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Michael Ballack


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The article is on a completely different topic, but I was surprised to see this quote from Frank about Michael:

Some people like to practise, but Michael Ballack never practised a penalty when he was here and he was one of the best penalty-takers I have played with."

Weird that he never practices, he was the best pen taker I've seen after Lamps.

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The article is on a completely different topic, but I was surprised to see this quote from Frank about Michael:

Weird that he never practices, he was the best pen taker I've seen after Lamps.

That is indeed pretty unusual for a German.

There is a reason why Germans are usually great penalty takers (if you are not Bastian Schweinsteiger at least): we love pens, its in the genes. At Euro 2000 when I was 6 years old, i did always wanted games to end a draw in order to have penalties, even though I did know nothing about the german history of success in shoot-outs or anything. In Germany, when people meet in the park to play a bit, they always think of rules to include penalties, such as 3 corners = penalty etc. The result is, every 12 year old boy has 20 variations of how to shoot a penalty with double feint, delayed run-up, eyes off the ball a.s.o. The fun and the confidence a German got in his effort from the spot, surely lifts the pressure a bit in whatever situation.

Btw. Ballack deserves to be arrested for driving a Audi Q7, maybe the ugliest German car ever...

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That is indeed pretty unusual for a German.

There is a reason why Germans are usually great penalty takers (if you are not Bastian Schweinsteiger at least): we love pens, its in the genes. At Euro 2000 when I was 6 years old, i did always wanted games to end a draw in order to have penalties, even though I did know nothing about the german history of success in shoot-outs or anything. In Germany, when people meet in the park to play a bit, they always think of rules to include penalties, such as 3 corners = penalty etc. The result is, every 12 year old boy has 20 variations of how to shoot a penalty with double feint, delayed run-up, eyes off the ball a.s.o. The fun and the confidence a German got in his effort from the spot, surely lifts the pressure a bit in whatever situation.

Btw. Ballack deserves to be arrested for driving a Audi Q7, maybe the ugliest German car ever...

Tbf, Ballack was never about the technique in taking pens but rather brute force. I know he's bound to have missed some with Bayern, but I have personally never seen him miss a pen.

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Tbf, Ballack was never about the technique in taking pens but rather brute force. I know he's bound to have missed some with Bayern, but I have personally never seen him miss a pen.

It is never only about brute force, the faster your shot the more difficult is it to place it. As most great penalty takers, Ballack has an amazing shooting technique, hitting them very hard and precise. He might have always looked a bit crude here, playing next to Lampard, but Ballack has always been a technically accomplished player. The only German players with better skills are probably Özil and Bernd Schneider.

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It is never only about brute force, the faster your shot the more difficult is it to place it. As most great penalty takers, Ballack has an amazing shooting technique, hitting them very hard and precise. He might have always looked a bit crude here, playing next to Lampard, but Ballack has always been a technically accomplished player. The only German players with better skills are probably Özil and Bernd Schneider.

Yes of course had amazing shooting technique, what I meant is that he never paused in his run or did anything too fancy with his body shape. Honestly he never needed to. He always hit them hard and into the corner which is the most difficult and most effective pen.

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One of my favourite all time CFC performances include the Michael Ballack show against United when Lampard didn't play and Ballack seemly took over. What a great performance that was. EDIT: Found a video of the whole performance! JA!

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  • 3 weeks later...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2290087/Michael-Ballack-testimonial-announced-June-5-Jose-Mourinho-Bastian-Schweinsteiger-attend.html

Former Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack is to host a testimonial on June 5 in Leipzig.

The one-time Germany captain will be accompanied by some of the sport's most illustrious names including Jose Mourinho and Bastian Schweinsteiger on an evening he says he wishes to use 'to say goodbye'.

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It's a pity I couldn't watch the match. I'll always respect this guy, for the time he spent at Chelsea and for all his great performances with us. Easily the best German player in the early 00s, he was extremely unlucky not to win more accolades, 2002 especially was a nightmare as he was on the losing side of 3 finals - CL, Deutcher Pokal (Leverkusen) and the World Cup (Germany) and Leverkusen lost the Bundesliga on the last matchday. But if you look back and draw the line he had a hell of a career :)

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Quality player who had a very good career. He was at one point one of the very best players in the world(early to mid 2000s). Perhaps joined us a little too late in his career but still contributed a lot in his time here.

Ciao Capitano :tophat:

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TBH, I could not stand Ballack, when he was here either, but that was mainly due to the German coverage, always overestimating Ballack's importance. I also think his arrival (+Shevchenkos's of course) was partly at fault for us not winning the league. We shifted to that dreadful diamond, so Lamps had to be played out of position and we had no width. we should rather have signed a proper winger to help out the ever-injured Arjen Robben.

Anyway one has to rate him for his professional contribution here, esp saving our asses multiple imtes in 2008. He never bemoaned that he never was more than second fiddle to Lamps and sacrificed his offensive instincts for the sake of the team.

I also rate him for single-handedly keeping GErman football alive in its darkest hours. He was by far the best German player of his generation and all these Schweinsteiger and Kroos bitches will never be nearly as classy and complete. Ballack was an old school box-to-box midfielder, he could defend, attack, head, was strong,great finisher and passer, expert freekick and penalty taker, the most important player for any team he played in besides Chelsea, one of the last of his kind.

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