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KAZAN, RUS—For the first time since 1938, Germany crash out at the first stage of a World Cup following a 2-0 defeat to South Korea in Kazan. Sweden won the other match in Group F, 3-0, over Mexico meaning that Germany had to win their match, but rarely looked like coming close to that. It is also the fourth time in the last five World Cups that the holders entering the Cup exit in the group stage.
Germany rarely displayed a sense of urgency in the match, even when Sweden began to score in Ekaterinburg. The Germans had 74% possession and 28 shots, but just six were on target and only twice did they force goalkeeper Cho Hyeon-woo into an excellent save. Mats Hummels missed two open headers of his own late.
The beginning of the end for Germany came in second half stoppage time when Kim Young-gwon headed in a goal that was initially disallowed by referee Mark Geiger for offside, but was later given through VAR.
With Manuel Neuer coming up for an equalizer at the other end, Ju Se-jong gained possession and sent Son Heung-min on his way for an empty-netter to get their first-ever win over Germany at the World Cup after two previous meetings. It is Germany’s first loss against an Asian side at the World Cup.
South Korea did have a slim chance to advance and a multi-goal win would have helped, but needed Mexico to defeat Sweden which did not happen.
“This is historic. I am sure this will create some public uproar in Germany,” said coach Joachin Löw who misses at least a semifinal for the first time in his 12 years of managing Germany at a major competition.
“The disappointment of us being eliminated is just huge. We didn’t deserve to be winning the World Cup again, we didn’t deserve to move into the round of 16.
“I’m shocked. Shocked because we didn’t manage to pull it off and beat Korea Republic and we lost this game. It wasn’t my impression when I spoke to the team before that they were under pressure before the match because the Sweden game was on at the same time.
“How do we go from here? We’ll have to talk about it calmly and I think it’s premature for me to say something. It will take me some hours to come to terms with it and I’m incredibly disappointed by this elimination.
“Our team in this match was missing the ease of play and the classiness we normally display. Also the dynamism that led to the goal-scoring opportunities was not there, so we deserve to be eliminated.”
There will be a huge inquest in the coming months as to why this happened for Germany. Whether it was the exclusion of Leroy Sane to the squad, divisions within the camp, or an over-reliance on players who got the job done four years ago, what is know is that it all went horrible wrong for Germany who apparently have gone from the Mercedes that has dominated Formula 1 the past few years to a Volkswagen that has been busted for a device that hid its true emissions.
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