FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023: Analysing the tactical factors behind Germany’s early exit – scout report

Germany came into this FIFA Womens World Cup as one of the favourites to win, and their campaign got underway in emphatic style thanks to a resounding 6-0 victory over debutants Morocco. It wasnt just the hefty scoreline; it was the style they did it in. They played with a sense of freedom, and we saw the positional rotations and high press that has become a vital part of the Germans way of playing. For a complete dissection of this game, you can read this analysis written by our Head of Womens Football, David Astill. 

Matchday two saw Germany being well and truly halted in their tracks. They faced a resolute Colombia side who utilised a specific game plan (which we will discuss) to guide them to a 2-1 victory. The Colombians took the lead through a moment of brilliance from young starlet Linda Caicedo. Germany equalised in the 89th minute through an Alexandra Popp penalty, but it was not over yet. Colombia secured the win thanks to a dramatic 97th winner from Manuela Vanegas.

Martina Voss-Tecklenburg went into the game against South Korea knowing Germany would most likely require a victory to see them into the last 16, or they were going to need the result to go in their favour from the other game in Group H (Morocco vs Colombia).

Things did not go to plan. After six minutes, South Korea took the lead, capitalising on some lax German defending. Of course, the two-time world champions fought back, equalising through Alexandra Popp before half-time. The second half consisted of some smart tactical choices from South Korea coach Colin Bell and some decent build-up play from Germany that lacked any end product. 

Germanys exit is arguably an even bigger shock than those of Canada and Brazil. So, it poses the question, what went wrong? How did the European Championship finalists go from winning their opening game 6-0 to crashing out of the tournament at the group stage for the first time in their history? 

We will aim to answer those questions in this tactical analysis and scout report. We will look at the tactics used by Colombia and South Korea, which worked well to limit Germanys attacking prowess. This analysis will highlight the tactical challenges DFB-Frauen faced and try to offer some solutions.

Defensive disorganisation

The word disorganised is very rarely a word we associate with Germanys way of playing. Yet, the Germans appeared to be in disarray at the back for parts of both games. There was some poor defending from the former world and European champions during the 97th-minute corner, which saw Colombia make it 2-1 and seal the victory. 

Moreover, some very questionable defending occurred in the opening ten minutes of the game against South Korea. Germany had a warning within the first few minutes as Casey Phair forced a save from Wolfsburg goalkeeper Merle Frohms.

The images above depict the play leading up to the South Korean goal. We can see how narrow the German defenders have gone  we can see the four defenders highlighted in the second image. 

Midfielder Lena Oberdorf has also dropped back to try to mark a player whilst Bühl is in no mans land, unsure whether to sit narrower or mark Choo Hyo-joo who has acres of space to run into. Instead, the South Koreans opt to play a defence-splitting pass to Cho So-huyn, who calmly placed the ball beyond Frohms. 

From a German perspective, it