The nearly man was
left shaking his head once more last night, wondering what he did
to conjure up the wrath of the footballing gods all over
again.
Even in his worst nightmares,
Michael Ballack could surely not have feared a repeat of his 2002
misery, when he lost three trophies in the space of two weeks with
Bayer Leverkusen and was then suspended for the World Cup final
later that summer.
Yet after missing out on the
Premier League and the Champions League with Chelsea last month,
the third leg of the world's least-wanted Treble left Ballack
devastated on yet another evening of anguish.
You have to feel more than
sympathy. After all, nobody had done more to get Germany to the
Euro 2008 final than their captain and unofficial coach.
