The future’s black and white

GERMANY’S remarkable progress at this World Cup,built on a gamble to throw young talents from the Under 21s straight into the line of firing in South Africa, is now looking so impressive it could change the way other teams will approach the tournament in future.

Joachim Löw’s side went into the finals as outsiders for the title but a 4-0 demolition of Argentina, which followed hard on the heels of a 4-1 drubbing of England, has made coaches and tactical analysts stand up and take notice ahead of a semi-final against Spain.

The emergence of Thomas Muller and Mesut Ozil in particular, who are 20 and 21 years old respectively and have scored five World Cup goals between them, is food for thought for the likes of Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi, whose gut instinct told them to go for experience in South Africa and saw England and Italy field the oldest squads in the tournament.