GROUP B: GERMANY v SERBIA:GERMANY'S dismantling of Australia will be forgotten quickly if it is not followed with a win over Serbia in Port Elizabeth this afternoon.
In Germany there is understandable satisfaction regarding the scale of the surprise sprung upon an unsuspecting international public in Durban. Joachim Low’s starting line-up included a 20- year-old, two 21-year-olds with 23- year-old Sami Khedira filling in effortlessly for the team’s absent captain, Michael Ballack.
The Germans squad has the lowest average age of any that has represented the country for 75 years and while the strong showing by more experienced members like Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose, neither of whom have enjoyed good seasons, the dramatic rise to prominence of Mesut Ozil, Holger Badstuber and, in particular, Thomas Muller is what has really helped to generate a major sense of excitement.
Muller, just 20, was making only his third appearance for the national side but played like a World Cup veteran; scoring one goal and setting up another in the 4-0 win while contributing tirelessly. It was just the latest stage in what has been a meteoric rise for the player from Wilheim, some 40 kilometres from Munich where he is a regular these days for Bundesliga champions Bayern, having established himself in the first team during the early part of last season.
Scoring 120 goals in a season for your schoolboy outfit is certainly a good way to grab the attention of the big clubs. A couple of years after Muller achieved that for TSV Pahl, moved to Bayern’s youth set up and quickly started to rise through the ranks.
Hermann Gerland, his coach at Bayern, was convinced of his potential and the teenager was offered a professional contract which, due to his remarkable rate of progress, has been improved twice since. “His biggest strength is his instinct,” says the former Bochum defender, who has played a key role in the young player’s development.
“He knows exactly where to be. Scoring goals is the crucial thing and he has this rare ability. He was doing it as a youth, he confirmed the knack when he was playing for me and he’s doing it for the seniors – not just against the minnows but against the big name teams.”
Muller started the season just gone still on the periphery of Louis van Gaal’s squad even if his future already looked fairly assured. It is that knack for getting goals, even on the big stage, that has dramatically accelerated his progress.
During the opening weeks of the season he came on against Borussia Dortmund and grabbed two in a 5-1 win and a few days later repeated the trick in a Champions League defeat of Maccabi Haifa. Since then, he has been a fixture in the team’s starting line, ending the season with more than a dozen goals.
Now, even Gerd Muller, notoriously critical over the years of so many of those who have tried to fill his boots, reckons his country has found somebody worthy of having that famous name on the back of a German jersey.
“He is just a fantastic player,” says the former German striker. “He can play on the left, on the right, and he is good in the air. He is Mister Goal for me. He has everything a striker needs and if he stays without injury he will go a very long way.”
With Low set to name an unchanged side for the game today, he will get another chance to enhance his growing reputation. That he could be a World Cup winner by the middle of July still seems a little unthinkable. But whatever happens over the next few weeks in South Africa, his longer term future looks bright indeed.
