Put simply, it might be the biggest shock in Women’s World Cup history.
Germany were perhaps the side least likely to slip up in the group stage considering their squad and the nature of their opposition. Germany, remember, were the team who produced the biggest win of the opening round of fixtures, thrashing Morocco 6-0. After that result, it was highly unlikely they would be eliminated in the group stage and almost unthinkable that Morocco would progress at their expense.
But that’s what has happened. Germany, bizarrely, have a goal difference nine better than Morocco’s. That counts for nothing when they have two points less.
World Cup shocks on this scale tend to be about one-off results, but Germany have failed twice. They fell to an exciting but inexperienced Colombian side who combined physical pressure with technical brilliance to defeat them in Sydney last week. Now, against a South Korean team who had offered very little going forward in the competition, Germany started poorly — perhaps reeling from the Colombia defeat — and never got going in attack.
It was a bizarre way for Germany to exit, for many reasons. For a start, their opponents South Korea knew a draw would be completely useless for them and yet they defended their lone point in this competition with…
