August 3 – In one of the all-time shocks in Women’s World Cup history, two-time champions Germany departed the tournament following a draw with South Korea, allowing Morocco, the second lowest-ranked team at the finals, to become the third African team to advance to the last 16.
In a group stage with twists and turns and a Brazil exit on Wednesday, there was to be one last upset for the history books: for the first time ever, Germany, one of the pre-tournament favourites, failed to progress from the group stages. All Germany had to do was better Morocco’s score against surprise package Colombia in Group H, but they could not overcome a stubborn South Korea, even after 16 minutes of injury time.
Cho So-hyun’s early strike handed South Korea the lead but the Euro 2022 finalists responded through captain Alexandra Popp, who scored her fourth goal in three matches to draw level shortly before half-time.
With Morocco taking the lead against the South Americans, Germany needed to win a winner and Popp’s header struck the woodwork after she had a goal ruled out for offside. Germany’s desperation grew, but they could not find the goal they needed in a tense finale.
“At the end of the day, the score matters in a football game, and the points, and we didn’t score enough,” said Germany manager Martina Voss-Tecklenburg.
“We wanted to win today, we did not do so. And yes, of course, we had chances but all in all unfortunately we didn’t score the goal that we would have needed.”
She said there was no way to gloss over the result over “a historically poor result”, but demanded time. “We did get chances, we tried a lot,” said Voss-Tecklenburg.
“We are in charge, we are responsible for this. However, I do need a little time to analyse this and discuss it. We do need to analyse everything, looking back at the matches, and we need to do that as a team and need to work out how we move into the future. This is a historically poor result.
“We’ve got to face up to that, there’s no way to talk over it and gloss over it. It means that we need to discuss it very constructively and productively in all areas, what happened and that’s what we’ll do.”
Germany became the third team in the world’s top 10 to exit the tournament in the group stages after Olympic champions Canada and Brazil also departed. The Europeans had opened their campaign with a comprehensive 6-0 demolition of the walls, but a defeat to Colombia had suggested they were not as strong as suggested.
In the last 16, group winners Colombia will take on Jamaica, while Morocco play France in a repeat of the semi-final at the World Cup in Qatar, where the Atlas Lions became the first African side to reach the last four of the tournament. Africa is once again enjoying a great tournament with Nigeria’s and South Africa’s presence in the last 16 ensures the continent has three representatives in the knockout phase.
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