Young German Team Defeats Chile 1-0 For Confederations Cup Win

Despite the team’s average age of 23, the German soccer team defeated Chile 1-0 on Sunday at the Confederations Cup. The win gives the European country its first ever Confederations Cup trophy.

The group won the game in a fashion one might only expect from a group of storied veterans. Nonetheless, the German team, who has only played together as a group for three and a half weeks, won the tight game against a surging Chile.

The one goal of the game came quickly after a Chile mistake, on which, Germany capitalized.

Chile’s Marcelo Diaz, made a turn into Germany’s Timo Werner who was waiting patiently for him. Werner kicked the ball away and knocked it into an empty space where his teammate Lars Stindl intercepted it and tapped it into an empty net for the first and only score of the game.

In the last minutes of the game, Chile came close to tying it up, but was ultimately turned away at the goal by Germany’s keeper.

Joachim Low, Germany’s head coach was highly criticized for bringing such a young team to St. Petersburg, Russia, the host of the tournament. Several of his players could qualify to participate in the junior circuit. Even before winning the trophy, Low said to reporters, “I feel vindicated.”

His spoke more on the feeling after winning the match.

“We had to fight for every single meter of the pitch to defend our lead,” Low told reporters. “They are an outstanding tea. But we were single-minded about this victory. And I am so, so impressed with that. We’re talking about a team with so little international experience dealing so well with the pressure, with the nerves, with a talented, experienced opponent. I am mega-proud of them.”

The victory came two days after Germany’s under-21 team won the European Championship, making the country the most dominant in international soccer at the moment.