Players of Germany celebrate the victory during the awarding ceremony after the final of the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup in Shanghai, east China, on Sept. 30, 2007. Germany won the champion after beating Brazil 2-0. (Xinhua/Ren Long) Photo Gallery>>>

Players of Germany celebrate the victory during the awarding ceremony after the final of the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup in Shanghai, east China, on Sept. 30, 2007. Germany won the champion after beating Brazil 2-0. (Xinhua/Ren Long) Photo Gallery>>>

    SHANGHAI, China, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Germany made a history to become the first team to retain the FIFA Women's World Cup title here on Sunday with an incredible clean sweep, scoring 21 times in the maximum six matches and conceding none.

    Two goals from world-class striker Birgit Prinz and midfielder Simone Laudehr in the second half gifted Germany a 2-0 win over the more skilful Brazilians in the breath-taking and eye-catching final.

    The final finished in 90 minutes and made the 2007 tournament the very first one without extra-time match.

    German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer, the best keeper of the World Cup, was another player worth mention because she not only did not concede a single goal in a World Cup, but also denied a penalty kicked by Marta, the most shinning star of the tournament, to avoid a 1-1 draw with the desperate Brazilians.

    Marta, 21, took the Golden Ball (best player) and Golden Shoe (top scorer) Awards with seven goals. Her amazing dribbling skills, unbelievable quick pace and innate scoring instinct stunned the world and pushed Brazil into the tournament's final for the first time.

    However, her poor penalty shot, which was lack of angle, smashed the Brazilians' dream of advancing further. That was the only penalty denied in the World Cup in China, which concluded here tonight.

    Marta had beaten Prinz, who claimed the FIFA best women's player award three times in a row from 2003 to 2005, to become the award winner in 2006. But Prinz, the icon of German women's soccer, took the revenge on the pitch tonight.

    On Germany's road to the champions, they whitewashed Argentina 11-0 in the World Cup opener, tied England 0-0, beat Japan 2-0 to top Group A, crushed DPR Korea 3-0 in the quarter-final, hammered Norway 3-0 in the semi-final and won 2-0 over Brazil in the final.

    With a group of skilful talents including Marta, Cristiane, and Daniela, Brazil are no doubt the most entertaining and eye-catching team in the World Cup.

    The 1991 and 1999 World Cup champions United States, who suffered a 4-0 humiliation by Brazil in the semi-final, poured their wrath on the 1995 champions Norway here tonight with a 4-1 win to bag the bronze.

    The United States are the only team to be in the top three of every World Cup, initiated in 1991.

    Teams from Europe and the American continent still dominate the FIFA women's world arena, which hasn't changed for quite a long time.

    Hosts China, DPR Korea and Australia, the three Asian teams, also showed their strength by jumping to the top eight. But they failed to make another step forward, losing to Norway, Germany and Brazil respectively.

    Among the three, DPR Korea and Australia are more powerful. DPR Korea showed their teeth in the Group B opener, earning a 2-2 draw with the title favorites United States. They survived the group, which was termed as "Group of Death".

    Despite a 3-0 loss to Germany in the quarterfinal, DPR Koreans forced Angerer to make countless saves. Angerer was named the Player of the Match, which ironically showed how strong the DPR Koreans' fire was.

    Australia also forced the Brazilians to play all out in the quarter-final, leveling the score twice. Only a late goal gifted the Brazilians a semi-final berth.

    China, who survived the relatively easy Group D with the help of Brazil, played their best in the quarterfinal against Norway, but the elimination showed that there was still a long way for them to go.

    Together with Argentina, teams from Africa and Oceania, such as Nigeria, Ghana, New Zealand are still the underdogs. All the four finished at the bottom of their groups. Only Nigeria earned a tie with Sweden. The other matches played by them all ended with loss.

    Canadian Melissa Tancredi scored the fastest goal in this World Cup in the last Group C match against Australia. The goal was made only 37 seconds into the match.

    It was the second fastest goal in the FIFA Women's World Cup history. The No. 1 fastest goal was made only 30 seconds into the match by Lena Videlull from Sweden in 1991 against Japan.

    FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter applauded that the Women's World Cup China 2007 is a completely doping-free tournament.

    "We made up doping tests after each competition. Four players will undergo doping control, but there's not a single case of positive result," Blatter said.

    Blatter also hailed the technical quality of women's soccer, saying he was surprised by many teams' play at the 2007 World Cup in China.

    "Generally speaking, I was surprised by the big improvement of the technical qualities of the teams," he said.

    "Personally I like a lot of the matches. The level really surprised me, especially for the individual qualities.

    "There has been an improvement in the speed of the games. Also, importantly, though not by all the teams, there has been an improvement in tactics."

    Blatter said women's football has made big strides since the last World Cup four years ago in the United States, but admitted that there is a problem of unbalance in different continents.

    FIFA will hold the Under-20 and Under-17 World Women's Youth Championship in Chile and New Zealand respectively in 2008 and Blatter believes that it will bring big momentum to the continents concerned.

    Blatter added that currently just a few countries have women's professional football leagues, which needs to be changed in the future.