A fully deserved and totally just result. Korea's fans, players, and coaching staff know that Germany has a superior squad and players with greater experience and talent. But the Korean game plan of holding the fort and trying to use speed on counterattacks worked. Korea's flaw was that it missed pivotal passes when trying to initiate counterattacks; a team like Brazil would likely have missed far fewer of those passes. The Germans, to their credit, had some good chances, but they simply failed to break down the Korean back line and late in the first half, Korea deserved at least a VAR review for a knockdown of a Korean player in the box (a clear PK IMO). Come the second half, the Koreans persisted. They knew that their odds of advancing shrank with every moment and all they had to play for was pride. Germany pressed on, but even the stoic Germans felt the pressure, and the first Korean goal was striking in its simplicity. It was over then. The second goal was a story we've all seen before - the goalkeeper advances to the opponent's box, the other team gets possession, launches a long-range passes, and goal. A historic win for Korea, a tragic day for Germany. Another reason the 2018 World Cup has been not only crazy but amazing in its excitement, and another reason why I love this game so much.
Good point. I admit I thought that if any team would break this "curse," it'd be Germany. I was wrong.
And I was worried that my DVR storage would run out of space from all the Germany games I'd have to save
yes. they have remarkably always been among the top 8 teams at every single world cup except 1938 (which started as a knock out tournament and they failed to advance on penalties) until this one.
i wonder what the brazilians feel about this. a brazil vs germany rematch was almost about to happen..
Mixed. I thought that Brazil had a chance to win given Germany wasn't doing as best as expected. On the other hand, Germany is always dangerous, so avoiding them right away wasn't a bad thing either.
once again, italy proves that they are the only team that can defeat germany in the knockout stages...
Germany are past their best now..they need to have a look at youth..they should try and blueprint england's youth development.
I think Mexico in this WC went from being underrated to overrated. Argentina, Portugal, Brazil and Croatia are WC contenders IMO and I’m not even joking. France and Spain are overrated this WC. In fact, Uruguay would surprise many.
Very well said. I agree... As much as I'd be thrilled if Mexico won over Sweden, I'm really proud of South Korea for proving that they can play with the best, and even beat them. The biggest criticism for South Korea coming into these games was the lack of defense. Oh where we wrong. Not only did Korea play great on the back end, but they did so against the world champions. Korea's keeper (Jo Huron woo) played fantastic, denying all Germany's attempts... World class performance so big kudos to him. Korea was also missing the back bone of the mid field (Ki), yet still managed to make it happen. It's just a bummer how Korea got unlucky with the pk's early on in the games against Sweden and Mexico. + The pk's that Korea didn't get awarded to them... I really feel that Sweden and Korea deserve it the most to advance. It's not to take credit away from Mexico, but dang... The two underdogs really made a statement, with one of them (Sweden) advancing. Congrats to the swedes. Just so unlucky for Korea... They did everything right, but unfortunately the fate was determined by something out of their control with the Sweden / Mexico game... Bummer... Knocking out Germany is a big deal in itself, regardless of how the group results panned out.
2 times a past champion, was champion again for the next WC: Italy 1934 + 1938 Brazil 1958 + 1962 While teams that have won the Confederation cup, the next year don't win the WC, has happened always.
Hummels will see that missed header in his dreams for the rest of his life, probably with so many German fans... that was the win right there for Germany.
Why Italy, they don't play this WC? btw, it's good to world football that some big gun will be eliminated so early. You know, transparency.
That's the joke. Since Germany didn't make it into the knockout rounds in this WC, no other team can knock them out in them.
I think that after the Confederation Cup, germans have both, first eleven and young backup, ready to fight big things.