Wednesday in the World Cup, but perhaps nothing captures the implausibility more than one simple fact: Germany, the defending champion, took its earliest exit from the tournament since 1938, when Adolf Hitler was the country’s leader and only 15 teams participated.
Germany, a four-time World Cup champion perceived as a dynamic soccer machine that rarely sputters, broke down in an inglorious way, giving up two goals in extra time and losing 2-0 to South Korea.
The result allowed Mexico to advance despite a 3-0 loss to group winner Sweden 500 miles away in Yekaterinburg.
“It’s a dark day for German football,” Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer said.
The Germans entered injury time tied 0-0, knowing a 1-0 victory would have been enough to advance. Instead, Kim Young-gwon and Son Heung-min scored — the latter after Neuer had vacated his goal to press forward as an extra attacker.
The disappointment of being eliminated is just huge,” said coach Joachim Loew, who said the team deserved to go out early. “It turned sour. I must take responsibility for this.”
On Saturday, Kroos had given Germany, the defending champion, what looked like a reprieve, with his curving marvel of a free kick to beat Sweden 2-1 in the last minute.
Kroos had a late low and dangerous shot saved by diving South Korean goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo.
“Our coach told us that Germany probably wouldn’t think the Koreans are very strong,” Jo said. “I just tried to relax during the game and enjoy the experience.”
With stars like Kroos, Mesut Ozil and Mats Hummels, Germany won every match in qualifying for this World Cup, the first German team to do so. But it could not even make it out of the group phase in Russia. It failed to score in its 1-0 loss to Mexico before being blanked by South Korea.
“It’s very, very hard to put it into words,” said Hummels, a member of the team that won in Brazil four years ago. “We believed until the end today. Even when it was 0-1, I think we kept trying to turn it all around.”
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