Strikes from Birgit Prinz and midfielder Simone Laudehr in the second half, gifted Germany a 2-0 win over skilful Brazilians in an arresting final. Wrapping the finale in stipulated time, makes the 2007 tournament the very first one without extra-time.
Yet again, teams from Europe and the American continent showed that they still dominate the FIFA women’s world arena though hosts China, Korea and Australia the three Asian teams, showed their resilience by reaching to the top eight.
But at the end, it was Germany that sailed all the way through to become the first team to retain the title. The feat includes an incredible clean sweep, scoring 21 times in the maximum six matches and conceding none.
Nadine Angerer, the German goalkeeper was awe-inspiring as she not only concede a single goal, but also restricted a penalty kicked by Marta, the most shinning star of the tournament, to avoid a 1-1 draw with the frantic Brazilians.
Marta, grabbing the Golden Ball and Golden Shoe award set a mind-boggling quick pace with instinctive scoring skills in the tournament to stun the world and laud Brazil into the tournament’s final for the first time ever.
German coach Silvia Neid at the end had few words to express and said,
We scored at the right time in the second half, and that gave the team confidence. We worked together very well, stood tight in defense and we stayed close to the opponents, it was a team effort.
The road to success for Germany was not all that easy as on the way the team whitewashed Argentina, Japan, Korea and Norway but had to tie with England.
Meanwhile, 1991 and 1999 title holders the United States, who suffered a 4-0 humiliating loss by Brazil in the semi-final, poured their wrath on the 1995 champions Norway with a 4-1 win to bag the bronze.
Via: Bloomberg
