Ballack blow leaves Germans looking to bridge quality gap

There may be no room in the German football lexicon for an entry under "one-man team", but they know class when they see it, and are uncomfortably aware that, World Cup finalists or not, the squad does not have an abundance of that quality.

Yesterday their coach, Rudi Völler, was prepared to admit of his inspirational midfielder Michael Ballack, whose yellow card just before scoring the only goal of Tuesday's semi-final means that he is banned from Sunday's final against Brazil: "He has so much class that you just can't replace him. Even when he's not 100 per cent fit, he's capable of scoring at any time."

Ballack did just that, within four minutes of receiving his second booking of the tournament, this one for a professional foul on South Korea's Lee Chun-Soo, which Völler had described as "absolutely necessary". "Many players would have done what I did," said Ballack, who becomes the latest high-profile figure to miss the World Cup final through suspension after Laurent Blanc of France (1998), Italy's Alessandro Costacurta (1994) and Claudio Caniggia of Argentina in 1990.

Ballack, whose goal took Germany to a record seventh final, revealed he had broken down inside the sanctuary of the dressing-room in Seoul. "I was sad and I even shed a tear or two," he said. "Anybody who has been a footballer will know how I feel."

He saw the lighter side of being absent, however, admitting that some Germans who regard his club, Bayer Leverkusen, as football's perennial runners-up, will not be dismayed by the turn of events.

Völler is taking a more serious view, in the knowledge that with Sebastian Deisler and Mehmet Scholl both injured before the competition began, he has no obvious playmaker to field in Yokohama on Sunday. The more defensive Jens Jeremies, whom Ballack will join at Bayern Munich shortly, may get the role ahead of Borussia Dortmund's Lars Ricken, who has not yet played at all in the tournament.

Dietmar Hamann of Liverpool, another "sitting" midfielder, came through the semi-final well, despite concerns that he would miss the game because of knee trouble. Something of the old Liverpool philosophy could be heard in his reflection that "in modern football, you should be able to beat opponents with just one goal, by not giving up any goals. We gave up one goal in six games and that says everything." It may also say something to the world's football public about the chances of a thrilling final materialising.

Meanwhile, for once there will be some interest in the third-place match, in Taegu on Saturday, which South Koreans genuinely seem to believe is a bronze-medal decider well worth winning. The team and their supporters deserve to do so and ought to if only because they will care so much more than Turkey. Afterwards, one of the first questions for their remarkable coach, Guus Hiddink, will be about his future; he will reply that his contract is now finished and that he will take a break and then sit down and think about his options.

Since those will almost certainly include offers from a number of Europe's leading clubs, and not a few national associations (several of whom have vacancies as a direct result of events over the past four weeks) it seems unlikely he will continue the love affair with the South Korean people, reflected in the banner at Tuesday's match: Hiddink for President.

Scouts and agents will also be in touch with a good number of the players who have done him proud in the past six months, and the Korean clubs who willingly gave up domestic football for the greater good of the national team may have seen the last of some of their star men. However, Ahn Jung-Hwan's agent has said his man will not return to Perugia, even after being forgiven for scoring the goal that knocked out Italy.