It was nearly bankrupt a few years ago, but Borussia Dortmund is now repeat German champion and looks like long-term competition for league giant Bayern Munich, which had not gone two seasons without lifting the Bundesliga title since 1996, when Dortmund last won two straight.

With two games left in the season, Dortmund has an insurmountable 8-point lead over second-place Bayern.

Other than Dortmund's 31-year-old goalkeeper, Roman Weidenfeller, and 32-year-old captain, Sebastian Kehl, none of the regular players is over the age of 26. Even without key players such as Nuri Sahin, who transferred to Real Madrid before the start of the season, or Mario Goetze, who missed a large part of the season due to injury, the wins kept coming for Dortmund.

Dortmund is undefeated in 26 matches and counting, a league record. If it wins its final two games, Dortmund will finish the season with 81 points and break Bayern's record that was set in 1972 and tied in 1973 (under the current system of awarding three points per win, Bayern would have had 79 in each of those seasons).