RUSSIA: Toni Kroos avoided passing to one of his own team-mates during Germany’s miserable World Cup campaign because he ‘did not trust him’, according to reports.
Germany, the winners of the last World Cup in 2014, opened up their campaign in Russia with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Mexico.
They were on the verge of being knocked out by Sweden as they trailed by a goal but Kroos’ injury-time winner revived Germany’s hopes of becoming the first nation to defend the World Cup since 1962.
That result turned out to be irreverent, however, as Joachim Low’s team suffered a shocking 2-0 defeat to South Korea on Wednesday.
A victory would have put the Germans through to the last-16 stage but two injury-time goals sealed their fate as they exited at the group stage for the first time in 80 years.
The inquest into what went wrong for Low’s side has already begun, with speculation there were massive divisions within the dressing room that affected the team on the pitch.
According to The Times, the disharmony within the squad led to a quite remarkable situation in which experienced international Kroos was reluctant to pass to Marvin Plattenhardt because he did not trust him.
Plattenhardt, 26, made just his seventh cap for Germany in the opening game against Mexico and did not feature for the team again after being substituted off in the 79th minute.
The Times also claims an arrogant presumption of success existed in the Germany camp before the World Cup started.
One source said: ‘The whole squad, the whole organization, though they are the World Cup winners.‘It needed someone to tell them they have to do it all again from the start. Now they have no option but to start from scratch.’
Speaking immediately after Germany’s shock World Cup exit, manager Low said:
‘The disappointment of being eliminated is just huge. ‘I think first of all we need to congratulate our two opponents who have made it out of the group.’
At this tournament, we didn’t deserve to win again or move to the round of 16.
