Team spirit aids triumph

Germany have now won the last two FIFA Women's World Cups as well as taking four UEFA European Women's Championship titles in a row, and coach Silvia Neid put their latest triumph down to a collective will.

Latest success
A 2-0 defeat of Brazil in Shanghai meant that Germany became the first team to successfully retain the global crown, courtesy of goals from Birgit Prinz - winning her sixth major international competition - and Simone Laudehr, plus a record sixth consecutive finals clean sheet from goalkeeper Nadine Angerer. Neid, in her first major tournament in charge after stepping up to replace Tina Theune-Meyer, has no doubt as to the reasons for their latest success.

'Team effort'
"We worked together, we stayed tight in defence and we were close to our opponents. There was a will not to let in any goals in this tournament or this game," Neid said. "It was a team effort. We worked as a team and everybody worked together. Before the game we had an aim that everybody should defend as well as possible. The result showed we had 21 goals and none conceded during the tournament. That's quite good!"

Angerer honour
Angerer only succeeded long-standing No1 Silke Rottenberg this year after the stalwart goalkeeper suffered a succession of injuries but she more than justified her selection in this tournament, especially by saving a Marta penalty in the final with the score at 1-0. "I watched Marta's penalty against Australia when she went left," Angerer said. "I thought this time she would go right so I decided to wait as long as possible and it was the right decision. I'm happy about not conceding a goal but this is the result of a team effort. It starts up front where Birgit Prinz and Sandra Smisek work for defence and goes through the whole team."

Marta rues reverse
Umeå IK striker Marta had the consolation of being top scorer with seven goals and she also won the Golden Ball as best player ahead of Prinz, who made the team of the tournament along with compatriots Angerer, Kerstin Stegemann, Ariane Hingst and Renate Lingor, Norway trio Bente Nordby, Ane Stangeland and Ingvild Stensland plus England playmaker Kelly Smith. Marta said: "We weren't clinical in front of goal, my luck deserted me from the penalty spot, we hit the woodwork two or three times and we didn't manage to dictate the tempo of the game. But that's football. Sometimes, however good you are you don't get what you want and today just wasn't our day."