Coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg referred to as it “a disaster” after Germany suffered an early exit from the Women’s World Cup with a 1-1 stalemate towards South Korea on Thursday.
The 2003 and 2007 champions – and one of many favourites to win the match – crashed out within the group stage for the primary time in its historical past.
Debutants Morocco as a substitute reached the final 16 after beautiful Colombia 1-0 to affix the South Americans on six factors in Group H.
FIFA Women’s World Cup: Two-time champion Germany knocked out after 1-1 draw with South Korea
Germany completed third within the desk on 4 factors and can be heading dwelling.
“If you want to see it as a disaster in sporting terms, then it’s hard to argue against it,” Voss-Tecklenburg stated after the stalemate in Brisbane condemned her facet.
Voss-Tecklenburg stated she was nonetheless attempting to return to phrases with going out on the first hurdle and refused to invest about her future with the nationwide staff.
“Our team of coaches will talk about what happened of course and what we could have done differently, but it’s not something I can analyse one and half hours after exiting.
“But of course I’m disappointed, of course I’m frustrated. Overall we never really played our game the way we know we can,” she added.
“Maybe we were too careful at the start. Maybe we were too uptight and tried to force things.”
Last summer time’s European finalists got here into the sport understanding {that a} win towards South Korea would take them by way of to the knockout stage.
The staff ranked second on this planet was anticipated to get the higher of a facet that had misplaced its opening two matches and had nearly no likelihood of advancing.
But Colin Bell’s facet went a objective up early on by way of Cho So-hyun and defended stoutly to frustrate its opponents, who couldn’t discover a winner following Alexandra Popp’s first-half equaliser.
The Englishman Bell stated his facet deserved the draw regardless of the stress the Germans put them below.
“We had a chance early with Casey Phair and then when Cho scored early it just freed up our team,” he stated.
“The way they played, the way they fought, we really deserved a point. When Popp scored everyone probably expected us to lose, but we kept fighting, kept playing,” he added.
– Frustration –
The Germans stated earlier than the sport the gamers needed extra creativity after its stunning 2-1 loss to Colombia, however the facet was unable to transform many possibilities.
Sixteen-year-old striker Phair nearly scored inside three minutes when she latched onto a by way of ball, however her shot was brilliantly saved by German goalkeeper Merle Frohms.
Three minutes later the Germans went behind from an nearly equivalent transfer, Choe Yu-ri taking part in a ball by way of to Cho, whose side-foot effort beat Frohms to seek out the again of the web.
The objective appeared to spur Germany into motion, and it dominated possession and territory after that, though it couldn’t discover a method by way of the Korean defence.
The Germans discovered loads of house out huge on each side and when the equaliser got here three minutes from the break it was no shock it was from a cross.
Svenja Huth put in a pleasant ball for skipper Popp, who rose above the Korean defenders to powerfully head dwelling.
The Germans got here out firing after the break and threw every part on the South Koreans.
Germany had a objective disallowed for offside within the 59th minute earlier than Popp smacked the bar with one other header moments later.
As the clock ticked down Germany turned an increasing number of determined however regardless of loads of endeavour it by no means actually regarded like discovering a winner within the 13 minutes of stoppage time.
