Fear drives Germany on

GERMANY believe they are heading for their fourth world title, driven by the fear of being branded back home as the generation that could not win the World Cup.

And for the majority of the current squad, they also know it is their last chance of glory at the very pinnacle of world football.

Veteran keeper Oliver Kahn under-lined the motivation to not only defeat the US in the quarter-finals but also go all the way and give Germany their fourth World Cup triumph to equal Brazil’s record of four wins.

It would appear to be the last chance for Kahn and his generation. Fourteen members of this squad will be 32 or older by the next finals in Germany and few of them would expect to still be involved.

Kahn, at 33, is one of the old men of the side and talks as though he does not expect to emulate England’s David Seaman and be playing on the world stage in his late 30s.

‘‘I’ll be 37 next time around and there are also several players who will never play a World Cup again and want to make the most of it this time,’’ said the Bayern Munich stopper.

The list of those in the last chance saloon is long. Oliver Bierhoff will be 38 when the next finals come around, goalkeeper Jens Lehmann and Marco Bode 36, Christian Ziege and Marko Rehmer 34, Dietmar Hamann and Bernd Schneider 33.

Carsten Ramelow, Carsten Jancker, Oliver Neuville, Jens Jeremies and Hans-Jorg Butt will all be 32. It is an ageing squad and only a few will figure in 2006.

Therefore, the feeling they must seize the moment is strong in the German camp, especially as they were close to the humiliation of not even qualifying this time around.

It was a crisis that Kahn believes forced the players together and has seen them cruise comfortably to the last 16 here, blasting 12 goals in the process with Miroslav Klose joint top scorer for the tournament.

If they can beat the US, Germany will be in a semi-final with South Korea or Spain and they would really fancy their chances then.

Meanwhile, the man who has rein-vented the US as a world footballing power believes his rank outsiders can shatter Germany’s dream of a fourth World Cup triumph. Bruce Arena, the USA’s highly-respected coach, insists all the pressure is on the Germans.

Having already over achieved after by Paul Walker reaching the last eight for the first time in 72 years, Arena’s men will go home as heroes regardless.

Germany, however, will be eager to avoid joining a list of giantkilling victims that already includes France, Argentina and Italy.

Arena said: ‘‘The team that has to win this game is Germany. If we don’t win we’ll still have done fine, we’ll go home and everyone will be happy.

Meanwhile, coach Jose Antonio Ca-macho insisted last night injured striker Raul would only play in Spain’s quarter-final clash against South Korea tomorrow if he is fully fit.

Camacho was forthright about Raul, who was taken off with a groin injury in Spain’s second round match against Ireland.

The Real Madrid player has not trained with the rest of the side since then and again missed a session on Thursday.

“You have to take in to account that it’s not just one game we have to play, but also he’s a player who may be injured a little psychologically as well as physically,” said Camacho.

“What we need is to control the game from the start, because a game can be won in the first minute or the 90th, as we have seen. So we need a player who is match fit,” he added.