South Korea took the biggest scalp of the World Cup group stage, a stunning defensive performance earning a draw sending Germany, one of the tournament favourites, out of the competition.
Alex Popp’s header at the close of the first half cancelled out Cho So-hyun’s early strike but with Morocco taking all three points against Colombia, only a win would stop those two progressing and Germany crashing out.
“We need to take responsibility and it is clear that I have the greatest responsibility,” said Germany’s manager, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg. “We have to analyse and draw conclusions. The whole year was not so solid, we will look at that.”
Germany had perhaps not expected to go into this game needing a result, with the European Championship runners-up likely feeling confident in their group. A huge 70 places separated them from the debutants Morocco in the Fifa rankings and the second-ranked side also had a large margin over South Korea, who are 17th, and Colombia, 25th.
If there is one thing this group stage has shown it is that the gap between the traditional powerhouses and the rest is closing rapidly. Overconfidence and a lack of a coherent strategy to deal with increasingly well-managed teams is proving costly.
“We needed a goal and we needed a success,” said South Korea’s manager, Colin Bell, whose side finished bottom of Group H. “That we had two early chances and scored gave us momentum. With the exception of Sydney Lohmann no one caused problems for us.”
There were two changes to the Germany side that had suffered a shock defeat against Colombia in their second game. The defender Sara Doorsoun and the midfielder Lina Magull dropped to the bench with Wolfsburg’s centre-back Marina Hegering and the Bayern Munich forward Lea Schüller starting.
South Korea made three changes to the team that had lost 1-0 to Morocco, with Choe Yu-ri, Chun Ga-ram and the 16-year-old forward Casey Phair coming in for Hong Hye-ji, Son Hwa-yeon and Park Eun-sun.
Germany looked rattled early on by an aggressive press, perhaps still shaken by the 2-1 loss to Colombia and South Korea had clearly done their homework. It took six minutes for South Korea to score a goal that would rattle Germany further.
A defence-splitting pass from Lee Young-ju found Cho and the former Tottenham midfielder slotted coolly into the bottom-left corner. It was the team’s first goal of the World Cup, after two defeats, and criminally comedic defending by Germany, who switched off to the run of Cho, giving her a clean run through.
Popp, who missed the Euros final after an injury in the warm-up, equalised when ghosting into the area and leaping above Kim Hye-ri to powerfully head in Svenja Huth’s cross.
That lifted Germany to second in the table but their time with a foot in the last 16 was short, Morocco taking a shock lead deep into added-time at the end of the first half.
Just before the hour Germany had the ball in the net again, with Sara Däbritz’s cross flicked on by the heel of Schüller to Popp, who headed in at the far post, clashing with the keeper and going down injured in the process, but VAR found that Schüller was offside.
Germany dominated, with 72% possession and nine shots to South Korea’s three, but the teams had two efforts on target apiece. Popp hit the crossbar with another header but Germany struggled to create clear chances as South Korea put everything on the line at the back to hold off wave after wave of pressure.
“In the end, the margins are small but in the one-v-one situation we were not present enough, we were too static and then it is difficult to create big chances,” Voss-Tecklenburg said. “Then time runs out and you need a little luck, but you cannot rely on luck.”
At the final whistle in Brisbane, Germany bodies folded in despair and tears flowed, while more than 4,000km away in Perth a huddled group of Morocco players, who had lost 6-0 to Germany in their opening game, screamed in ecstasy as news of the result filtered through.
“I don’t know what to say since I do not understand what has happened here,” a stunned Popp said.
“It was bumpy for us. This was not our goal, but I cannot say why this has happened.”
