Keen Kahn learns how to lead from the back

Behind Germany's progress lurks an imposing figure. Phil Shaw reports on a captain who is proving an inspiration

As the Bayern Munich goalkeeper who saw Manchester United transform the glittering prize of a Champions' League winners' medal into a losers' memento in a few, frenzied seconds of stoppage time, Oliver Kahn needs no reminders that the line between triumph and trauma, hero and zero, is as fine as a cigarette paper.

Kahn was lavished with verbal bouquets after a display that was decisive in more ways than one helped Germany overcome a surprisingly superior United States and earn the right to meet South Korea in Seoul on Tuesday for a place in the World Cup final. The 33-year-old captain was all too aware, however, that it might so easily have been him, rather than David Seaman, receiving the brickbats; his embarrassment that was replayed and ridiculed around the planet.

Imagine the gloating, especially in these islands, had a virtuoso volley from the centre circle by the American captain, Claudio Reyna, dipped into his net rather than veering narrowly off target as Kahn hared back after turning sweeper to make a headed clearance. Kahn's reaction to the whistle at the end of his 50th international was to slump to the turf and lie on his back for several minutes, the fact that he was totally drained providing the only glimpse of his mortality on the day.

"When a game is so tense, it puts great strain on a keeper," he admitted when pressed to explain a reaction that gave a whole new meaning to the concept of playing flat out. "The enormous pressure is very tough on the nerves."

It has become clear that, if Germany are to reach a seventh final, Kahn will need a continuation of the fortune which favoured him against Reyna in Ulsan and of the form he has produced throughout the tournament. Playing behind a youthful defence which has looked no more impressive than the other units in a team most politely described as durable, "the man with a thousand arms", as the German paper Tagesspiegel christened him after the quarter-final, has been beaten once in 450 minutes. Even then he nearly kept out Robbie Keane's equaliser for Ireland.

For once, the statistics tell no damned lies. Kahn's presence, like his agility, courage, leadership and, above all, his technique, cannot be measured by a Fifa stooge with a stopwatch. Like all world-class custodians, he appears to fill up the goal. Forwards become so intimidated by the sight of him hurtling out that they put the ball wide, or against the woodwork, in their anxiety to avoid his getting a touch. Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton had it, likewise Peter Schmeichel. Kahn's predecessors, Sepp Maier, Harald Schumacher and Bodo Illgner, possessed a similar quality, although they tended to be better protected.

The relative weakness of Rudi Völler's side is possibly the very factor drawing the best from Kahn; in the wake of costly errors by Seaman, Thomas Sorensen, Jerzy Dudek and Rustu Recber, his claim to be the tournament's finest keeper is probably rivalled only by Italy's Gianluigi Buffon. As skipper, Kahn's sense of responsibility to his less experienced colleagues is self-evident (though he had never played in the finals until this month). His workload is also greater than at Bayern, ensuring that concentration is etched all over his perpetually frowning face.

Now, having exceeded unusually low expectations, Kahn and his colleagues find "only" the 150-1 outsiders of South Korea barring their way. Exactly why Germany should succeed against the super-fit, relentlessly positive and cleverly coached co-hosts where Portugal, Italy and Spain all failed is hard to say. Their best hope, indeed, may be that the sapping effects of the extra time their opponents played against the Spaniards might militate against their peaking again so soon.

Failing that, the key to further German progress is likely to lie in Friday's combination of a ruthlessly executed set-piece at one end and the master keeper at the other. A limited strategy, perhaps, for a team aspiring to be world champions, but long before Oliver Kahn became their saving grace Germany always put results before romance.