Voller has seen his side turn their fortunes around

By Scott Dougal, PA International

Rudi Voller doesn't have a lot in common with Jesus but he does share one important feature. It's not a predilection for long hair but a gift for resurrection.

Like Lazarus, Germany looked like they had been interred in a tomb for four days by the time Pierluigi Collina blew the final whistle on their 5-1 defeat to England last September.

And, again like Lazarus, Germany were brought back from the dead and are now on the verge of their first World Cup triumph since reunification.

He is a happy man today but Voller was there at the funeral in September, watching in horror as his side were buried by a Michael Owen hat-trick and goals from Emile Heskey and Steven Gerrard.

Bossing the national team was his first coaching job of any note and he was a man out of his depth that night in Munich.

History, though, shows that Germany recovered from their humiliation against England to qualify through the back door of the play-offs.

Aside from that mauling, Voller has made solid progress and could now match the feat of Franz Beckenbauer by winning the World Cup as a player and a coach.

'Der Kaiser' was in charge of Voller and company for Germany's triumph at Italia 90.

And the German Football Association (DFB) obviously felt Voller had learned a great deal from Beckenbauer, showing massive faith in the coaching novice.

However, he was a reluctant Messiah.

The former international striker was handed the task of getting the three-time World Cup winners back on track following their Euro 2000 failure, where they went out as defending champions in the first round.

Voller's job was supposedly only a caretaker role with Christoph Daum, who was in charge of Bayer Leverkusen at the time, set to take over on a full-time basis in June.

After Voller began with wins over Spain and Greece, German football was plunged deep into crisis when Daum became embroiled in a drugs scandal.

German papers broke the story and, after taking tests that showed cocaine use, Daum was eventually forced to admit his guilt.

Voller agreed to take on the job permanently, although he showed little enthusiasm.

"When I hung up my boots five years ago, I said I never wanted to be a coach," he admitted.

"But there was precious little time to think about whether to accept the job or not."

The doubting Thomases complain that Voller's side have strolled a flower-strewn path to the final, ekeing out narrow wins over lesser teams.

The opening game was something of a present with the less-than-wise men from the east - Saudi Arabia - gift-wrapping three points for the Germans.

However, in the Irish, Cameroon, the USA and Guus Hiddink's South Korea they have come up against some of the toughest - if less glamorous teams in the tournament.

Mick McCarthy's team were the equal of Spain, Cameroon were expected to do what Senegal did, while under the imaginative guidance of Bruce Arena, the Americans defied the expectations of many an Old World snob.

And Korea, lest we forget, had already accounted for Poland, Portugal, Italy and Spain - all supposedly better sides than Voller's.

Brazil could still present Voller with his own Golgotha.

However, if it turns out to be another 1-0 to the Germans, then Voller's miracle turnaround of his team will be the footballing equivalent of turning water into Liebfraumilch.