A ruthlessly efficient Germany tamed Brazil Sunday to win the World Cup final 2-0 with goals from Birgit Prinz and Simone Laudehr making them the first nation to successfully defend their title.
The Germans also owed a huge debt to unbeatable goalkeeper Nadine Angerer who saved a second-half penalty from World Player of the Year Marta, leaving the Brazilians numb. The result meant Germany’s watertight defence went through the entire tournament without conceding a goal. Captain Prinz got the breakthough in front of a packed Hongkou Football Stadium after 52 minutes when the veteran Frankfurt forward found herself in acres of space when fed the ball by Sandra Smisek.
She thundered a shot on the turn from inside the box and it slid under the diving Andreia, who should have done better.
Brazil came back with a vengeance but no matter what they threw at impregnable Germany they couldn’t find the equaliser, and Laudehr’s bullet header four minutes from time put the game beyond their reach.
“I had a lot of confidence in my team and they worked very hard for each other. It was a great team performance,” said ecstatic German coach Silvia Neid. “After the penalty save I felt it was meant to be our night.”
She heaped praise on her defence, in particular, for keeping the dangerous Marta at bay.
“It was important to close down Marta and we did a very good job there.”
Angerer added that “we were nervous but we felt we had the right to be world champions.”
The Brazilians were chanting and singing before the start of the match to fire themselves up and Marta had the first chance of the game with her long range drive easily gathered by Angerer in the fourth minute.
Seconds later the action switched to the other end when Kerstin Garefrekes was set free on the right only to slice her shot into the side netting.
Brazil almost penetrated the German defense in the eighth minute when Angerer failed to collect Daniela’s free kick. The ball bounced out to Formiga but she was unable to put the ball in the net.
The physically stronger Germans threw their weight around but the nimble Brazilians gave as good as they got, with the powerful Prinz unceremoniously barged off the ball at one point.
Both sides were creating chances and Daniela was desperately unlucky not to score when she clattered a left foot volley onto the post with Angerer beaten on 23 minutes.
Brazil had most of the possession and could sense they were getting the upper hand with Marta skipping through two defenders and into the box soon after only to lose control of the ball before she could unleash a shot.
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