BPL World Cup blogger David Weiner is a Sydney lawyer and journalist.

We came hoping for a World Cup classic. We witnessed the making of a classic World Cup team.

If this young German side goes all the way – and it’s still a big if with Spain and Holland still alive – then they have every right to be deemed one of history’s great sides. Three four-goal performances – two against top seeded nations in elimination matches – is an explosive display.

Cape Town has come to life for the business end of the competition. Under glorious blue skies and the shadows of Table Mountain, 65,000 spectators and thousands of other revellers made the two kilometre pilgrimage from city centre to the Green Point stadium on the “World Cup Fan Walk”. Colour, excitement and anticipation everywhere.

The human traffic jam ground to a halt amidst the beat of street bands, African markets, the call of the vuvuzela and the pandemonium of the build up to a blockbuster World Cup quarter final – and unfortunately for Diego Maradona’s side, they also got stuck in the one-paced traffic. They simply could not escape the German onslaught.

It only took two minutes for the heaving chants and streams of paper spectacularly flying from the South American section of the crowd to subside.

They knew, as well as any neutral, that their side was playing into the Germans’ hands.

With the stage set for his moment to shine, Leo Messi was hamstrung by the need to collect the ball from deep in his own half. At Barcelona, he unlocks defences with movement and interplay, and footwork at the last line. Earlier in the tournament, they opened the hole in the front third for him to roar through at will. Today, he had an entire German team to cut through. It was nigh on impossible.

With Messi bullied out of the equation, Maradonna was stuck. He held his head. The crowd was stunned.

Not only did a lack of midfield support force Messi deep, reducing Argentina’s game plan to running frantically at the German defence, but every time their pocket was picked, the Germans only really had Javier Mascerano in front of them.

While Messi vanished, Bastien Schweinsteiger placed his star at the top of this tournament’s tree. In a domineering display, he had the pulse of the match on his fingertips, spraying balls the width, while even dipping into his youth with the odd terrorising run at the defence.

The usual suspects burst from midfield (Ozil), ran at fullbacks (Muller and Podolski), found themselves in dangerous areas (Klose) and overlapped to create uncontainable width (Lahm).

It was a German assault on all fronts.

We were left gasping at their brilliance. Maybe Pim and Diego can exchange notes.

Having seen a potential Brazil v Argentina final evaporate before our eyes, and three of the tournaments stars (Kaka, Messi, Ronaldo) already vanquished, it might have been easy to lament the predictability of seeing Germany in the final four - again!

They are still as ruthless, efficient and merciless as always. They still close down space and hold their shape. But they are exhilarating.

This is not a dislikeable side. Young, daring, bold and exciting, this generation does not know what a drab 1-0 to Germany means.

Klose does summersaults, Schweinsteiger proudly kisses the crest, Podolski and Ozil walk around the field like excited kids, waving at the crowd.

They have been the benchmark – but how will they go against a more compact, narrow Spain side?

The classic we yearned for could be just around the corner.