South Korea suffered an early exit from the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia on Thursday, following a 1-1 draw with Germany to close out the group stage.
Midfielder Choi So-hyun opened the scoring for South Korea at Brisbane Stadium in Brisbane, before Germany leveled the score late in the first half. The heavily-favored Europeans, though, couldn’t put another one into the Korean net and were eliminated from the group stage for the first time in their Women’s World Cup history.
Despite losing their first two matches — 2-0 to Colombia and 1-0 to Morocco — South Korea, world No. 17, entered the tilt against world No. 2 Germany with a chance to advance to the knockouts. South Korea had to beat Germany by at least five goals and also have Colombia beat Morocco at the same time. In that case, South Korea would have grabbed the second seed in the group on the goal difference tiebreaker.
South Korea didn’t accomplish that, but instead ended up dragging Germany down with them.
“That was a magnificent performance, one of the best the girls have produced since I’ve been in charge,” said head coach Colin Bell, who took the South Korean reins in the fall of 2019. “I’m so proud of them and the courage they showed.”
Germany’s fate was sealed with Morocco’s 1-0 win over Colombia on Thursday. Colombia and Morocco both finished with six points, and Colombia won the group on a superior goal difference. Germany ended up in third place at four points, while South Korea finished last with one point.
Germany’s stunning elimination has some parallels to how their men’s team crashed out of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia with a 2-0 loss to South Korea in the final group match.
In both cases, South Korea came in with two straight losses, and Germany had a win and a loss. As was the case on Thursday, Germany in 2018 had to beat South Korea to advance to the knockouts without any help from other teams, while South Korea had to win by multiple goals just to have a shot.
The South Korean men won their match, while the women took a draw, but both sent Germany home.
This was South Korea’s fourth Women’s World Cup appearance, and they have been to the knockouts only once — in Canada in 2015.
In that 2015 tournament, South Korea recorded their first Women’s World Cup win, a 2-1 rally past Spain to close out the group stage and secure a ticket to the knockouts. They haven’t won in seven matches since, while managing just two goals and conceding 15.
With South Korea’s back against the wall, head coach Colin Bell made drastic changes to his lineup. Half-Korean teenager Casey Yujin Phair got her first starting nod, after coming off the bench in two earlier matches. The 16-year-old was joined by another youngster, 20-year-old attacker Chun Garam.
Bell’s gambit nearly paid immediate dividends, as Phair broke through on the German goal in the third minute for a shot that tipped by goalkeeper Merle Frohms and rang off the right post.
South Korea grabbed the lead only three minutes later, when Lee Young-ju’s throughball found Cho So-hyun unmarked behind the German defense. Cho made no mistake with her low shot past Frohms, scoring South Korea’s first goal of this tournament.
“When I received the pass, there was no one around me. So I figured I might as well go for it,” Cho said. “We could have played a little better, but we were up against such a strong team. So we had to be defensive. We didn’t go down easily and played a pretty strong match against world No. 2.”
South Korea had never scored the first goal in any of their 12 previous Women’s World Cup matches.
The goal seemed to wake up Germany, with Klara Buhl leading the pushback with attempts in the 11th and then 15th minute.
Germany continued to dominate ball possession, though South Korea stood their ground and maintained their slim lead.
South Korea finally cracked, however, as Alexandra Popp headed home a Svenja Huth cross to knot the score at 1-1.
The German captain soared over defender Kim Hye-ri and outmuscled the South Korean skipper for her fourth goal of this tournament.
Popp headed in another one in the 57th minute, though she was ruled offside on the play. Huth and Popp nearly connected for their second goal near the hour-mark, though Popp’s header this time struck the crossbar.
With Morocco having beaten Colombia 1-0 in Perth before the match in Brisbane ended, Germany needed to beat South Korea or they would be going home. Despite a flurry of late opportunities, Germany settled for a draw that knocked them out of the competition.
“We had a chance early with Casey Phair and then when Cho scored early, it just freed up our team,” Bell said. “The way they played, the way they fought, we really deserved a point. Germany are always dangerous, and when Popp equalized, I think everyone would have thought we’d crumble in the second half. But we dug even deeper.”
South Korean midfielder Ji So-yun said she was proud of her teammates for never giving up.
“I don’t think a lot of people thought we would hold Germany to a draw today,” Ji said. “I guess you just never know in football.”
Captain Kim Hye-ri said South Korea could have won the match.
“We didn’t want to shrink today,” Kim said. “We’d worked so hard for four years for this tournament, and it’s a shame we didn’t really enjoy it because of pressure. We tried to savor the moment more today and make sure we wouldn’t have any regrets at the end.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency