World Cup winners and losers: Comedy goals and a national tragedy

Wednesday’s action at the World Cup included one of the biggest shocks in the history of the tournament – Costa Rica scored. Twice. Here are the day’s winners and losers.

Winners

Soap opera fans. As the reigning champions and the nation with the highest average league attendances in world soccer, today’s exit is almost certain to be viewed as a national tragedy in Germany.

And rest assured – the German public’s bloodlust will have to be sated, which is likely to be a lot of fun for those who have no affinity for Die Mannschaft.

Explanations will be demanded – and there’ll be no shortage of present and past players queuing up to provide them. The likes of Lothar Matthaus and Stefan Effenberg won’t let the fact that they’re failed managers stop them from publicly lecturing a World Cup-winning coach about how to do his job.

We’ll be hearing a great deal of talk about dressing room divisions, attitude problems and – above all – leadership, or the lack of it. Accusations and rumors are likely to swirl around the squad for the remainder of the summer.

Some might hope that Germany’s ignominy comes to be symbolized by Hans Ulrich Voigt and Georg Behlau, the German team officials who were guilty of some very ugly provocations in front of the Sweden bench after Toni Kroos’ last-minute winner (the ensuing melee can be seen below).

Anyway, fetch your popcorn. The blame game is likely to last for far longer than Germany’s involvement in the tournament did.

Every team still left in the World Cup. On the basis of their largely lackluster performances, there’s no doubt that Germany’s departure is deserved. Bafflingly, the only time that they looked like a good side was after going down to ten men against Sweden.

But in a World Cup where the only two consistently good teams – Belgium and England – have still yet to face an opponent of note, nobody would have savored playing Germany had they scraped through to the knock-out rounds.

The uninitiated would never have guessed it from watching Germany’s games, but they boasted one of the strongest squads in Russia, full of players from elite-level clubs who possessed a vast amount of big-tournament experience.

Losers

Aleksandar Mitrovic. The Serbian striker, who looks set to leave Newcastle United in the very near future, can make a decent claim to being the unluckiest player at the World Cup.

Prior to today, he’d already been the victim of what’s probably the worst decision of the tournament to date, when referee Felix Brych somehow failed to see the double-team wrestling maneuver that two Swiss defenders were performing on Mitrovic.

Then tonight, during a stretch of sustained Serbian pressure early in the second-half that turned out to be the decisive period in the match, he missed two big chances to put his side level.

First, he reacted well to get his head to a close-range parry by Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson, but could only direct the ball straight at Thiago Silva. It then ricocheted into the arms of the very fortunate Alisson.

Minutes later, as a cross came in Mitrovic towered over Brazilian full-back Fagner – as the Serb should, being a good eight inches taller than the diminutive defender – but the ball again ended up in the arms of Alisson.

Brazil scored from a corner shortly afterwards and the game had gone for Serbia, along with their hopes of staying in the tournament.

Jan Sommer. He’s been one of the finest goalkeepers in the Bundesliga for a few years now, which is no mean feat given the high standards in the German top-flight.

And there have been reports in recent weeks of the Swiss number-one potentially moving from Borussia Monchengladbach to Liverpool, although it does feel like half the keepers in Europe’s top leagues have been linked with a move to Anfield following the Champions League final.

https://twitter.com/FOXSoccer/status/1012061609374593024

Next: Time runs out for Germany

Sommer has had a decent World Cup so far, but tonight he ended up scoring an own goal in the most outlandish of circumstances.

Coast Rica were awarded a penalty very late in the game, which their captain Bryan Ruiz hit against the bar. Unfortunately for the luckless Sommer, the ball then rebounded onto his head and bounced into the goal.

Thankfully for him, though, the freakish incident wasn’t going to prevent Switzerland going through to the knock-out stages, so Sommer could allow himself a wry, disbelieving smile.