2018 World Cup: How Germany’s blatant focus on offense cost them dearly

The world is still recovering from the news that Germany, the defending World Cup champions, have been ousted from the tournament after a tremendous upset against South Korea. In all of the post-match chatter surrounding the Germans' apparently unexpected loss, however, not enough credit is being given to the South Korean team that took down the world champs by following an often shunned strategy.

Germany’s blatant focus on offense ended up costing it a shot at the 2018 World Cup, and the country’s loss to South Korea will be repeated in the future if it doesn’t clean up its game. Here's why.

Too preoccupied with offense

It makes sense that we’re focused on the role of offensive plays during the World Cup. After all, if Germany had pulled off a win over South Korea they would have advanced to the knockout round with some serious momentum.

Despite the obvious importance of scoring enough to remain a viable contender in the global tournament, however, we’ve grown to become far too preoccupied with the role of offensive plays.

Let’s take a look at a statistical breakdown to clearly illustrate why Germany’s loss shouldn’t be surprising. Normally, it would be assumed that Germany held a significant leading edge in the matchup because of the way they deftly bombarded South Korean goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-Woo with a none stop barrage of shots.

Germany outshot South Korea 28-12, holding possession of the ball for an astonishing 74% of the match. Those same statistics are actually the reason we saw Germanys’ unexpected downfall, however.

The Germans were simply too preoccupied with running a blitz against the South Koreans, and let their own defensive guard down the few times that allowed their competitors to get ahold of the ball. Even world-classprofessionals can’t leave their net open the way that Germany did if they truly expect to remain a viable contender in one of the most bitterly contested tournaments in world history.

While some will continue to defend Germany with cheap claims that the country’s team merely suffered from the famous World Cup curse, it is a simple matter of fact that a concerted defensive effort would have likely seen the Germans still in the tournament.

The curse of the defending champion strikes again🇫🇷 2002🇮🇹 2010🇪🇸 2014🇩🇪 2018

— David Wall (@1DavidWall) June 27, 2018

The defending champions should know better than most that a failure to shore up its greatest weaknesses would inevitably lead to the deft exploitation of those weaknesses by the savvy Korean team.

Better luck next time

If Germany want to avoid another heart-breaking disappointment when the next World Cup rolls around, a greater emphasis should be placed on the team’s defensive strategy.

Far too often, even the best footballers get lost in overly complex offensive strategies that rely on the other team cracking under pressure to succeed. If more attention isn’t paid to the home front, where failing to defend the net can cost you despite your tremendous offensive advantage, then the Germans should expect more dismal failures in the near future.

To see Germany fail to advance past the first round of the World Cup for the first time since 1938 was truly shocking to some, but these kinds of tremendous upsets are less surprising to those who have come to realize that a fixation of offense can cost even the best of teams the game.

The impressive offensive pressure displayed by the Germans simply wasn’t enough to take home the trophy. If future World Cup attendees want to avoid suffering from similar upsets, they need to keep a closer eye on their own goals and devote more time to defending their home turf.