Voller praises Ballack 'technical foul'

Germany coach Rudi Voller praised match-winner Michael Ballack for committing the "technical foul" in today’s 1-0 semi-final win over South Korea that means he will miss the World Cup final.

The midfielder scored the game’s only goal four minutes after he had earned a second booking in the tournament for bringing down Lee Chun-soo on the edge of the area as the Koreans threatened.

Voller said: "I have to give him the highest respect. Even though he knew he would miss the final with another booking he still committed the technical foul that was utterly necessary.

"He put himself at the service of not just his team-mates but of the whole of Germany.

"I think the entire country will applaud him."

Voller believed that Germany were worthy of their seventh appearance in the World Cup final.

"We were very compact throughout the game and we changed it around and played with a back four," he said.

"We were able to create goalscoring opportunities and we were the deserved winners of this match."

The former Germany striker was glad his side proved the sceptics wrong after their chances were written off in the build-up to the tournament.

"Two weeks ago a lot of people thought that we would not even make it into the last 16," he said.

"When you are in a semi-final you dream of the final and I think we played very well tonight."

Meanwhile South Korea coach Guus Hiddink believes his players paid for having too much respect for Germany as their World Cup adventure came to an end today.