- Germany’s Shocking Elimination from World Cup Group Stage
- Defensive Struggles and Missed Opportunities Lead to Germany’s Downfall
- Overconfidence and Lack of Strategy Exposed as South Korea Advances
Germany, one of the tournament favorites, was knocked out of the World Cup group stage by South Korea’s spectacular defensive performance, which resulted in a draw and sent South Korea to the quarterfinals.
Alex Popp’s header at the end of the first half canceled out Cho So-hyun’s early goal, but Morocco’s victory over Colombia prevented those two from advancing and Germany from being eliminated.
Germany’s manager, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, stated, “We need to take responsibility, and it’s clear that I have the greatest responsibility.” “We must conduct research and derive conclusions. The entire year was not as strong as we had hoped; we will examine this.”
Germany presumably did not expect to enter this game needing a win, as the runner-up at the European Championship felt confident in their group. The second-ranked team had a significant advantage over the 17th-placed South Koreans and the 25th-placed Colombians in the Fifa rankings, with a gap of 70 places separating them from the debutants in Morocco.
This group stage has demonstrated that the gap between the traditional powerhouses and the rest is swiftly narrowing.
Costly is overconfidence and the absence of a coherent strategy for dealing with increasingly well-managed teams.
“We needed a goal and a victory,” said South Korea’s coach Colin Bell, whose team finished last in Group H. The fact that we had two early scoring opportunities gave us momentum,” Except for Sydney Lohmann, no one caused us any problems.
In their second encounter, Germany suffered a shocking defeat against Colombia, so they made two substitutions. Marina Hegering and Lea Schüller will start for Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich, replacing Sara Doorsoun and Lina Magull.
Choe Yu-ri, Chun Ga-ram, and the 16-year-old forward Casey Phair replaced Hong Hye-ji, Son Hwa-yeon, and Park Eun-sun on the South Korean squad that had just lost 1-0 to Morocco.
Germany appeared initially rattled by South Korea’s aggressive press, possibly still reeling from their 2-1 loss to Colombia. South Korea had done their homework. It took South Korea six minutes to score a goal that would further unsettle Germany.
Cho, a former Tottenham midfielder, neatly finished into the bottom-left corner after Lee Young-ju split the defence. It was the team’s first goal of the World Cup, following two losses, and Germany’s criminally comical defending, which allowed Cho to charge through unimpeded.
Popp, who missed the Euros final due to a warm-up injury, leveled the score by sneaking into the penalty area and soaring over Kim Hye-ri to powerfully head in Svenja Huth’s cross.
This propelled Germany to second in the standings, but their time with a foot in the round of 16 was brief, as Morocco took an unexpected lead late in first-half stoppage time.
VAR determined that Schüller was offside just before the hour mark when he flicked on Sara Dabritz’s cross to Popp, who headed in at the far post, colliding with the custodian and falling to the ground in the process. Popp was injured in the process.
Germany had 9 shots and 72% possession, while South Korea had 3 and both had 2 shots on goal. Popp again hit the crossbar with a header, but Germany struggled to create clear opportunities as South Korea placed everything on the line to withstand waves of pressure.
Voss-Tecklenburg stated, “In the end, the margins are small, but in one-on-one situations, we were not present enough and were too static, making it difficult to create big chances.” Then time runs out, and you need some serendipity, but you cannot rely on it.
At the final whistle in Brisbane, Germany players collapsed in despair and shed tears, while more than 4,000 kilometers away in Perth, Morocco players, who had lost 6-0 to Germany in their inaugural match, screamed in ecstasy upon hearing the news.
Popp uttered, “I do not know what to say because I do not comprehend what has occurred here.”
“The ride was choppy for us. This was not our intention, and I cannot explain why this has occurred.”
