In addition to hosting the tournament, Germany had won the previous two Women's World Cups and hadn't lost a match in the tournament since getting knocked out of the quarterfinals in 1999. They didn't even allow a single goal in the entire 2007 WWC, so their position as favorites this time around was almost universally taken for granted. Yet, an underrated Japan team played brilliantly to knocked them out in the quarterfinals with a monumental 1-0 extra time win that could very well be the biggest upset in the history of the women's game.
Karina Maruyama broke the scoreless deadlock in the 108th minute with a great goal from a difficult angle to give the Japanese, who have enjoyed tremendous goodwill and support in Germany in the wake of the earthquake that devastated their country a few months ago. Germany struggled with Japan's ability to maintain possession throughout the match and couldn't come up with an equalizer before extra time ran out. Japan will now play the winner of Australia v Sweden in the semifinals.
So how are the Germans, who have set attendance and TV ratings records with their support of this tournament, taking the loss? Here's the snap headline from German tabloid Bild...
Since Fraus is the goddess of treachery in Roman mythology and the origin of the word "fraud," I'd say they're not taking it well.
UPDATE: Our German speaking friends say that it's also a word play on "frau" (woman) and "raus" (out).
The German team hold up a banner thanking their supporters after the loss...
And the Japanese did, too.
Photos: Getty
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