Mexico watched helplessly as Sweden took yet another penalty kick to extend their lead to 2-0 with only minutes to play. The last goal, scored by one of their own players just summed up the rest of the day. It culminated one of the worst performances by a Mexico team that had been outstanding in their victories.
In one of the toughest groups, Mexico won 2 of their 3 games to end group play with 6 points (3 points for a victory, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss). When the day started, Mexico had the most points with 6, Germany had 4, Sweden had 3, and South Korea with 0. Sweden’s victory pushed them to 6 points, tied with Mexico, but Sweden had a +5 difference from goals they scored versus goals their opponents scored. Mexico was a dismal -1. This set the stage for Germany to win group play with a victory, or go home with a tie or loss.
Germany, the defending World Cup 2014 champions, were playing a winless South Korean team. Battling to a 0-0 tie after 90 minutes, Germany pushed hard in the extra time awarded to the clock. But it was South Korea with a unique and extremely fortunate goal at 90+2 minutes to break the tie. Another goal was added to an empty net, but the game was sealed, as was Germany’s fate. Sweden and Mexico move on to the elimination games in the round of 16 while South Korea, playing only for pride, sent home the defending champions.
Image courtesy of Gety Images.