On this date, June 27, 2018
South Korea 2, Germany 0
I sat down to watch this game with pretty much no expectations. With two losses already, South Korea was pretty much done already, but thanks to the low-scoring in the Group of Death™ they were still mathematically alive. They just needed Mexico to blank Sweden, and to win their third game against Germany; you know, the defending World Cup winners, by at least a two-goal margin, to cover the differential.
Frankly, after their pitiful performance against Sweden, I stated that all I really wanted to see was for Korea to score a single goal, so that they didn’t go home after being blanked the entire time they were in Russia.
They got their goal against Mexico, but I wasn’t satisfied by it. It happened in the 93rd minute of the game, when Mexico was already up 2-0, so to me, it’s basically was a meaningless pity-fuck of a goal that happened long after Mexico had already begun the victory party. However, it turned out to be an important goal nonetheless, because, due to the low-scoring of the group as a whole, goal differential turned out to be a big deal going into the final games of groups.
Basically, Germany wins and they’re in. However, too many goals by Sweden would make things murky, as would too many goals by Mexico. And despite the fact that they were dead last in the group, too many goals by Korea would actually have some impact on the standings as well.