Germany raring to go despite Ballack injury dampener

By Barry Whelan Jun 8, 2006, 13:40 GMT

Berlin - Not even the loss of captain Michael Ballack could dampen the upbeat mood of coach Juergen Klinsmann on the eve of the World Cup opener between the hosts and Costa Rica.

The German team left for Munich Thursday with their key player still labouring under a calf injury and resigned to the fact that he would be watching the tournament's inaugural game from the sidelines.

Whether the 29-year-old midfielder will now be ready for Germany's second Group A match, against Poland in Dortmund on Wednesday, remains a matter of conjecture.

Ballack was only able to train 30 minutes with the side on Wednesday evening - his only session since taking a knock on the right calf in last Friday's friendly against Colombia.

'It is a pity. He is our captain and our leader but it is important for us that he regains full fitness and takes part in regular training and will be hopefully ready for us for the second game,' Klinsmann said.

Klinsmann is now thought likely to replace Ballack with Tim Borowski of Werder Bremen or Sebastian Kehl of Borussia Dortmund.

Despite the enforced change, Klinsmann said he was looking forward to the encounter with Costa Rica after almost two years of intensive planning for the tournament. It will be the first time the two national teams have met.

'We are really looking forward to this opening game. We have been working towards this for a long time,' he said.

'The mood in the team is outstanding. We can't wait for it to start at long last. We are looking forward to playing before the Munich crowd and to the atmosphere. We are all excited. The intensive preparation is now coming to an end and we have our first big test. We are full of confidence.'

The World Cup opening game will be the first official international in the Munich stadium, although Germany played against Bayern Munich last year to open the newly-built Allianz Arena ground.

The Germans have traditionally got off to good starts in their World Cup tournaments. In 15 participations so far, they have suffered only one defeat - a 2-1 loss to Algeria in 1982 in Spain when they still managed to reach the final.

The 2002 opening World Cup match saw favourites and title-holders France go down to a shock 1-0 defeat to Senegal. But Klinsmann said there was no danger of his side underestimating the Costa Ricans.

Germany have studied their opponents closely, with the squad given detailed video analyses of the Costa Rican team and individual players Wednesday evening.

'We have great respect for Costa Rica. We have watched them closely and we know every single player ... They will be playing before a gigantic crowd. It's their moment, they will be making life extremely difficult for us,' Klinsmann said.

'It will be a lot of work and game of patience. The constellation is the same with the other group opponents. It will be one difficult game after the other.'

Ballack meanwhile will be receiving constant treatment on his injured calf from the Germany team's medical staff.

A report in the mass-circulation Bild newspaper said the Chelsea-bound midfielder was also seeking alternative treatment from a 'wonder guru'.

Ballack was one of a number of players visiting a 'bio-energy' therapist who had had set up a room near the team hotel in the Grunewald district of Berlin, the report said.

Klinsmann said he saw no problem in Ballack wanting to seek alternative treatment. The important thing now was for the player 'to get into the training rhythm and be fit to play at international level'.

Klinsmann has no other injury worries apart from a back problem to third goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand. The coach was giving nothing away on his line-up, but apart from Ballack the team which started against Colombia last Friday is thought to be his favoured formation.

Likely Germany line-up: Jens Lehmann - Philipp Lahm, Per Mertesacker, Christoph Metzelder, Arne Friedrich - Bastian Schweinsteiger, Torsten Frings, Tim Borowski, Bernd Schneider - Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose.