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Germany's deby critics

SEOUL, Wednesday (Reuters) - Germany have defied the critics to stand within one game of lifting the World Cup for the first time in 12 years as they pursue their own impossible dream in Sunday's World Cup final in the Japanese port city of Yokohama.

Written off by many observers after going through lean times and struggling to qualify, the triple world champions entered the tournament with lower expectations than usual but with a fierce determination to prove the doubters wrong.

"We can be proud of ourselves," said playmaker Michael Ballack, who hit the winner in Tuesday's 1-0 semi-final victory over South Korea after sacrificing himself to the cause with a tactical foul and a yellow card that ruled him out of the final.

"We were realistic enough to know that we did not belong to the favourites but we had the belief that we could achieve something special."

Marching to the final used to be business as usual for the Germans, who will feature in the game for the seventh time when they face the winners of Wednesday's Brazil-Turkey semi-final.

But they had lost their status as automatic contenders after failing to win a title since their 1996 European championship triumph and moving to the brink of missing the World Cup after a 5-1 thrashing by England in a qualifier last September.

With few genuine world class players but a bunch of fighters with little to lose, they survived while teams blessed with more talent were sent packing in a tournament of upsets.

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