Guangzhou Evergrande Player Dumps Holders Germany Out of World Cup

By Bryan Grogan, June 28, 2018

Guangzhou Evergrande center-back Kim Young-gwon scored the goal that knocked defending champions Germany out of the World Cup last night.

Both teams were stuck in a deadlock when the ball fell to Kim in the 92nd minute and the defender made no mistake as he fired the ball into the roof of the net.

The goal was immediately ruled offside, however, as Kim was behind the last German defender when the ball was passed to him from a corner kick.

Upon review of the newly integrated Video Action Replay system (VAR), the referee overruled the offside call, as it was found that the pass to the Evergrande player came from German midfielder Toni Kroos.

VAR was only implemented in the CSL at the beginning of the 2018 season, and has seen plenty of action throughout the first half of fixtures this year, with referees and officials drawing criticism from fans for being over-reliant on the fledgling technology. There were no such complaints on this occasion, however.

South Korea’s So Heung-min went on to score a second goal in the 6th minute of added time, tapping into an empty net after a desperate (and failed) attempt by German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer to rampage up the pitch and into midfield.

Guangzhou Evergrande’s Kim Young-gwon was an unlikely goalscorer, as his career goal tally sits at just six in 240 club games. This is only his fourth goal for the national team.

The center-back is one of nine players from the CSL called up to play in the World Cup, and the only Guangzhou Evergrande player, although newly signed Guangzhou R&F player Dusko Tosic has been in action with the Serbian team.

Kim Young-gwon joined Guangzhou Evergrande in 2012. He has since played in 164 games for the Chinese Super League’s defending champions, winning the competition every year since he made the move to South China.

Germany went into the match needing either a win or a draw, and for Sweden to lose to Mexico in order to make it to the next round. It is the first time since 1938 that Germany have been eliminated in the opening stages of a World Cup, and only the fourth time that a defending champion has been kicked out of the competition after the first round of matches.

[Cover image via Fox Soccer/YouTube, Wikimedia]