SPORTS> Off the Pitch
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SPORTS> Off the Pitch
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Pain and pride as Germany digests end of World Cup dream
(AP)
Updated: 2006-07-06 09:42 In Aachen, on the Belgian border, celebrating Italy fans narrowly escaped injury when a drunken local, annoyed by honking car horns, lobbed beer bottles and a computer monitor out of his window.
Several cars and a bus slammed on their brakes to avoid an accident. The 46-year-old man was taken to a police cell overnight to sober up. Many Germans were still stunned Wednesday. "I simply cannot believe we lost," Uwe Holler said as he walked his three dogs near Frankfurt's main shopping strip. "I just don't know what to say." Fans have one last chance to cheer their team. Germany now travels to Stuttgart for the third-place playoff against Portugal on Saturday. "The mood is down now in the first moment of defeat, but it will be back up in a day or two," predicted Gunter Gebauer, a professor of philosophy and sport at Berlin's Free University. "Then the realization will sink in that a wonderful World Cup took place here with a fantasic German team" that enthused the country and beat a tournament favorite, Argentina, he added. Even Tuesday wasn't a disappointment for everyone. ZDF public television said that, as tension peaked during extra time, more than 30 million people in the nation of 82 million tuned into its live broadcast _ an 89 percent share of viewers. That compared with some 25 million who watched Germany beat Argentina in last week's quarterfinal, plus a likely 16 million more who watched that German victory at outdoor screenings. Klinsmann faced near-unanimous calls to stay on after Germany's World Cup run silenced pre-tournament critics. "He really has achieved outstanding things," Peter Danckert told n-tv television. "The team is great and it still needs him."
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