Germany Eliminated from World Cup after Losing to South Korea

If World Cup history has shown us anything, it is defending champions seldom win back-to-back, and like so many others, Germany joins the long list of those hoping to achieve that dream only to watch as their dreams get washed away. After suffering defeat to South Korea today, Germany was eliminated from advancing to the knockout stage.

The Germans were hoping to score late and save the day, however, failed to get the job done. Germany, who has won the World Cup four times, needed to win today in order to move forward. Instead, Germany suffered a 2-0 loss, and the success they had was not enough to keep see them advance.

Speaking on the loss, Mats Hummels, a defender for Germany said,

“It’s very, very hard to put it into words. We believed until the end today. Even when it was 0-1, I think we kept trying to turn it all around.”

Germany was last in Group F and therefore did not advance. Mexico and Sweden now advance to the knockout stage whilst South Korea, who only won the match against Germany, also was eliminated. The news came hard to Germans who have advanced in every World Cup since 1938.

Coach Joachim Loew, in post-match interviews, commented that,

“I couldn’t imagine that we would lose.”

Today’s match was an important one, not only for the Germans but also the Mexicans, for had Germany defeated the South Koreans, they would have advanced, and Mexico would have been eliminated. Considering Germany’s history on the international stage, Mexico was on the edge of their seats as the second half of the match played out.

The unthinkable happened on Matchday 14…

For the first time in 8⃣0⃣ years, #GER were knocked out in the first round of the #WorldCup.

The happy teams were:#BRA – #SUI – #SWE – #MEX

Check out our review of all the day's action:
👉 https://t.co/MbCuG8nxIP pic.twitter.com/5tEtBxfuGw

— FIFA World Cup 🏆 (@FIFAWorldCup) June 27, 2018

Even though they knew elimination was set in stone, South Korea stepped it up wanting to go out fighting. Scoring first for the South Korean team was Kim Young-gwon who gave the Koreans a 1-0 lead only three minutes into injury time. Initially, the goal was overruled, but after video replay, that call was overturned.

Three minutes later, South Korea’s Son Heung-min added another for the Koreans to make it 2-0 as Heung-min scored on an empty net after accepting a pass from Ju Se-jong. For Germany, it was too much to overcome with minutes left to play.

Germany was far from the first to suffer elimination after winning the previous World Cup title. Spain suffered the same fate in 2014, as did Italy in 2010 and France in 2002.

For Coach Loew, he said he believes they deserved to be eliminated adding,

“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.”

All teams in Group F had the chance to advance, but after Sweden beat Mexico 3-0, it put Germany in a solid position to move forward and were favoured to do so, but going scoreless against the South Koreans, Germany gave up its best chance of the tournament to save grace – and that was the problem.

Loew chose to mix up the starting lineup with both experienced and not so experienced players. He recalled Mats Hummel, Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira and also added Niklas Suele and Leon Goretzka. Germany seemed nervous at the start of the match knowing what was on the line and were playing slower than usual and seemingly vulnerable.

The Germans seemed unable to impact the South Koreans sending wasted crosses that got them nowhere. The efforts proved fruitless as it was the Koreans who created multiple scoring chances, and instead of responding, Germany seemed to falter.

Germany continued of the slower pace after the first half, and this caused Loew to make more changes by adding Thomas Mueller and Mario Gomez and Thomas Mueller however, instead of capitalising, Germany continued to make errors, and that resulted in the ball being given away to the South Koreans thanks to speed and precision.

South Korea’s first game in the knockout stage has yet to be announced. However, for sports bettors in Canada, especially those who are fans on the South Korean team, the news was welcomed with cheers and excitement. With promotions at an all-time high, now is a good time to a look at the licensed Canadian websites to place bets on the knockout stage in this year’s World Cup.