Mexico Loses to Sweden. Mexico Advances. Celebrate?

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — An ecstatic roar thundered across the stands in the tense closing moments of the Mexico-Sweden game here Wednesday. A joyful storm of unidentifiable liquids and debris hurtled through the air. Mexican spectators pumped their fists and hugged one another tightly.

The outburst had little to do with what was happening on the field at Central Stadium, where Mexico was disintegrating en route to a 3-0 loss to Sweden in the two countries’ vital final match of the World Cup group stage. Rather, the fans were reacting to events unfolding 600 miles away, in Kazan, where South Korea, against all odds, was beating Germany, the defending champions of the World Cup.

The competitive permutations were complicated and plentiful as these four teams in the tournament’s Group F, singled out as the “Group of Death” for the quality of its rosters, took the field. But this development was simple enough to comprehend: Sweden was moving forward with its win and, more striking for this crowd and fans of El Tri elsewhere, Mexico was going to the round of 16, too, thanks to South Korea’s victory.

Mexico	0	Final	3	Sweden
	Group Stage			Andreas Granqvist (62' PK) Ludwig Augustinsson (50') Edson Alvarez (74' OG)

The improbable events set off celebrations from here, the easternmost host city of the World Cup, to the streets of Mexico City.

In a rare game that left fans of both teams happy, Mexicans and Swedes departed the stadium singing, “Bye bye, Germany!” while children in the concourses wearing lucha libre masks and the green shirts of Mexico chanted “Corea! Corea!”

“Coreano! Hermano! Ya eres mexicano!” the crowd chanted. “Korean brother! Now you are Mexican!”

People assumed to be South Korean were cheered and thanked, including a Japanese university student watching the game in the Zócalo who was raised up on shoulders and asked to pose for photographs.

“It doesn’t bother me,” said the man, Keigo Munemura, 21, who has lived in Mexico City for a year to study Spanish. “Mexicans are very fun. It was fun.”

The euphoria seemed to dissolve the ill feelings over Mexico’s sudden poor play.

Trailing, 3-0, in the match with 15 minutes left to play, the players here on Wednesday night might as well have plopped down onto the grass, gathered around someone’s cellular phone and started following the Germany-South Korea game. A large portion of the crowd was doing that, anyway.

Germany Crashes Out of World Cup With a Loss to South Korea

KAZAN, Russia — Germany became the latest defending champion to crash out of the World Cup at the first hurdle, part of a trend but definitely not part of the plan when Germany arrived here loaded with stars and swagger.

A smooth-running scoring machine when it won the Cup in 2014, Germany now appears in need of an overhaul after losing, 2-0, to South Korea here on Wednesday and bidding adieu to Russia about three weeks earlier than many expected.

South Korea	2	Final	0	Germany
Younggwon Kim (90' +3) Son Heungmin (90' +6)	Group Stage

“We tried to improve and lift our game, but we just couldn’t do it today,” Toni Kroos, Germany’s star midfielder, said.

It was the earliest exit for a German team at the World Cup since 1938, which seems even more distant when you consider Hitler was then the country’s leader and only 15 teams participated.

After Wednesday’s defeat, Kroos, unlike some of his teammates, did not drop to the grass. But he looked stunned, nonetheless: standing all but motionless just outside the center circle and staring into space with a hand on each hip as South Korean players celebrated one of the bigger upsets in this tournament’s 88-year history.

Germany always finds a way, said those in the know as Kroos’s shot curled into the Swedish net as if guided by GPS. But that rush of pure adrenaline turned out to be a false dawn instead of the cathartic boost this talented but ultimately ineffectual team required.

With stars like Kroos, Mesut Özil and Mats Hummels, Germany won every match in qualifying for this World Cup, the first German team to do so. But it could not even make it out of the group phase in Russia.

Harry Kane scores hat-trick as England hit Panama for six to secure World Cup knock-out qualification

​There have been so many times when England were such a tactically flat, stressed-out bunch that they could squeeze the joy out of battering even the meekest opposition, so against Panama you had to rub your eyes at the general levels of fun being had.

This was England as we rarely see them, the game won in the first half, a place in the second round with a match to spare and a general feeling of abandon that anything could happen. Harry Kane notched only the third World Cup hat-trick in English history, and then there was an unfamiliar competence observed on the basics of the game, especially two set-piece goals created for John Stones that demonstrated actual planning.

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia — It was Saturday afternoon on the Volga River when Panama’s coach, Hernan Dario Gomez, offered a scary thought — the next day’s World Cup match against England might prove even more lopsided than his team’s 3-0 loss to Belgium in its first game.

England	6	Final	1	Panama
Harry Kane(22' PK, 45' +1 PK, 62') John Stones (8', 40') Jesse Lingard (36')	Group Stage			Felipe Baloy (78')

A day later, Panama made its manager look like a seer. Behind three goals from captain Harry Kane, England obliterated Panama, 6-1, on a steamy afternoon here, qualifying for the knockout round with a win that may have said more about how poor an opponent the Three Lions faced rather than how formidable they might actually be as this tournament rolls on.

And yet, there is not a lot more that anyone could have asked of England through its first two matches in Russia, a 2-1 win over Tunisia when the team was sharp everywhere except in front of the opposing goal and Sunday’s defenestration of Los Canaleros that will fill England with confidence as it confronts the World Cup crucible.

“I know how many people were watching at home on a Sunday afternoon,” England’s coach, Gareth Southgate, said when it was over. “Lovely that we could give them so many goals to enjoy.”

Maybe the most frightening thing for England fans, who have supposedly learned to lower their World Cup expectations after so many disappointments, is actually true. Maybe England is really, really good.

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Germany’s World Cup Is Saved in the Blink of an Eye (and Flick of a Foot)

SOCHI, Russia — The German shots came from the left and the right and, at least once, even off a striker’s chest. They slammed into Swedish legs and Swedish backs and, at least once, right off the goal post.

But the go-ahead goal didn’t come. It didn’t seem it would ever come. And then, in the blink of an eye, at the last possible moment, it did.

Germany	2	Final	1	Sweden
Toni Kroos (90' +5) Marco Reus (48')	Group Stage			Ola Toivonen (32')

Germany restored its 2018 World Cup hopes with one swing of Toni Kroos’s right foot on Saturday night, snatching a 2-1 victory over Sweden from the jaws of a draw that would have felt very much like a defeat.

The goal, five minutes into second-half added time, and only moments before the final whistle, gives Germany a strong shot of advancing to the round of 16 on a night that began with the team facing elimination. It came on a night when the Germans produced twice as many shots as Sweden, and enjoyed almost three times the possession, but still had to battle back from a 1-0 deficit at halftime, and then, in the final part of the game, play a man down after Jérôme Boateng was sent off with a red card.

But Germany found a way to survive, with Kroos’s goal, on a finely orchestrated free-kick play, giving it a vital three points in its four-team group. Germany is now even with Sweden and three points behind Mexico. A victory in its final group game, against winless South Korea, would put it in a very solid position to advance. A draw against Sweden would have kept Germany’s chances to advance alive, but would have made things far more precarious.

“We never lost hope that we could turn the tide and win this match,” said Germany Coach Joachim Löw, who six days ago boldly guaranteed his team would reach the knockout rounds. He said the winning goal was “obviously a bit of luck, but it is also a sign of us believing.”

The winner was, in fact, a stunner: a free kick on the left side that Kroos rolled a yard ahead to his teammate Marco Reus, who had scored Germany’s opening goal in the 54th minute. Reus stopped the ball and stepped back as Kroos took his full windup and curled a shot that went over two defenders, around goalkeeper Robin Olsen and then inside the right post.

The goal, and the victory, completely altered the dynamic at this World Cup for the Germans, who raced to Kroos at the corner flag and smothered him with a mix of joy and relief. 

Denmark on Pace to Advance in World Cup After Draw With Australia

Australia’s Mile Jedinak scored on a penalty kick to tie their match against Denmark on Thursday.

Denmark and Australia played a 1-1 draw in Samara on Thursday that kept Denmark on course to qualify and left Australia far short of that.

Denmark	1	Final	1	Australia
Christian Eriksen (7')	Group Stage			Mile Jedinak (38' PK)
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Denmark opened the scoring seven minutes in when Nicolai Jorgensen received the ball in the box and made a beautiful finesse chip to a charging Christian Eriksen.

He made no mistake and drove it home.

Australia equalized in the 38th through a penalty. Mathew Leckie headed a shot in the box. Yussuf Poulsen of Denmark jumped, but his arm blocked the shot. A quick check of the video confirmed the penalty. Certainly some Australian partisans would have seen it as inadvertent and inconsequential.

Mile Jedinak converted the penalty for Australia, and the score was tied.

It remained so through the second half, although both sides had some decent chances. Australia wound up with 14 shots and Denmark 10 in the open contest.

With 4 points, Denmark is in good position to qualify along with France from Group C. Australia must beat Peru in its last game, and even that may not be enough, depending on other results.

Both teams had their chances the rest of the way, each with some really clear ones, but neither could finish. Both teams had double-digit shots, and both put five on frame, but there would be no winner.

The Aussies still have a slim chance of moving on, while Denmark blows a chance to move on and leaves everything to be decided on the final match day. With the result, Denmark is up to four points in the group, while Australia has one. Denmark closes against France, while Australia faces Peru on Tuesday.

36 Years and No World Cup Goals: Peru Eliminated by France

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — Thirty-six years is a long time to wait to be eliminated from the World Cup without scoring a goal.

It was surely not the expectation of the tens of thousands of Peruvian fans who brought their banners, their inflatable llamas and their seemingly unsinkable enthusiasm to Russia to cheer on their team in its first World Cup appearance since 1982.

France	1	Final	0	Peru
Kylian Mbappe (34')	Group Stage

They came from North America, from Europe and of course from Peru itself, whose capital, Lima, is 8,619 miles removed from the chilly, cozy stadium where Peru was beaten, 1-0, by France on Thursday to dash its World Cup dreams after only two games.

“I’m 43 years old and it’s been 36 years of waiting for my team,” said Luigy Cornejo, a United States citizen born in Peru who came from New York to see two of Peru’s matches.

“I also went to their qualifying games in Peru, so I can say I spent a lot of money to follow them but it was worth it. It was not like they played bad. They did a good job. They were just missing goals.”

France will continue on; after winning its first two matches, it has six points and is guaranteed of a spot in the round of 16 even before facing Denmark next week to determine who finishes first in Group C.

Peru, which fell to Denmark by the same score on Saturday, will play Australia for pride on Tuesday in Sochi, although one suspects there will still be no shortage of support on the shores of the Black Sea.

“I think Peru deserved more than to go out like this,” said Hugo Lloris, the French captain and goalkeeper. “They are a really good team. They were unlucky in the first match against Denmark. I think they deserved more from that. They had lots of opportunities, but Kasper Schmeichel played a great match in goal and now sadly, they are eliminated.”

Though Yekaterinburg is a great deal closer to Paris, it felt as if Peru were playing at home: with the national team’s red and white colors the dominant ones in the stands, both permanent and temporary, in Yekaterinburg Arena.

“Our fans, the people were incredible,” said Ricardo Gareca, Peru’s coach. “It is something that brings me joy and also pain. It hurts that we are eliminated and don’t have the chance to give them something more for all their support, all their expectations.”

Yekaterinburg lies east of the Ural Mountains that divide Europe from Asia, and the Peruvians arrived by 14-hour train rides, by multiday road trips and even on a red-eye flight from Kazan that landed in Yekaterinburg shortly before 5 a.m. on Thursday, which was not too early for the fans to bang drums and sing odes to their national team as they waited for their baggage to come off the carousel.

Despite the intermittent rain, the Peruvians kept up the pace and the volume throughout the afternoon as they converged on the stadium, and then they joined together again for a full-throated rendition of Peru’s national anthem — a scene so full of national pride that even the French players said they were moved.