The World Cup journey ends before it really begins: the German women’s national soccer team is knocked out of the tournament in the group stage. The team of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg put on a completely erratic performance against South Korea on Thursday and only managed to draw 1: 1 (1: 1). As a result, Morocco (1-0 against Colombia) had to overtake them in Group H.
Captain Alexandra Popp equalized So-Hyun Cho’s lead (6th) with her fourth tournament goal (42nd minute) in front of 38,945 spectators in Brisbane. After beating Morocco 6-0 and losing 2-1 against Colombia, the German women didn’t think much about the outsider from Asia for a long time. Instead of playing France or Jamaica in the round of 16, they now have to fly home. It is the worst performance in nine World Cup tournaments so far. Four years ago in France, Germany lost to Sweden in the quarter-finals. In 2003 and 2007, the DFB teams won the title, which was the stated goal this time as well.
For the first time at this World Cup, strikers Popp and Lea Schüller were in the German starting line-up. The FC Bayern goalscorer played up front, while the captain dropped back a bit. The Munich midfielder Lina Magull had to take a seat on the bench. “We want to get into the room, have more of the idea and the courage to develop a goal threat. Now I hope that this knot will burst,” explained Voss-Tecklenburg before kick-off in the ZDF interview.
As with the Colombia game, when the fans of the caféteras turned the stadium in Sydney into a witch’s cauldron, the German fans were also pretty quiet in the Brisbane arena, which was by no means sold out.
South Korea’s coach Colin Bell, who won the Champions League with 1. FFC Frankfurt in 2015, had set up the 16-year-old Casey Phair. The attacker, who was born in the USA, caused a huge shock in the German team and the supporters in the 3rd minute when she appeared free in front of Merle Frohms. The goalkeeper steered the ball with a brilliant act just to the outer post.
Inspired by this promising action, the South Koreans continued to attack quickly. When Kathrin Hendrich canceled the offside, Cho was through and this time pushed in to take the lead. Marina Hegering was also powerless: the defense chief made her tournament debut after a lengthy heel injury and was supposed to strengthen the defense with her routine.
And the attack? The runners-up European champions looked for the crosses from Popp and Schüller, who were strong in the air, but rarely found them. Klara Bühl missed two promising chances in the first quarter of an hour – otherwise there was one ball loss after the other in the build-up game. Playmaker Sara Däbritz also found no gaps in her 100th international match.
To make matters worse, Frohms had to be treated after a good half hour, but was able to continue. At least they managed to equalize before the break: Popp climbed up after a cross from Svenja Huth and scored her third headed goal at this World Cup. “In fact, we’re not starting the game well today. We struggled for the first ten minutes, we weren’t focused and made unnecessary mistakes,” said Joti Chatzialexiou, head of the national team at DFB, at half-time.
And for the Voss-Tecklenburg team things continued unhappily after the break: Another headed goal by Popp after Schüller’s artistic heel-heel was disallowed for offside (57′). After a break in treatment, the ailing captain headed onto the crossbar a few minutes later. In the end, the German players sank stunned onto the lawn.
The chances before the start were not optimal, but anything but hopeless. Actually. But because the Moroccans surprisingly beat the Colombians, the 1-1 win against South Korea wasn’t enough for the DFB team to progress.
