Shanghai, China - Germany on Sunday became the first country to successfully defend their women's World Cup title, when they beat Brazil 2-0 in the final in Shanghai. Former World Footballer of the Year Birgit Prinz and 21-year-old Simone Laudehr scored the goals for Germany in the second half.
When FIFA president Joseph Blatter handed German captain Prinz the trophy, he set-off wild scenes of celebration in the Shanghai Hongkou Football Stadium as the German squad and their technical team started dancing on the podium to Queen's We Are The Champions.
The Brazilian players, meanwhile, stood huddled together on the field, many of them in tears.
German coach, Silvia Neid, who had been criticised in the run-up to the tournament after the team disappointed during several warm-up matches, said that she had always believed in the players.
"The team grew together and I knew that they would peak at the right time. They deserved the victory and it is just so fantastic that we managed to crown all the hard work with a win."
A capacity crowd of 31,000 saw Germany open the scoring in the 52nd minute when a long pass into the Brazilian half found Sandra Smisek in space. The forward went around her marker and found Prinz, who unleashed a shot that slipped into the goal under the jumping goalkeeper Andreia.
Marta, who is the present World Footballer of the Year, should have equalized for the South Americans in the 64th minute after the referee awarded a penalty for a foul on Cristiane in the German area, but Germany's Nadine Angerer dived to her right and managed to stop the ball.
Brazil, whose previous best finish in the World Cup was second place, continued pushing forward in the remaining time, but Germany's defence stood firm with Angerer pulling off another fantastic save from a Marta free kick in the 68th minute.
Four minutes from time Germany put the game beyond their opponents' reach when Laudehr scored with a header from a corner taken by Renate Lingor.
Marta, who won the Golden Shoe award for the top scorer of the tournament with seven goals and the Golden Ball as best player of the tournament, admitted after the game that Germany deserved their victory.
"It is very difficult to express my emotions. We played well, but we could not manage to get the goals we needed. Germany deserved the victory, but now we are looking towards the Olympic Games in Beijing next year and then hopefully we can be in the final again and possibly win.
"I think maybe we were expecting a bit too much, especially after being the better side in the first 30 minute. I think we thought that we would win and did not do enough to actually win."
German goalkeeper Angerer, who was not beaten in the six games at the tournament, broke Walter Zenga's world record for not conceding a goal. The Italian went 517 minutes without being beaten, Angerer stands at 539 minutes. She also won the award for the best goalkeeper of the tournament.
Angerer said that the German players went into the game feeling very confident. "We were all on a complete high and we believed that we could beat anybody.
"When the final whistle went, it was just such a relief. We had achieved what we set out to achieve and it is just unbelievable."
At the final whistle, the German players put on a T-shirt proclaiming them as world champions and later walked a lap of honour with a huge banner thanking the fans for their support.
While the German team were being cheered on their lap of honour the Brazilians stood in a circle deep in prayer with many of them still crying.
Two-time world champions US finished third after beating Norway 4- 1 in the Third Place play-off.
