Champions Germany crashed out of the World Cup after suffering a stunning 2-0 defeat by a tenacious South Korea on Wednesday that eliminated them in the opening round for the first time in 80 years and sent the football-mad nation deep into mourning.
KAZAN, Russia (Reuters) – Champions Germany crashed out of the World Cup after suffering a stunning 2-0 defeat by a tenacious South Korea on Wednesday that eliminated them in the opening round for the first time in 80 years and sent the football-mad nation deep into mourning.
Long the benchmark of excellence in the sport, Germany’s dismal campaign ended meekly, with stoppage-time goals to Kim Young-gwon and Son Heung-min condemning Joachim Loew’s side to finishing bottom of their group.
On a warm and sunny afternoon at Kazan Arena, some 41,835 flabbergasted fans witnessed the fall of a titanic team that had made the semi-finals or beyond of every World Cup since 2002.
Four-times champions and four-times runners-up, Germany were heavily backed to retain their title and add another triumph to Loew’s long list of honors.
Instead, they will head home after a scarcely believable failure, having also suffered a shock 1-0 loss to Mexico in their opener and only just scraped past Sweden with a stoppage time winner.
“At the moment… the disappointment of being eliminated is just huge. We need to congratulate our opponents,” an apologetic Loew, who has overseen a golden era in German football since 2006, told reporters.
“We didn’t deserve to win the title again, we didn’t deserve to get into the last 16.
“We wanted to win but we didn’t have what it takes.”
With the group going down to the wire, Germany needed victory against the lightly regarded Koreans to give themselves a chance of progressing.
Yet they scarcely looked capable of scoring, let alone going on to claim another trophy.
