It may have looked like Germany was callously running up the score on Fiji in their 10-0 win in their final group match at the 2016 Olympics men's soccer tournament, but they did so with a specific reason. Because of that huge victory, Germany vaulted from third place in their group to almost winning it -- but a late South Korea goal over Mexico in the group's other match saw the Germans finish second instead.
Germany vs. Fiji 2016: Final score 10-0, Germany progresses from men’s Olympic soccer group
The match was over almost before it began as Germany ran rampant.
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It was quickly obvious that Germany's intent was to score early and often, pushing high and hard from the first kick with the majority of their team. Serge Gnabry, the early favorite for Player of the Tournament, opened the scoring just eight minutes in when he blazed past Fiji right back Anish Khem to the far post, hammering in a cross from Julian Brandt with ease. Nils Petersen followed that up with a goal of his own six minutes later, and Germany were off to the races.
It wasn’t long before Fiji looked completely out of sorts and broken. Germany were regularly pushing seven or eight outfield players up into and around Fiji’s box. Even pulling 10 men behind the ball, Fiji couldn’t keep Germany from passing into dangerous areas for runners to grab onto at will, and things quickly went from bad to worse. Petersen and Max Meyer scored another pair of goals just four minutes apart from one another after the half hour mark.
Those four goals put Germany even with Mexico on goal differential in the group standings, but that wasn't enough. They wanted to top their group, meaning they had to score five more goals to pass South Korea's plus-8 differential -- and they made quick work of that task.
It would be 6-0 before halftime, with Gnabry’s wall-beating free kick just before the half serving as the standout, a needle-threading shot that he slotted into the narrow gap between the edge of the wall and the far post. Meyer would score twice more right after halftime to give himself a hat trick -- and to bring Germany level with South Korea on goal differential. It took two penalties to get the ninth goal, but Petersen scored his fourth on that second try to get Germany what they needed from this match. He then added his fifth and Germany’s 10th goal a few minutes later for good measure.
It was, in short, an utter domination. Fiji would manage to get forward here and there and cause some minor danger to Germany’s back line, but only because of counter-attacks against what was often just one of Germany’s two center backs and their goalkeeper, because everyone else was up trying to score. Even then, Fiji never truly threatened to score, and were too demoralized to do any more than they managed.
Sadly, Germany’s work was undone through no fault of their own -- South Korea broke their deadlock with Mexico in the 77th minute, putting them two points clear of Germany. Mexico is now a point behind Die Mannschaft, making Germany’s massive win feel somewhat frivolous. Still, such a resounding performance will fill Germany with confidence heading into the quarterfinal, and that will be worth a lot as they make their push toward the gold medal match.
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