Football
Associated Press 18y

World Cup final slips from Ballack's grasp a second time

BERLIN -- Two World Cups, no finals, a whole lot of regret
for Michael Ballack.

Four years after he was banned from the World Cup final and
forced to watch Germany lose 2-0 to Brazil, Ballack saw his second
chance at the title match slip when Italy's Fabio Grosso scored the
winner in the last minutes of extra time.

That they won't be in a Berlin final on Sunday took Ballack and
the German players a long time to digest.

"The players went to sleep at five o'clock this morning, it was
very quiet, no one was talking," team manager Oliver Bierhoff said
Wednesday. "The team believed in our objective. We got close. It's
a very bitter loss."

Ballack, on the brink of 30, is undecided if he'll have another
crack at the World Cup in South Africa. Asked if Tuesday's loss was
worse than missing the 2002 World Cup final, the German captain
choked back tears before he replied.

"It just isn't meant to be for me," he said.

In the Dortmund semifinal Tuesday, Grosso broke nearly two hours
of scoreless tension when he twisted a brilliant left-foot strike
inside the far post off a clever pass from Andrea Pirlo in the
119th minute.

Ballack -- the versatile backbone of the national team with 31
goals in 69 appearances for Germany -- has made his name for scoring
late, match-winning goals. Not this time.

As the Germans desperately pressed for an equalizing score in
the final minute, Alessandro del Piero quickly added the insurance
marker with a counterattacking goal.

"It's not that Italy didn't deserve to win," said Ballack, who
is moving to Premier League champion Chelsea from Bayern Munich
this season. "But it is very bitter for us to get eliminated like
this, to allow two really late goals, one minute from time.

Coach Juergen Klinsmann decided at the World Cup it would be
best if Ballack played deeper than usual, focusing on closing any
gaps in defense before moving forward. Still, after a relatively
subdued performance, the stage was set for Ballack.

Less than a minute after Grosso's opening goal, Ballack had a
chance to fire a long-range equalizer -- but his shot was high and
wide.

"It's bitter but not necessarily undeserved," Ballack said.
"We started out rather slowly even though we did a much better job
in the second half."

In 2002, it was Ballack's goal against South Korea that put
Germany in the final. Minutes before that, he'd been cautioned --
his second yellow card in the knockout stage -- and was forced to
sit out the showdown with Brazil.

Though he directed the attack and was a big presence on this
national team, his scoring here has been limited to one penalty
kick.

Overall, though, the German team played above expectations.

"It's no consolation that we played such a good tournament.
Maybe in a week's time things will look a little less bleak," he
said.

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