KAZAN, Russia, June 28 (Reuters) - Champions Germany crashed out of the World Cup after suffering a stunning 2-0 defeat by a tenacious South Korea on Wednesday that eliminated them in the opening round for the first time in 80 years and sent the football-mad nation into mourning.   Long the benchmark of excellence in the sport, Germany's dismal campaign ended meekly, with stoppage-time goals by Kim Young-gwon and Son Heung-min condemning Joachim Loew's side to finishing bottom of their group.   On a warm and sunny afternoon at Kazan Arena, some 42,000 flabbergasted fans witnessed the fall of a titanic team who had made the semi-finals or beyond in every World Cup since 2002. [caption id="attachment_376449" align="aligncenter" width="728"] Soccer Football - World Cup - Group F - South Korea vs Germany- Saint Petersburg, Russia - June 27, 2018. Germany fan reacts at Saint Petersburg Fan Fest. REUTERS/Henry Romero[/caption] [caption id="attachment_376453" align="aligncenter" width="728"] Soccer Football - World Cup - Group F - South Korea vs Germany - Kazan Arena, Kazan, Russia - June 27, 2018 Germany's Thomas Muller looks dejected after the match REUTERS/Michael Dalder[/caption] [caption id="attachment_376454" align="aligncenter" width="728"] Soccer Football - World Cup - Group F - South Korea vs Germany - Kazan Arena, Kazan, Russia - June 27, 2018 Germany's Manuel Neuer looks dejected after the match as they go out of the World Cup REUTERS/John Sibley[/caption] [caption id="attachment_376455" align="aligncenter" width="728"] Soccer Football - World Cup - Group F - South Korea vs Germany - Berlin, Germany - June 27, 2018 - Germany fans react after the match at a public viewing area at Brandenburg Gate. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke[/caption] [caption id="attachment_376456" align="aligncenter" width="728"] Soccer Football - World Cup - Group F - South Korea vs Germany - Berlin, Germany - June 27, 2018 - A Germany fan reacts as she watches the match at a public viewing area at Brandenburg Gate. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke[/caption] [caption id="attachment_376457" align="aligncenter" width="728"] Soccer Football - World Cup - Group F - South Korea vs Germany - Kazan Arena, Kazan, Russia - June 27, 2018 Germany coach Joachim Low looks dejected during the match REUTERS/Michael Dalder[/caption] [caption id="attachment_376448" align="aligncenter" width="728"] Soccer Football - World Cup - Group F - South Korea vs Germany- Saint Petersburg, Russia - June 27, 2018. Fans watch the broadcast at Saint Petersburg Fan Fest. REUTERS/Henry Romero[/caption] Four-times champions and four-times runners-up, Germany were heavily backed to retain their title and add another triumph to Loew's long list of honours.   Instead, they will head home after a scarcely believable failure, having also suffered a shock 1-0 loss to Mexico in their opener and only scraped past Sweden with a stoppage- time winner.   "At the moment ... the disappointment of being eliminated is just huge. We need to congratulate our opponents," an apologetic Loew, who has overseen a golden era in German football since 2006, told reporters.   "We didn’t deserve to win the title again, we didn’t deserve to get into the last 16.   "We wanted to win but we didn’t have what it takes."   With the group going down to the wire, Germany needed victory against the lightly regarded Koreans to give themselves a chance of progressing.   Yet they scarcely looked capable of scoring, let alone going on to claim another trophy. They became the fourth champions in five World Cups to fall at the first hurdle during their title defence.   The German players trudged off goalless at halftime, with frowns on faces and whistles ringing out from the terraces.   SENSE OF DOOM   An early fumble on the goal-line by captain and keeper Manuel Neuer betrayed their nerves, and all but delivered the Koreans' first goal.   A sense of doom grew in the stadium as Sweden leapt out to a 2-0 lead against Mexico in Yekaterinburg, forcing Loew to make changes in a desperate push for a winner.   Mario Gomez and Thomas Mueller, who was dropped from the starting side, were injected soon after the break but a collective paralysis seemed to have taken hold.   Offered a free header from close in with minutes left on the clock, centre back Mats Hummels missed the ball completely, a perfect snapshot of an afternoon of serial ineffectiveness going forward.   "We had a lot of chances, even me I should have scored in the 87th (minute)," said a rueful Hummels.   "Today it was not easy but, yes, no team could get through easily."   Toni Kroos, who curled in the winner to beat Sweden, tried to spark his side but was denied by Cho Hyun-woo in the 88th minute, one of a number of fine saves by the South Korean keeper.   "We were playing for the Korean people," said Cho, a cult figure at home for his ostentatious, orange bouffant.   "It was only after the match that we found out the other score, of course we were disappointed and that’s why some of us cried."   Hogging 70 percent of possession and launching 26 shots at goal, Germany pushed forward in numbers but found no way through the Korean stonewall.   Their own defence was exposed on the counter-attack, however, and it finally buckled in the third minute of stoppage time when a corner fell to an unmarked Kim who poked the ball home from close range.   Although ruled out offside, the goal was confirmed with a review of the Video Assistant Referee, sparking mad celebrations from the Koreans and a gasp from the crowd.   Minutes later, Germany's humiliation was completed with a touch of farce.   Son sprinted to retrieve a long ball, and with Neuer having gone upfield to try to help his side score, the Tottenham forward rolled a low, angled shot into the open goal to seal one of the most unlikely wins in recent World Cup history.   The Koreans, who had no idea of the score in the other match, rejoiced as if having won the tournament, while 11 German players hoped the ground would swallow them.   Loew, who recently signed a contract extension, said he would take time to consider his future.   "I must take responsibility for this. The entire German football lost," he said.

Complacency killed Germany's World Cup hopes

  VATUTINKI, Russia (Reuters) - Charts, graphs and statistical analysis will not explain Germany's shock World Cup exit. The reason lies not in numbers but in German football's complacency in recent years.   Every aspect of the national pastime, and that includes clubs, the top league, the national association (DFB) and the players themselves, has fed off this complacency for years.   Ever since their brilliant 2014 World Cup victory the main actors of German football rested on their laurels, raked in the cash and thought the good times will last for ever.   But they didn't.   Two defeats and one last-gasp victory in the group stage meant an embarrassed Germany made their earliest World Cup exit in 80 years on Wednesday.   Rewind to 2014 just before the world Cup, when four German clubs battled their way through the group stages and into the Champions League round of 16. This season it was just one.   Back in 2013, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund played out an all-German Champions League final. No German club has made it past the last four since.   In 2011 and 2012 Dortmund won the league. Since then it has been a Bayern monopoly.   The reasons for all this are simple: money.   The Bundesliga is eager to highlight its ongoing financial boom but that boom has also brought with it a one-sided, boring and predictable competition where Bayern win every time.   The lack of league competition, as the cash-rich DFB looks on without any interest of intervening, has meant that German players have seriously lost their competitive edge.   Deals in China are more important than giving fans in Freiburg or Hanover a decent competition to watch.   Even Bayern does not need to create its own players anymore. Its swelling savings account has meant it can just buy them, with Thomas Mueller being their truly home-grown player.   STUBBORN LOEW   Add to that Germany coach Joachim Loew's own complacency, with the coach stubbornly insisting on fielding virtually the same core of players for almost a decade.   "Why should I lose trust in them after one game," he snapped after their opening defeat to Mexico.   Players like Mueller, Jerome Boateng, Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira and Manuel Neuer have long stopped chasing international success and are now quicker to show off their latest clothes, cars, houses, tattoos or shoes than their latest football achievements.   Their collective last good season was back in 2014.   Even the DFB's own smugness was evident in its tournament slogan -- 'the Best Never Rest' --, its constant marketing drive and sponsor photo shoots and its continuous demand to "bring back the fifth star" -- a fifth world title.   When two DFB employees stormed the Sweden bench after Germany's last-second 2-1 victory to celebrate and gesticulate at their opponents, it was indicative of their complacency suddenly being replaced by pure panic.   Until that point the DFB had no clue a disaster was looming.   Whether Loew decides to stay on, the post-World Cup Germany coach must clean house and rebuild the team from the same source as the 2014 World Cup-winning team.   The country's outstanding youth work and its vast pool of talented players was the start of their decade-long exciting run in world football and it is there the coach must turn to, instead of players more interested in taking pictures of their latest sports cars or presidents.