The18 World Cup Takeover

Who could have foreseen this? Germany, the defending champion, had never been knocked out in the group stage, advancing in its previous 18 tournaments. Die Mannschaft won the 2017 Confederations Cup with ease. All that was needed was a win for Germany vs South Korea and Joachim Low’s men would have moved on to the next round. 

Instead, it was a tepid 2-0 loss for Germany vs South Korea, sending the 2014 World Cup champion home with a last-place finish in Group F.

So, who could have foreseen this? Anyone who learns from history.

Mexico’s deserved 3-0 spanking at the hands of an exceptional Sweden side doesn’t matter. El Tri’s through to the Round of 16 thanks to one of the greatest upsets in the history of the World Cup. The defending champions are out, and they’ll long have nightmares of South Korea goalkeeper Cho Hyun-woo, who made six saves on the day.

El Tri fans will likely not want to watch the Mexico vs Sweden highlights from Wednesday’s World Cup Group F finale. The 3-0 defeat for the Concacaf side had few redeeming qualities for fans of Mexico. But hey, South Korea stunned Germany and El Tri advanced anyway, so who cares, right?

Mexico started the match out with the right attitude, not sitting back but not pushing too far forward. But that changed in the second half, when Sweden took the lead with three goals in 24 minutes. 

Mexico is collapsing. And now has to rely on South Korea holding off the Germany to advance to the Round of 16. The World Cup has been nothing short of wild and the ending of Group F is only going to add to the drama.

Sweden has taken a 3-0 lead on Mexico and has put El Tri in a nerve-wracking situation. Their first goal came off of a mini 3 on 2 where Viktor Claesson completely whiffed on a shot that fell to the feet of Ludwig Augustinsson.

As frustrating as it was to watch (the 78,000 at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow deserve a refund), France’s scoreless draw against Denmark — our first of the tournament — wasn’t hard to predict. Les Bleus wanted top spot in Group C and Denmark loves nothing more than an amicable bit of chumminess, and so that’s how it played out.

Aside from Costa Rica, every team in action Wednesday has some rout to the knockout stages. Our World Cup predictions start in Group F and finish with Group E.

Mexico will take on a Sweden team that will have to go against its style and push forward for goals. Germany will look to ride the momentum of Toni Kroos' absurd game-winning goal at the death while South Korea will hope for a miracle.

I’ll be honest, I don’t have that many eyes. I just have the two and they largely need to be fixed on the same thing. In fact, if I had to describe it to you, my vision basically just looks like what you’d presumably see with one giant eye. I describe my lovely eyes and their function just as a means to say that with the World Cup having moved to simultaneous kick offs, my eyes can’t be everywhere.

On Tuesday I watched France vs. Denmark (kill me now) and Argentina vs. Nigeria (let me live a while longer), so those two matches will be my focus here.