Game

Welsh's goal was her fifth in the tournament and came midway in the first half. Wagner put a lovely flighted ball over the German defensive line that Welsh trapped and shot. Rottenberg made a leg save and Welsh put the rebound past her from four metres.

Germany attacked and substituted almost non stop in the second half but valiant defensive play, and a superb display of goalkeeping by Solo insured the win over a top class German squad.

Post match quotes

U.S. Interim Head Coach Greg Ryan

Germany played four running at our back line, so for much of the game it's four against four and because of that we didn't have much time to play with the ball at the back. But because they sent so many players forward, we were able to create some good chances behind them. We were playing for the break, for the counter, and in the first half we created some good chances. In the second half, up a goal, we played a little more conservatively. We didn't send our outside defenders forward so much, we held them back, because we knew Germany would send five and six players at us. We sat back nice and tight, and we thought we might be able to get another one on the break, but Germany was very, very good in the second half.

We worked a lot and talked about team organization and defense. We talked about it every meeting and the players bought into it as far as how to defend as a group. All four lines defended well, and every time you have 11 players that are organized and work that hard, you have a chance. In this tournament, we gave away no more than three or four chances in the tournament that should have been goals. The players embraced the idea of staying very organized and creating our attack out of that team defense.

I think Christie Welsh was the player of the tournament. Anytime a player comes on and scores five goals, against good teams, she's the player of the tournament. And her goal won the tournament tonight.

I think the win gives this young team tremendous confidence as they grow until the next Women's World Cup. This will be a great team in two and half years. They had a great performance here already, so I think this young team set a very high standard. Not just in winning the tournament, but in terms of quality of play. This tournament has created a lot of motivation and enthusiasm for the future.

Kristine Lilly was a fantastic captain on this trip. She really helped the young players on and off the field. Everyone mixed together well, there was never an older table or younger table at meals, there was just a U.S. table. Boxxy and Abby were very important leaders for this team and the way they reach out to the younger players and made them completely a part of the team.

Hope Solo was incredible. In the Finland game, she had to make three great saves, and close down a breakaway, and she got confidence and momentum from that game. Because of her performance there, we went with her in Denmark game and she threw a shutout again. Tonight, we had so much confidence in her. That last high ball that went into the mix, she was going to have to catch it or we were going to be in trouble, and she went up into a crowd of some really tall German women and just stuck it. So her steady play gave us some tremendous confidence.

U.S. Captain Kristine Lilly
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This tournament was big for this team because it was such a transition with players retiring and with all the young players. I don't think the outside expectations were for us to win. But as a team, we expected to win and I think that made the difference. I am very proud of this team.

Each game we got better as a team on the attacking end, but in all four games we were consistently tough on defense. It wasn't one or two players, it was great team defense, from our back line to our midfield to the forward line. Everyone was working for each other, and cover for each other, and that was great.

The Germans seem to be getting better and better. In the 2003 Women's World Cup, we saw a great team. We saw a great team in the Olympics and tonight we saw a great team. They are very organized and you can see they have been playing together, so to hold them to so few shots on goal was a great effort. Credit to us, but obviously it's always a difficult game against the Germans.

Lindsay Tarpley

The veterans that are here and the ones that aren't here have formed this tradition and this environment and a set a standard. As young players, we feel that. Having a few of those veterans still playing helps the younger players realize what it takes to wear this jersey and I think that pride showed tonight.

Christie Welsh

You have to prepare to win. We put in a lot of effort in the past two weeks and worked very hard for this victory.

Abby Wambach

Our focus is still, and will always be on the development of the team up until the (2007 Women's) World Cup, for this team to become even better than we were tonight. Germany, Sweden and Norway are going to do it, so if we don't keep developing as a team, we are going to lose these close games. So in order to stay on the top of our game, and stay among the top three teams in the world, we're going to have to continue playing and training at the highest level and do whatever it takes to keep winning.

Greg did a great job of preparing and organizing us. It was really great to know that the team could come together with so many young players, with players getting their first caps on this trip and Kristine Lilly heading towards 300 caps. It was so great that players on the different spectrum of ages could come together and play such great defense."

I think the best player on the team is our whole defense. They don't get the credit for scoring goals, but to go the whole tournament with getting a goal scored on them…awesome.