South Korea vs. Germany: Top Storylines, Odds, Live Stream for Women's World Cup 2023

Bleacher Report
 
South Korea vs. Germany: Top Storylines, Odds, Live Stream for Women's World Cup 2023

    Germany will try to avoid the same fate as Brazil and Canada in its final Group H contest at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.

    Germany comes into Thursday's match against South Korea (6 a.m. ET, Fox, FoxSports.com and Fox Sports app) in second place behind Colombia.

    The European side suffered a shock defeat to Colombia on Matchday 2 to put it in a somewhat dangerous position on Thursday.

    Germany needs a win over pointless South Korea to secure advancement into the knockout round.

    The second-place side can also go through with a draw as long as Morocco does not beat Colombia.

    Germany is admittedly in a better position as Brazil and Canada were going into their final group games, but those results should at least serve as a warning that it must be on its best game to move on.

    Germany's easiest path to the knockout round is through a victory over South Korea.

    In that scenario, Germany would not have to worry about what Morocco does because of the 10-goal advantage it has over Morocco.

    A draw is good enough to advance Germany if Colombia beats Morocco, or that match is played to a draw. Morocco must win and have Germany not earn three points to get into the round of 16.

    A loss to South Korea could even keep Germany in the tournament because of its superior goal differential. Germany, Morocco and South Korea could all finish on three points and Germany could still have the better goal differential. It leads Morocco by 10 on GD and South Korea by eight.

    Germany is expected to avoid any of those tiebreaking scenarios and beat South Korea by a wide margin.

    Alexandra Popp and Co. received a bit of a wake-up call from its loss to Colombia that the gap between the world's best women's teams and the rest of the pack is closing. Other results across the other seven groups suggest that as well.

    South Korea has not scored in Australia and all of its three concessions occurred in the first half.

    That is a welcome statistics for a German side that could use a fast start to eliminate any concerns about its advancement.

    South Korea does not have a strong World Cup history.

    The Asian side suffered three losses and had a -10 goal differential in its tournament debut in 2003. It made the round of 16 in 2015, but it lost five consecutive group-stage contests since then.

    South Korea's lone World Cup victory came against Spain at the end of the group stage in 2015. That set up a knockout-round clash with France in which it lost 3-0.

    South Korea lost by multiple goals to France twice, Nigeria and Colombia during its current seven-game World Cup losing streak. The only goal in that span came against Norway in its final group-stage contest in 2019.

    All of those numbers suggest an upset over Germany is highly unlikely. This is not a case like Brazil going up against a Jamaica side that already produced two results in Group F, or Canada losing to co-host Australia to get knocked out from Group B.

    Although this has been the World Cup of unlikely results, it seems like South Korea will not pose much of a threat to Germany as it cruises into the round of 16 to likely face France.

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