A day after a historic disaster, there were still precious few answers.
Captain Alexandra Popp told reporters shortly before boarding a commercial flight home it would take a few more sleepless nights before anyone could get to grips with Germany’s worst-ever showing in a Women’s World Cup.
The German FA had been so certain of progress beyond the group stage that no charter plane had been booked to be on standby for Friday, the day after the team’s final group match. The governing body’s chairman, Bernd Neuendorf, hadn’t even set foot in Australia by the time Germany were eliminated. His plan had been to join the team as the tournament started in earnest with today’s arrival of the knockout phase.
Going out at the hands of Morocco, Colombia and South Korea had felt utterly inconceivable before the World Cup began, a one-in-a-million freak accident that didn’t warrant much worrying over, not even after the last-minute defeat by Colombia in the middle group game had ramped up the pressure. “Germany is not a nation that needs to tremble,” midfielder Lena Oberdorf had said after that 2-1 loss.
Cho So-hyun scores for South Korea in Thursday’s 1-1 draw with Germany (Photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Such confidence proved misguided. The precise…
