Serbia midfielder Zdravko Kuzmanovic pleaded for forgiveness after his senseless handball gifted Ghana victory in their opening World Cup Group D clash on Sunday.
Asamoah Gyan rammed home the penalty awarded against Kuzmanovic to give the Black Stars a 1-0 success, the first by an African team in this World Cup up to that point.
Stuttgart's Kuzmanovic admitted the fault was all his.
"I hope my team-mates can forgive me," he said sadly.
"I didn't speak with my friends, I just thought about it. I'm very sad.
"I made a mistake, it wasn't what I was trying to do, I tried to go for the ball with my head but it hit my hand. It's my mistake and all I can say to my team is: 'I'm sorry'.
"We deserved at least a draw and because of my error, we have no points.
"We really needed to avoid that, in a World Cup every point counts. We lost and it's really hard for me."
Serbia also saw centre-back Aleksandar Lukovic dismissed for a second booking with just over a quarter of an hour left.
But Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic cast doubt over the validity of his defensive partner's dismissal for a second bookable offence.
"I leave it to you (to say) if it was a red card or not, it was a bit strange," he said.
"After the red card, we had our chances, two great chances."
Straight after Lukovic's red card Milos Krasic fired straight at goalkeeper Richard Kingson.
Vidic then headed the resulting corner inches over before Chelsea full-back Branislav Ivanovic was also narrowly off target with a crisp drive.
But it took both teams until late in the game to start creating some noteworthy scoring chances as the controversial official World Cup ball once again proved difficult to handle.
But Vidic refused to use that as an excuse.
"Many players say the ball is moving strangely, but it is not an excuse for (Kuzmanovic's) error," he said.
"Our problem is that we should have done better on some occasions, we should have used our experience better, our cleverness. We have to put our hopes in the next game, but this is against Germany."