Germany Wins Women's World Cup 'We Have the Best Women in the World'
Germany's women's soccer team has done it again, winning the Women's World Cup in China with a 2-0 victory over Brazil in a thrilling final in Shanghai on Sunday.
The 2003 World Cup winners didn't concede a single goal in the tournament and goalkeeper Nadine Angerer, 28, saved a crucial penalty against Brazilian striker Marta. She has broken the 1990 record of Italian male goalkeeper Walter Zenga who went for 517 minutes without conceding a goal in international matches.
"We have the best women in the world," proclaimed the mass circulation daily Bild in a banner headline on Monday. Captain Birgit Prinz put Germany ahead in the 52nd minute, scoring her 14th goal in four World Cup tournaments and thereby drawing level with legendary German striker Gerd Müller.
Brazil's talented forwards mounted constant attacks but they failed to breach the German defense. Strong runs from Daniela and tournament top-scorer Marta were repeatedly cut off at the last moment.
"We wanted to break Brazil's game and we succeeded," said Germany coach Silvia Neid. "The whole team played very well and I am very proud. We had an aim before the game that everybody should work their way back to defense as much as possible. We had 21 to 0 goals in the tournament, and that's pretty good."
After Angerer saved the penalty, Simone Laudehr delivered the coup de grace in the 86th minute with a header, securing the World Cup victory that eluded Germany's men in the 2006 World Cup when they were knocked out of the tournament by Italy in the semi-final.
Surprisingly, Sunday's victory did not bring the Germans out into the streets on Sunday night -- there were no traffic jams of honking cars that accompanied every single match win of the male team last year -- but the women can nonetheless expect a rousing welcome at a reception in Frankfurt on Monday evening.
Each player will get a prize of €50,000 for winning the World Cup -- a far cry from 1988 when they each got a set of crockery and an ironing board for winning the European Championship.
cro/dpa/reuters
