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In the quarter-finals of the World Cup, after experiencing a failure, the head coach of the Argentina national team, Jose Pekerman, decided to resign from his position. The strategist himself announced his decision immediately after the match.
"All of this has ended and I will in no way continue to work. I have to make a decision and I am convinced that I have done everything that is achievable for me. Now it's time to seek something else. I am very sorry for the coaches, fans, and players, because this team deserved to go further, but we failed," disappointed Pekerman said.
Argentina led against Germany after Roberto Ayala's goal, but with ten minutes left in the match, Miroslav Klose equalized the score and helped the Germans force extra time, which ended in a penalty shootout. R.Ayala and E.Cambiasso missed their shots, so the tournament hosts, Germany, celebrated the victory.
"The match was very interesting. We played as favorites and even though we lost, we tried until the end. The penalty shootout was a result of very evenly matched match. It's regrettable for Argentina, which played very well throughout the tournament," said the coach who worked with the Argentine national team for more than a year.
In complete euphoria was Germany's head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who rejoiced in the victory against powerful opponents and spared no praise for the fans gathered at the Berlin Olympic Stadium and supporting his team.
"It's hard to find words. I am incredibly happy, proud and grateful. Fantastic fans drove us forward, they believed in us. We knew that even trailing by one goal we would be able to equalize. We were sure that we would advance to the next stage after reaching the penalty shootout. The confidence in our abilities that we have is very strong," affirmed J.Klinsmann.
The coach stated that his team, which was criticized by many before the championship, gained the belief that they can win the tournament playing in their homeland: "This is a team that has grown together in the last six weeks, and we want to be world champions."
Team captain Michael Ballack stated that the players deserved the victory: "It was sensational. Perhaps the match wasn't very interesting for the spectators, but it was of very high level. The team fought until the end. Of course, the outcome of the penalty shootout is always influenced by luck, but I think the team deserved to win. At the moment, we are playing successfully, we have been playing very well since the start of the World Cup, at a high level, and almost made no mistakes."
