Germany’s Coach Wasn’t Sure He Would Survive This One

Rudi Voeller, Germany’s coach, was immensely relieved to hear the final whistle Friday. For much of the match he had lived in dread of the United States coming back to tie and then defeat his team.

“I am absolutely happy to reach the semifinals,” he said. “Although I am not quite happy about the manner in which we made it. From the beginning we didn’t play as I wanted us to play.

“We withdrew too much into our own half. The U.S. put a lot of pressure on us and we just didn’t get the combination play going as I would have liked.”

Still, the Germans are where they always seem to be every four years, in the semifinals of the World Cup.

“Prior to the World Cup, people didn’t think we had a chance of doing anything at the World Cup,” Voeller said. “Some even thought that we wouldn’t even survive the group stage.

“We proved them wrong and I’m happy to have done that.”

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Defender Gregg Berhalter was angry that referee Hugh Dallas saw fit not to award the U.S. a penalty kick when the ball struck German defender Torsten Frings on the arm when Frings was standing on the goal line.

“I don’t want to be a sore loser, but that was a clear handball,” Berhalter said, “and the referee should have given him a red card.”

The rules say, however, that no penalty should be given on accidental contact.

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This might have been Claudio Reyna’s final game with the U.S. national team.

The American captain, tired of repeated flights from Europe to World Cup qualifiers in North and Central America, isn’t sure he wants to commit to another four years of travel.

“It’s probably something I’ll decide on in the next couple of months,” Reyna said after the loss to Germany.

Brad Friedel, the U.S. goalkeeper, also isn’t sure whether he’ll return for another four years. Friedel, who got married during World Cup qualifying last year, will be 35 in 2006 and recently signed a new contract with Blackburn Rovers of the Premier League.

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The Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium where Friday night’s game was played is named after nearby Mt. Munsusan.

The coastal city’s tourism bureau has a slogan that reads: “From Sea to Land and Land to Mountain, No More Boring Trips.”

The same might be said of the U.S. team after this World Cup.

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German goal-scorer Michael Ballack praised the U.S. players for taking the three-time world champions to the wire.

“Those guys really put [pressure] on us,” he said. “We had trouble getting away from their tight defense. They were physically very fit and ran for the entire 90 minutes. They deserved to be in the quarterfinals.

“Many people thought it was going to be an easy game, but the U.S. has showed us what they are made of and proved to be a difficult opponent.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report