Is history about to repeat for Germany's next gen?
With a precociously talented group of young players achieving success on the international stage, Germany is well-primed for another World Cup win.
The seeds of Germany's 2014 FIFA World Cup win were planted four years earlier in South Africa, when a young, underrated squad blazed an attacking trail to the semi-finals, losing 1-0 to eventual winner Spain.
That squad boasted 21 year-old relative unknowns Mesut Ozil and Jerome Boateng, fledgling 23 year-old Sami Khedira and a precociously talented 20 year-old named Thomas Muller.
Unburdened by expectation having been shorn of star players like Michael Ballack, Kevin Kuranyi and Torsten Frings, the young German team put four goals past Australia, England and Argentina in a swashbuckling run of entertaining football that yielded the golden boot award for Muller and a swathe of lucrative deals at big clubs for many of the others.
Four years later Germany went two better, winning the final with the core group forged in South Africa.
Seven years on from 2010, a different Germany team, shorn of star power, has stormed into the final of the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup on the back of dynamic attacking play from its core group of youngsters. Where Ozil and Boateng proudly went before them, 21 year-olds Timo Werner and Julian Brandt have enthralled, as have Leon Goretzka, Mathias Ginter and Julian Draxler.
Bayern Munich star Joshua Kimmich, still only 22, passes with the wisdom, control and vision of a seasoned veteran, while 'veteran' defenders Shkrodran Mustafi (27) and Jonas Hector (25) give the team some not-necessarily-required experience in defence.
At an average age of 23.9 years-old, this group is exactly one year younger than the class of '10 and well-placed to match their forebears at Russia next year. It would not surprise to see them perched on the winner's dais in Qatar five years later. To put their Confederations Cup achievement thus far into perspective, Monday's opponent - Chile - a polished, hardened tournament team which has won back-to-back Copa Americas - has an average age of 28.6.
Adept as Chile has become at producing winning tournament football, the need for regeneration of an ageing squad is bearing down.
Not so Germany, and those familiar with Joachim Low's modus operandi won't be at all surprised. The renowned tactician has plenty of form when it comes to blooding youth at major tournaments. The tactic paid off in the last world cup cycle and, judging by the efforts of the latest class of footballers to roll of the production line, will do so again in Qatar, if not at Russia.
Scarily for opponents, while the 'senior' team struts its stuff in Russia, the Under-21version is doing likewise at the UEFA European U-21 Championship in Poland, where it will also contest a final this weekend. With an average age of 21.8, these players will also be creating competition for places at the next two World Cups, as part of an enviable pool of talent available to Low.
The only surprise about a powerful, deep and meticulously-structured Germany, is that press continues to write it off.
