IT’S SIMPLY WUNDERBAR
Get your towels on a sunbed, Germans are starting their holidays early after World Cup humiliation
Manuel neuer branded Germany’s flops ‘pathetic’ after the reigning champions were dumped out of the World Cup in sensational style yesterday.
Two South Korea goals in added time sent Joachim low’s team packing in one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history. Goalkeeper neuer said: ‘We deserved to be eliminated. We didn’t convince in any game. This was not the Germany we know. It was pathetic.’
low also admitted his side got precisely what they deserved.
‘The disappointment of being eliminated is huge,’ said the 58-year-old. ‘I’m shocked. It is historic. I am sure this will create public uproar in Germany. We deserved to be eliminated.’
FILE it away with england’s humiliation in Belo Horizonte. File it away with italy in Middlesbrough. Perhaps this was the biggest of them all.
The reigning champions, bottom of Group F having failed to score in two of their three games.
Unable to find the net against an ordinary South Korea side. Beaten by two goals in stoppage time as they chased late salvation for the second time in five days.
Goals came, but in the Germany net. The first by Kim Young-gwon after a tense consultation with the video assistant referee, the second by Tottenham’s Son Heung-min in the 96th minute when there was no- one in goal because Manuel Neuer was at the other end of the pitch having been tackled while trying to do his strikers’ job.
South Korea’s celebrations were wild, sweet revenge for a semi-final defeat in 2002 perhaps, but they too head for the exit. Sweden and Mexico qualify for the last 16.
Dejected, the Germans flew back to their base near Moscow last night and will be home in time to watch england play Belgium with a bratwurst and a beer to wash down a hitherto unknown taste of failure. The four-times winners are gone from the World Cup at the group stage for the first time since group stages were invented.
The last time they tumbled at the first opportunity was in a replay against Switzerland in 1938. Since Joachim low took charge in 2006, they have never failed to reach the last four of any major tournament.
Now they join Holland and italy, established nations already out, and for the fourth time in five World Cups the holders have not made it out of the group.
Perhaps low will regret his arrogant comments when asked about the ‘curse of the champions’ after losing to Mexico. ‘We will not suffer that fate,’ said the Germany boss. ‘We will make it to the next round. There is no need to break panic because we lost a match.’
The words will haunt him through the post-mortem because the simple truth is they got exactly what they deserved in Russia. Germany have been sluggish, without fizz, untidy in possession and low on creative ideas.
The Toni Kroos free-kick to beat Sweden in stoppage time on Saturday was meant to revive them. it did nothing of the sort.
it served instead to restore complacency. low promised a thorough investigation into what had gone wrong, but the public inquest started last week.
The choice of team base was criticised. There were allegations of a split between the Bavarians with Bayern Munich connections and others, including Mesut Ozil, who was axed against Sweden and recalled against South Korea.
Ozil was peripheral and barely able to influence the game, but he wasn’t alone. As the minutes ticked by, the most creative force in attack was Joshua Kimmich the right back, pushing forward.
Thomas Muller, without a goal in the first two games was dropped and sent on when the panic set in. Mario Gomez went on, too. As did Julian Brandt, the player selected instead of leroy Sane.
Germany have been vulnerable to pace on the break. And like the Swedes and the Mexicans, the Koreans knew how to play against the fading champions.
Korea goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo was rarely troubled until two minutes into the second half, when leon Goretzka should have opened the scoring, but his header was pushed aside by Jo. As news of Swedish goals filtered into the stadium, the tension increased and chances were snatched and squandered.
Germany would have to score. A point was no good if Sweden won. Timo Werner, Gomez, Marco Reus and even Kroos missed the target.
Mats Hummels tried to head in a cross and the ball flew out off his shoulder. Briefly hope flickered when the fourth official promised six minutes of added time, but these Germans were not clinical and ruthless. These Germans were panicked into the sort of mistakes england made against iceland.
A roar of hope went up when six minutes of added time were announced. Kroos time? Not this time. it was South Korea time. it was VAR time. initially, referee Mark Geiger ruled out Kim’s goal for offside but his video assistants told him Kroos had the last touch.
Geiger took the advice, checked the replay and reversed his decision. Son added the second and Germany crashed out.
Don’t mention the VAR!