SOCCER/Germany - 1 Argentina - 1: After extra time Germany win 4-2 on penalties: The pain was etched clearly on the face of Jose Pekerman as he endured the obligatory post-match date with the press here at the Olympic Stadium yesterday.
The 56-year-old had said before this tournament he had come to Germany to restore Argentinian pride after their first-round elimination from the 2002 World Cup. He has clearly not achieved all he would have wished. There was, at least, no shame here, but the disappointment will be hard to bear given the quality of his squad.
The veteran of so many underage successes may wonder this morning if he cost his side their chance of a third World Cup with changes and tactics that appeared to stifle their flow and allowed a fiercely motivated but technically inferior German side to clinch victory in a penalty shoot-out.
"You have to say that Argentina showed a lot of respect for us out there today," said the German coach, Jürgen Klinsmann, his surprise evident. "They adapted to our strengths. They didn't start with (Esteban) Cambiasso, they didn't start with (Javier) Saviola and then in the second half they took off both (Juan Roman) Riquelme and (Hernan) Crespo."
There were changes to the shape of the team too that seemed to blunt the previously impressive rhythm of the South Americans.
True, they looked the better side in the first half and led for 31 minutes of the second after Roberto Ayala had shaken off his marker to head home Riquelme's corner from the right. Never, though, did they recapture their best form from the group stages and rarely did they threaten to open up a defence expected to prove vulnerable to Riquelme's passing, Maxi Rodriquez's pace and Crespo's strikes around the area.
Crespo may have suffered in the absence of Saviola, replaced by Carlos Tevez, but he was lucky to last until the 79th minute, when Pekerman replaced him. By then Riquelme had been sacrificed too after failing to make a major impact.
Even on a day when Philipp Lahm looked out of sorts, neither Rodriguez nor Tevez could seriously trouble the German back four and it wasn't until extra-time that Jens Lehmann was called into serious action.
After seeing his side go behind, Michael Ballack sought to take control of the situation and partially succeeded, the 29-year-old proving hugely influential in the fight-back that led to Miroslav Klose's equaliser.
Before then Ballack had been denied a penalty when held by Ayala and fluffed his side's best chance with a shot that crashed off the ground and into a defender. The Argentinians survived but when the dust settled their goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri went down injured and had to be replaced by Leonardo Franco.
Nine minutes later he was beaten, the fifth goal scored by Klose for in this tournament. Inevitably, Ballack had played his part in the build-up, providing a cross that Tim Borowski flicked into Klose's path.
Momentum swung to the Germans but Ballack was now struggling with what looked like a recurrence of the foot injury that had last weekend threatened his participation in this game.Three times he received treatment but when Klinsmann used his last substitute to replace Klose four minutes from the end of ordinary time, the skipper had to soldier on.
He did so in some style. And his reward ultimately came in the penalty shoot-out when he followed Oliver Neuville's initial success with an equally confident finish. Julio Cruz scored Argentina's first too but his side were in trouble when Ayala struck a poor shot that Lehmann gathered easily.
Lukas Podolski, Rodriquez and Borowski all found the target but Lehmann finished it with a decent if hardly spectacular stop after the second-half substitute Cambiasso failed to get adequate power behind a strike that was also dangerously close to the goalkeeper.
Lehmann, as Klinsmann said later, has an uncanny knack for guessing which way a spot kick will go. And as in the Champions League semi-final against Villareal, that ability marked him out as one of his side's heroes here.
For the most part, though, it was the single-mindedness with which they played for each other that saw the Germans through.
Whether it will be enough against the Italians on Tuesday we will have to wait and see. Whether it should have been enough here is something Pekerman will surely ponder.
SUBSTITUTIONS
GERMANY: Borowski for Schweinsteiger (74 mins), Odonkor for Schneider (62 mins), Neuville for Klose (85 mins). Subs not used: Asamoah, Hanke, Hildebrand, Hitzlsperger, Huth, Jansen, Kahn, Kehl, Nowotny. Booked: Podolski, Odonkor, Friedrich.
ARGENTINA: Franco for Abbondanzieri (71 mins), Cambiasso for Riquelme (72 mins), Cruz for Crespo (78 mins). Subs not used: Aimar, Burdisso, Cufre, Messi, Milito, Palacio, Saviola, Scaloni, Ustari. Booked: Sorin, Mascherano, Maxi, Cruz.
Referee: Lubos Michel (Slovakia).
