper this might appear one of the great shocks of World Cup history, up there with the United States beating England in 1950 or North Korea defeating Italy in 1966. Except

no one can properly suggest it was unexpected.

Pedestrian and plodding, cowed and clueless: the adjectives normally served up for an England World Cup showing will all be heading in Low’s direction. Champions in name only, as they have been for all but the last moment of their game against Sweden, his side were woeful here. The tournament suddenly smells a whole lot fresher with their departure.

It was not as if Low and his team did not know what they had to do. In the tightest of groups, victory was critical. Yet, with Thomas Muller, their longtime World Cup talisman, consigned to the bench, they began as if playing in sand. Pace — of foot and mind — is the fundamental requirement of football at this level. And Germany had neither.

Ponderous, methodical, entirely predictable, this was nothing like the magnificent side that tore a hole in Brazilian self-esteem in the summer of 2014. There was a moment in the first half which summed up their condition when a ball was played to Leon Goretzka, allegedly their quickest player, to chase. He was easily outpaced by the Korean full-back Hong Chul, who barely had to break sweat to claim it.

It was like that for the whole first half: Germany were wretched.

It was only when news of Sweden taking the lead early in the second half filtered through to the pitch via Low’s frantic gesturing that a touch of purpose finally began to emerge.

The stadium erupted every time Son Heung-min galloped forward in the expectation of a rapid injection of schadenfreude. It arrived moments after the fourth official noted there would be six minutes of added time.

From a scramble at a corner, Kim Shin-Wook scooped the ball high into Manuel Neuer’s net. The linesman immediately raised his flag. But it was clear that while Kim was standing ahead of the German defence, Toni Kroos had played the ball to him. The goal stood.

“That was when we knew it was over,” said Low.

But there was still time for comedy. Neuer, piling forward for a corner, was caught in possession when it was cleared to the halfway line. The ball was played forward to Son who pushed it into an empty net.

Now for Low all that remains is the unusual experience of an early flight home.

Still there is one consolation: at least he will now be back in Berlin in time to watch England play Belgium on the television.