Womens World Cup - Germany takes title over Brazil, USA third

The best players produce on the biggest stages. It is a maxim as old as the game itself. And so the FIFA Women's World Cup went to Germany for the second time in the new century because when the pressure was at its most intense, Birgit Prinz kept her nerve and Marta did not.   For the team that began this fascinating Chinese extravaganza with an 11-goal show, they ended it in the same Shanghai stadium with a victory over Brazil in which they scored twice. But just a single salvo would have been enough to retain the trophy they won for the first time in 2003.

One is always enough when you have a goalkeeper and a defence welded together in steely determination not to let anything or anyone get through. After six games, Germany arrived on the winners' podium without having conceded a single goal. And that is an achievement to cherish at any level of the game. They added a second goal in the final minutes but that was the icing on the cake - the critical moments had occurred earlier in the second half and how appropriate that the first should fall to Prinz. The first woman to appear in three finals sent waves of "Deutschland, Deutschland" reverberating around the ground with her solid finish - not the sweetest connection admittedly - from Sandra Smisek's intelligent cut-back.

Brazil immediately responded. They had not come so far to give up the fight that easily and for the first 45 minutes they had looked the team most likely, Daniela striking the woodwork with a breathtaking volley. Now Cristiane carried the struggle deep into German territory, went tumbling and earned a penalty.  It seemed an age before Marta was able to take the kick. There was obvious tension spread across her face, rare uncertainty intruding for this most instinctive, elusive striker. Facing her down at this moment of truth was a goalkeeper who had forgotten what its like to fish the ball out of her net.

The record held as Marta aimed left and Nadine Angerer guessed right. The magic which the 21-year-old Brazilian had sprinkled on this tournament from start to finish had deserted her but will derive some consolation from claiming two individual awards: the adidas Golden Ball and the adidas Golden Shoe. Angerer needed to hold out for just another three minutes to claim another record for her landmark-loving team, that of outstripping Italy's Walter Zenga at the 1990 FIFA World Cup™, who went 517 minutes without conceding.

USA 4  Norway 1
Abby Wambach was once again USA's heroine as Greg Ryan's side put their on-and-off-field troubles behind them to take bronze and deny Norway a place on the China 2007 podium.  Wambach's opportunistic brace was the highlight of a match dominated by a clinical American side for whom Lori Chalupny and Heather O'Reilly also found the target, with Ragnhild Gulbrandsen's subsequent header of little consolation to Bjarne Berntsen's Norwegians.

The US held the upper hand from the outset, with Kristine Lilly - playing her final FIFA Women's World Cup match - providing a touch of class during some fast and furious early exchanges with a curling left-foot shot that fizzed just over. Yet, just as Lilly and Co appeared to be taking a grip on proceedings, Solveig Gulbrandsen carved out the best chance of the opening half, crossing for 22-year-old Melissa Wiik to head wide on her first China 2007 start.

Wambach was to prove considerably more clinical at the other end with 30 minutes played, applying the deftest of touches to flick the ball past the wrong-footed Bente Nordby after Chalupny had returned a half-cleared corner towards goal. The striker's ecstatic celebration betrayed the Americans' relief at putting a week of in-fighting behind them, and Wambach again showed that her predatory instincts are as sharp as ever within a minute of the second half kicking off when she prodded home from close range after Cat Whitehill's initial effort had come back off the post.

The US already had a firm grip on the bronze by this stage and any lingering doubts were removed within two minutes just prior to the hour-mark as Ryan's side moved three and then four in front. The first of these two goals arrived in somewhat fortuitous fashion, Ingvild Stensland's attempted clearance rebounding back into the net off Chalupny, while the fourth was hardly a work of art either, O'Reilly scrambling the ball home from two yards.