Germany 0-2 South Korea: 5 Talking Points as Germany crash out of the World Cup 2018

South Korea managed to carve out one of the most memorable victories in recent times as they knocked out defending champions Germany by a margin of 2-0, which included two injury-time goals. Joachim Low's men could not influence, control or dominate the game in any aspect as they found cohesion hard to come by and ended up surrendering in a disgusting fashion to a rampant Korean side.

Kim Young-Gwon and Son-Heung Min scored in the end to demolish Germany's dream of retaining their World Champions status, and here we discuss five talking points from the game:

#5 Joachim Low continues with his experiments

Muller was surprisingly dropped from the game

Hardly had Germany ever looked so vulnerable in a tournament in the past decade or so, and much of it is due to the influence of Joachim Low who instils a sense of calmness and stability into the squad. Low does not prefer to chop or change the starting lineup and rarely mixes up the players unless forced to courtesy of some dire circumstances.

This time around, the Germans have been less cohesive on the field, failing to stitch a clean attacking pattern to their game. Much of this is because they have not lined up with similar teams in consecutive matches so far.

Against Sweden, Mesut Ozil was dropped from the starting XI for the first time since his senior international debut and Marco Reus was played instead of him. Now, in their final group match, Ozil came back into the team but Julian Draxler and Thomas Muller were made to sit out. Muller has been immense for the national team over the years and his exclusion is quite surprising considering that Muller’s knack of seamlessly getting into the half spaces is an integral part of Germany’s attacking pattern of play.

Leon Goretzka formed the attacking quartet for this game, a relatively new and unique one considering Muller’s absence from the pitch. Jerome Boateng was shown a red card in the previous game, and Nikolas Sule replaced him at the heart of the backline. One of the surprising decisions was starting Sami Khedira over Ilkay Gundogan in the midfield pivot with Toni Kroos.

Khedira had a forgettable outing in the defeat against Mexico and Gundogan was particularly impressive after coming on from the bench against Sweden. Mats Hummels was fit to start again and hence this eventually meant that Germany made as many as five changes from their victory against Sweden; quite an uncharacteristic approach from a team that has been known for their professionalism and stable measures in the buildup of big matches.

#4 Contrasting style of play from both teams in the first half

The Koreans defended deep in the first half

With both teams forming a 4-2-3-1 formation on the field, it was supposed to be a neck-to-neck battle between both the teams. However, once you noticed Korea Republican’s approach in the first half, it was visible that their primary objective was to minimize the impact of the Germans by staying compact in the back. Korea put numbers behind the ball, and maintained a tight shape, forcing Germany to resort and flip attacking moves constantly.

The Asian team was sturdy and blocked the numerous passing lanes, right from the deep midfield to the inside of the box. Their central defensive partnership of Yun-Young Sun and Kim Young-Gwon weren’t afraid to put their body in the line of the ball and cleared out the ball on numerous occasions.

The fullbacks stayed back, drifted in and put pressure on Joshua Kimmich, frustrating the young right back by not allowing him to send in mean crosses into the box. Having put Germany under extreme pressure, Die Manschafft did not panic though, as they maintained a whopping 75% possession of the ball in the first 45 minutes.

It was the age-old case of possession without penetration in the opening half of the game, as Ozil and Goretzka could not find the edge and sharpness in their game that was required to breach this resolute Korean defence. Despite their presence on the ball, Germany could manage only two shots on the target until halftime, as their immaculate movement lacked the final delivery that was needed so desperately at that point in time.

Marco Reus’ driving runs from the left and the centre ensured that Germany found some urgency at least, but there was a lot of work and improvement to be done in their game in the second half.

#3 A much open start to the second half; sans, the final touch

While the first forty-five minutes were much focused on South Korea’s reserved approach against Germany’s composed passing play, the second half-initiated with an exciting manner for both the teams. Korea looked to have broken down the shackles, as they countered the play with much more precision and intent. They were able to outrun the German midfield, a ploy that was well exploited by the Mexicans in their first match of the tournament.

On one occasion, Spurs’ star man Son-Heung Min managed to round Manuel Neuer but then could not get the ball back to an appropriate angle to shoot at the goal. Son was later booked for simulation after he went down by a challenge from Reus inside the box. The most interesting aspect was the amount of space that the Koreans were able to fathom during these counter attacks as Sami Khedira was substituted in favour of Mario Gomez.

This left Toni Kroos as the sole midfielder, but Kroos had to push ahead in search of incisive passes too and that left the whole centre of the park vacated by the Germans. The Koreans took good advantage of this space, as their counter-attacks were almost too quick but Sule managed to keep a calm head to thwart those dangers for some time.

South Korea were very quick and fleet-footed, leaving the Germans flabbergasted with the swiftness in their transition of play. Despite their constant threats, the finishing touch was missing in their play and that must have frustrated the team as they had managed to dominate Germany for some period of time.

Korea’s slick counter-attacks meant that Germany did not enjoy the same time on the ball as they did in the first half, and hence they were much hassled while making the passes in the final third. Kimmich and Ozil messed up a couple of promising one-twos near the box that could have led to potential shots on target too. Korea did well to jump on those loose balls and managed to provide some tough competition to Low’s men.

#2 Sweeping out the sweeper keeper

The moment that sealed it for the Asian giants

Mad scenes! Absolute mad scenes!

That is how you would explain what transpired in the injury time at the stadium. When both teams were pushing for a goal, football’s latest entrant, the VAR came into play. Korea played out a short corner and stitched some quick passes, but the final ball ricocheted off Toni Kroos.

Kim Young-Gwon, with all his composure, simply laid the ball to the back of the net. As Kim set off to celebrate, the linesman ruled out the goal as he was apparently in an offside position while collecting the ball. The referee used the assistance of the VAR to look back, and whoops, luck swung in Korea’s favour and the goal was allowed.

With Germany having an extra three minutes to find the equalizer, they pushed ahead with eleven men! Literally, eleven men. Manuel Neuer who has long been known due to his reputation as that of a sweeper keeper, came out to play in the midfield with the intention of adding up as an extra man in attack.

However, Ju cleared out the ball to the other half, vanishing it from Neuer’s sight and absolutely rocketing off for Son Heung Min who collected it and scored the goal on an open net. This very moment defined Germany’s entire campaign. That is, a whole lot of confusion coupled with an absolute mockery and the inability to bounce back in the end.

#1 Curse of the Champion continues

France in 2002, Italy in 2010, Spain in 2014, and then this…

There really seems to be something wrong with champion teams trying to defend their world titles in the past few editions of the FIFA World Cup. Maybe it is the case of complacency or the sheer overconfidence that teams carry while walking with the ‘Champions’ tag in the succeeding tournament. Germany was quite iffy in their friendly matches ahead of this tournament, but there was a general belief that they would get it right when the tournament actually begins.

After a humiliating loss to Mexico, Germany was now touted to bounce back in style; exactly the stuff that battle-hardened winners do. However, this was just not supposed to happen. Toni Kroos’ moment of magic saved them in the last minute against Sweden, but there was nothing of that sorts today.

Germany failed to assert any authority in the midfield, lacked the required cohesion in the forward line and they were wasteful from set pieces. The midfield was overrun numerous times, Hummels failed to finish off two open headers, Mario Gomez did not carve any impact as the substitute and Muller was hardly involved ever since he came on the pitch.

Korea had the intent and pushed Germany beyond their limits, finally capitalizing on the collective and a couple of individual errors made by the German players. Joachim Low’s reputation as the German manager will take a major hit, Ozil will be tormented regularly and Timo Werner would be warned to buckle up or lose his place from the team.

Damn, the German national team is going to see a tough time ahead in the near future!

Edited by Zeeshan Ali