South Korea took the biggest scalp of the World Cup group stage, a stunning defensive performance earning a 1-1 draw that has sent the tournament favourites Germany out of the competition.
Alex Popp’s header at the close of the first half cancelled out Cho So-hyun’s early strike but with Morocco taking all three points against Colombia, only a win would stop Colombia and Morocco progressing and Germany crashing out.
Germany had perhaps not expected to go into this game needing a result, with the European Championship runners-up likely feeling confident going into a group with Colombia, South Korea and Morocco. A huge 70 places separated them from the debutants Morocco in the FIFA rankings and the second-ranked side had a large margin over South Korea, at 17, and Colombia, at 25.
Except if there is one thing this World Cup group stage has shown, it is that the gap between the traditional powerhouses and the rest is closing rapidly and overconfidence would prove costly.
There were two changes to Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s side that had suffered a shock defeat, by Colombia, in their second game. The defender Sara Doorsoun and midfielder Lina Magull dropped to the bench with Wolfsburg’s centre-back Marina Hegering and the Bayern Munich forward Lea Schüller starting.
South Korea made three changes to the team that had lost 1-0 to Morocco, with Choe Yu-ri, Chun Ga-ram and the 16-year-old forward Casey Phair coming in in place of Hong Hye-ji, Son Hwa-yeon and Park Eun-sun. Germany looked rattled early on by an aggressive South Korea press, perhaps still shaken by their 2-1 loss to Colombia. It took only six minutes for Korea to score a goal that would rattle them further.
A defensive-splitting pass from Lee Young-ju found Cho and the midfielder slotted coolly into the bottom left corner. It was the team’s opening goal of the World Cup, after two defeats, and criminally comedic defending by Germany, who switched off to the run of Cho, giving her a clean run through.
Popp, who missed the Euros final after an injury in the warm-up, equalised when ghosting into the box and leaping above Kim Hye-ri to powerfully head in Svenja Huth’s cross. That lifted Germany to second but their time with a foot in the last 16 with short, Morocco taking a shock lead against Colombia deep into added time at the end of the first half.
Just before the hour Germany had the ball in the net again, with Sara Däbritz’s cross flicked on by the heel of Schüller to Popp, who headed in at the far post, clashing with the keeper and going down injured in the process, but VAR found that Schüller was offside.
Germany dominated, with 72% possession and nine shots to South Korea’s three, but the teams had two efforts on target apiece. Popp hit the crossbar with another header but Germany struggled to create clear cut chances as South Korea put everything on the line at the back to hold off wave after wave of pressure.
At the final whistle in Brisbane, Germany bodies folded in despair and tears flowed, while more than 4,000km away a huddled group of Morocco players, who had lost 6-0 to Germany in their opening game, screamed in ecstasy as news of the result filtered through.