Germany and England go head to head for a place in the World Cup quarterfinals on Sunday, both trying to ignore the hype that always surrounds their clashes on the football field.
"It's high time to forget (World War II)," Germany coach Joachim Loew said. "This is year 2010, we are all in the EU and it's highly inappropriate to raise this subject."
The teams have enough history on the field to overshadow such facile discussion, anyway.
Since England's contentious 4-2 extra-time win over Germany in the 1966 World Cup final, Germany has won five of the 11 major tournament finals it has reached. England can count only semifinal appearances in the 1990 World Cup and 1996 European Championship, and lost both in shootouts to Germany.
"This is year 2010 and these games will not mean very much," Germany captain Philipp Lahm said. "We were not born then."
England goalkeeper David James said his teammates have enough to think about as they prepare for a team that dismantled Australia 4-0, stumbled against Serbia, then beat Ghana.
"There will be a lot of external references and historical references but for us it's a game against a decent outfit and we have to win to progress," James said.
The teams have not met at a major tournament for a decade but Loew said his team knows exactly what to expect.
Rooney should have recovered from the ankle knock that forced his second-half withdrawal against Slovenia.
Germany's s biggest injury worry is Bastian Schweinsteiger, who sustained a right-thigh injury in the 1-0 win over Ghana. Schweinsteiger carried more midfield responsibility in this tournament due to the bsence of injured regular captain Michael Ballack.
Loew said there was a "very big question mark" behind the midfielder for Sunday's game, with Toni Kroos the most likely replacement.
Defender Jerome Boateng is also likely to miss the game because of a calf injury, but striker Miroslav Klose is available after sitting out the Ghana match with suspension.
England has not shown its quality so far at the tournament, laboring to draws against the United States and Algeria before edging unheralded Slovenia 1-0 to squeeze into the next round.
England coach Fabio Capello said the Slovenia win rekindled the spirit of their impressive qualification campaign and believes they have no reason to fear any team, even one against which they have such a checkered history.
"When people look at what's happened over the years, all you remember is losing to Germany on penalties, but this is a different game and a different team," said striker Jermain Defoe, who scored in Wednesday's 1-0 win over Slovenia. "It's about having a clear head. Forget about what happened before and focus."
While Germany has not missed a penalty in a World Cup shootout since Uli Stielike's saved effort against France in 1982, England has consistently failed in shootouts at major tournaments. Besides the two losses to Germany, England also lost to Argentina and twice to Portugal on spotkicks.
With that dismal record in mind, coach Fabio Capello has ended training sessions by making his players practice penalties.
Loew said Germany was also likely to practice penalties in case the teams end up level. The teams drew 1-1 at the 1990 World Cup and Euro 96 and Loew is leaving nothing to chance.
"We'll have to fight for every inch, we can't afford mistakes," Loew said.
Loew and Lahm said it was good for Germany's young team to have been in a virtual make-or-break situation against Ghana because it was similar to a knockout game experience.
Germany came through that test with a 1-0 win at Soccer City, but England overcame a similar hurdle by beating Slovenia. England could easily have scored more but its failure to rack up a bigger win meant that it finished second in Group A to set up the meeting with Germany instead of Ghana.
Germany beat England 1-0 in the home team's last ever match at the old Wembley Stadium in 2000 and repeated the feat seven years later to hand England its first loss at the rebuilt venue.
England won the teams' most recent meeting 2-1 in November 2008 but that was a friendly, and even in the major tournaments, England's wins over Germany arguably counted for little.
England beat Germany 1-0 at the 2000 European Championship but both sides were knocked out in the first-round group stage.
England famously thrashed Germany 5-1 win in Munich in 2001, and went on to qualify for the 2002 World Cup ahead of their old rivals, but Germany qualified via a playoff and reached the final, while England lost to 10-man Brazil two rounds earlier.
"If you look at the potential road to the final, the idea of beating Germany is romantic and it's an achievable goal," James said. "And it will bring on another match (Argentina) which will have its own historical significance."
