Germany will take a positive approach in the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup final against Brazil on Sunday in Shanghai.
The holders are hoping to become the first team to successfully defend the trophy and equal the United States' record of two successes in what is the fifth edition of the competition. However, in Thursday's semi-final, Brazil produced a 4-0 win against the USA, who had not lost in more than 50 games. They have triumphed in all five of their matches in China, with seven goals alone from reigning FIFA Women's World Player of the Year, Marta. She will be familiar to several Germany players from her three goals over two legs when Umeå IK crushed 1. FFC Frankfurt in the 2004 UEFA Women's Cup final.
Still, Germany have scored 19 times in this competition and are yet to concede – a tournament record – and they beat Norway 3-0 on Wednesday to reach their third final. Germany coach Silvia Neid believes that, even though first-time finalists Brazil have only been breached in one of their games here, they are vulnerable at the back. "There aren't many things in Brazil's game that I would call weaknesses, but there are one or two little things about their tactics that we can use," Neid said. "They play with a sweeper a little bit behind the other defenders, and also their defenders tend to stick to one opponent, so that may give us chances."
As for the opposition attack, Neid added: "Brazil are technically skilled, they play at very high speed and are fabulous up front, where Marta is a great player. If you try to cover Marta with player-to-player marking, it just won't work. You saw what happened to the Americans when they tried that. We plan to stay close to her, to have more players blocking space where the ball is played, and just try to play tight." The game, which echoes the 2002 men's FIFA World Cup final won 2-0 by Brazil in Yokohama, is preceded by Norway's meeting with the USA for third place.
uefa.com