Michael Ballack
Michael Ballack
Michael Ballackis a retired German footballer. He is among the top goal scorers in the history of the German national team. Ballack wore the number 13 shirt for every team he has played for except for Kaiserslautern. He was selected by Pelé as one of FIFA's 125 Greatest Living Players, and as the UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year in 2002. He won the German Footballer of the Year award three times – in 2002, 2003 and 2005. Ballack was...
ProfessionSoccer Player
Date of Birth26 September 1976
CityGorlitz, Germany
listen shame
It is shame Kahn is not around. The youngsters listen to him and look up to him. That is what I think anyway.
cup decisive mood successful
It's a decisive game. Not just for us but also for the mood of the country. It's important going into the World Cup that we get a successful result.
atmosphere confidence cup decisive essential game self success
It's a decisive game for our self confidence and for the atmosphere in the country. It's essential that we go into our World Cup preparations experiencing success and not having everyone questioning our abilities.
expecting
It's all or nothing, but that's what we've been expecting all along.
club inform next november playing
I told them that I would inform the club at the end of November where I would be playing next season.
compact game normal shooting strength win
It's not so important if I get into a shooting position. Our strength is the defense, that's where we have to win balls. We have to play our normal game, be very compact in midfield. That's our game and that's what we do best.
fall german match mistakes national punished thankfully three weeks
It's inexplicable how one can fall back so quickly. The mistakes we made were punished hard. Thankfully there will be another match in three weeks and then it's going to be a different German national team.
bad game pressure
This is like a game we have to win. The pressure has risen, which I think is not a bad thing.
advance advantage both either far hard home people possibilities
It may be an advantage for us that we are hard to assess, that people think we can either advance far or go home after the first round. Both possibilities can happen.
good hard stay
It's hard to stay here when one has good possibilities,
decided serious signed talks
Nothing has been decided yet and nothing signed but I'm in serious talks with Chelsea.
negative
There's at least nothing negative to report. But I still haven't made up my mind.
behind crowd fans forward great looking supported weaker
The crowd was unbelievable, they even supported us in our weaker phases. With such great fans behind us we are all looking forward to this World Cup.
champions crowd frustrated german naturally step stood took toward wall
The crowd naturally was frustrated when it was 0-0. They stood like a wall back there. But we want to be German champions and we took a step toward that today.