Miroslav Klose made his international debut as a 73rd-minute substitute with Germany apparently heading for a humiliating home draw with Albania in March 2001.
Soon after coming on, and with injury-time looming, Klose was on hand to nod home a bobbling Sebastian Deisler cross from no more than a yard.
Four days later in Athens, Klose replaced Oliver Neuville with 24 minutes left.
Germany, down to 10 men, prepared to dig in and hold on to the 2-2 scoreline.
But, eight minutes from time, Klose stole in once more to head his side into the lead. Marco Bode added a fourth goal, but Klose was the hero.
Critics argue that it is just as well Klose's timing is so impeccable, because he isn't particularly quick, can appear lightweight in the air and rarely troubles goalkeepers with his shooting power.Others accentuate his poaching prowess and hail him as the putative heir to Gerd Muller, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Rudi Voller and Jurgen Klinsmann.
Certainly there is a feeling that Klose has emerged at just the right moment for a Germany side who have been desperately seeking a reliable striker since Oliver Bierhoff's form deserted him.
"Klose is a very good player," Kaiserslautern team-mate Taribo West told BBC Sport Online.
"He has a lot of good qualities and if things go well for him, the sky is his limit.
Klose has five goals in nine outings at the top level
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"He is a good professional, always ready to learn - very disciplined, very quiet. He is a player who keeps his head down and works hard. And, most importantly, his time is right now."Germany coach Rudi Voller has shown a preference for pairing Carsten Jancker and Neuville up front, deploying Klose as a supersub.
But with Jancker failing to score over the course of the entire Bundesliga season, Klose's chance could come sooner rather than later - even if logic seems to dictate that the Bayern Munich battering-ram would be a better partner for him than Neuville.
If the goals do flow at the World Cup, however, Germany fans might reflect that Klose was nearly lost to football entirely.
His mother Barbara - capped 82 times for Poland at handball - enrolled him in a gymnastics club in Diedelkopf, a small town near Kaiserslautern.
Thankfully for Germany, Klose soon decided to follow in the footsteps of his father, who played for Auxerre in the 1980s.
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