South Korea’s Kim Min-jae became the only player that Bayern Munich sent to the World Cup to fail to make it to the knockout stage.
Bayern sent a total of 18 players to the tournament, with one of them, Jonas Urbig, being a training goalkeeper for Germany. It was initially 19 before Lennart Karl withdrew from the Germany squad with an injury. Although their time at Bayern has come to an end, Nicolas Jackson and Leon Goretzka are included in said number.
The representative countries are as follows – Germany, Austria, France, Japan, South Korea, Croatia, England, Colombia, Canada, and Senegal. Among them, Germany, France, England, and Colombia won their groups. Austria, Japan, Croatia, and Canada finished runners up, and Senegal made it through as one of the eight best third-placed teams.
However, Korea failed to take advantage of the easiest group they had ever received at a World Cup. They started out strongly by beating the Czech Republic, but a drab defeat to co-hosts Mexico and a shocking loss to South Africa saw them praying for results elsewhere to help them into the knockouts. Their hopes were in vain, as only one out of their three required scenarios came to fruition, and the Taegeuk Warriors ended up meekly packing their bags.
Kim himself played every one of Korea’s group games, but he, as well as most of the players, was not at fault for the downfall. Rather, the many faults of coach Hong Myung-bo and the — allegedly — deep rooted corruption of the Korea Football Association (KFA) made the disappointing results inevitable. The national team had lost the trust of the fans ever since Hong was appointed in questionable manner, and it got to the point where many fans were actively rooting for Korea to get embarrassed so that radical change could be forced into the KFA. Whether said change takes place, and if so, when it does, remains to be seen. At the time of writing, Hong has just resigned as national coach.
In the meantime, the surviving teams are spread out widely across the tournament bracket. Germany face Paraguay, and may face France, who play Sweden, in the following round should they prevail. Austria and Japan have been handed immense tasks as they take on Spain and Brazil, as have Croatia, who face Portugal. Should Croatia and Austria win their games, they will meet in the round of 16.
Meanwhile, Senegal play Belgium, while the remaining non-African sides all play African teams. Co-hosts Canada face South Africa, the team that knocked Korea out. England play debutants Democratic Republic of Congo, while Colombia meet another African side in Ghana.
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