Germany, South Korea crash out of FIFA World Cup
Kazan, June 27: Defending champions Germany crashed out of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in the group stage after South Korea stunned the European powerhouse with a 2-0 victory in their final Group F contest here on Wednesday.
From Group F, Sweden secured the top spot with six points, while Mexico, which also had six points, finished second due to an inferior goal difference. South Korea ended the group stage in the third spot with three points -- same as Germany, who are also going home.
Before the two matches in the group on the day, Mexico had the best chance to enter the knockout stage, as a tie in the match with Sweden would be enough for it to qualify, while both Sweden and Germany fought with each other for second place, needing an outright victory and a big goal difference. South Korea also had a possibility to enter the playoffs as well, however, only if Sweden lost the game to Mexico.
South Korea took care of their own end at Kazan Arena, with Kim Young-gwon and Son Heung-min each scoring in second-half stoppage time. But Sweden made it all moot by beating Mexico 3-0 in Ekaterinburg, reported Yonhap news agency.
South Korea, as expectedly, deployed counter-attacking strategy to foil the German heavyweights. South Korea had only 31 per cent of ball possession in the match, and attempted only 251 passes, a third less than Germany. But those statistics weren't important as the final score.
Against Germany, South Korea used a defensive lineup. With the absence of their midfield orchestrator and team captain, Ki Sung-yueng, South Korea started with 4-4-2 setup, but there was a twist as usual.
Jang Hyun-soo, who started last two matches as a center back, protected back four as defensive midfielder, hoping his defensive efforts could work in the midfield against German technicians.
Koo Ja-cheol, who is with German Bundesliga side FC Augsburg, played behind Son Heung-min, another South Korean player who is familiar with Germans with his stints at Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen.
As many would have predicted, Germany, who played with a 4-4-2 formation and made five changes to their starting line-up that defeated Sweden 2-1 in the last match, dominated possession from the midfield and ran the game carefully.
With South Koreans sitting back, German full backs Joshua Kimmich and Jonas Hector made overlapping runs and even penetrated the box. Mesut Ozil and Toni Kroos controlled the midfield with their passing skills and vision.
For South Korea, taking a ball away from Germany and making a quick delivery to Son was their main homework. But it was a somewhat difficult task against the skillful and powerful Germans, and the South Koreans committed some sloppy fouls in the process.
Just in the first half, South Korea made 11 fouls, more than double that of Germany, and received two yellow cards.
South Korea surprised German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer a couple times in the first half, with Jung Woo-young's free kick and Son's thunderous strike that slightly flew over the net, but that was about it.
South Korea did hold on to the 0-0 score in the first half, with Germany struggling to land shots on target.
Both teams made substitutions to sway the match in their favour. South Korea put Hwang Hee-chan for Koo, and deployed the Red Bull Salzburg attacker on the right in the 56th minute.
After knowing Sweden won against Mexico, Germany were desperate for goals, taking out midfielder Sami Khedira for striker Mario Gomez in the 58th minute, and Leon Goretzka for Thomas Muller in the 63rd.
With Germans moving forward, South Korea also found open space behind the opponents, and Son, with Moon Seon-min, carried the ball near to the box, but they lacked a delicate final touch.
Germany, on the other side, were struggling with the same problem. Even though they made shots on target, their attempts went straight to goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo. They fired 26 shots, but only six were heading to the net.
And South Korea had grit and endurance to fight until the end. All told, they ran 118 km, three more than Germany.
With the Germans keep making mistakes, South Korea waited for fast break and bagged the opening goal in the 93rd following a corner kick situation and with a help of VAR system.
Frustrated Germans even moved forward their goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, and South Korea didn't miss that opportunity. In the 96th minute, following Ju Se-jong's long pass, Son tucked the ball into the empty net for their historic win, inflicting a rare historical defeat on the European outfit.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
