What a final! It had everything! And what a great advertisement for football generally, women's football particularly. Who would have picked, before the first ball was kicked in anger in Germany on June 26, that the FIFA Women's World Cup would be heading to Japan? Before every game they have played, Nadeshiko have endeared themselves to the crowd with a banner reflecting their thanks to the world for the support afforded their nation in light of the devastating earthquake and tsunami which struck Japan in March. As a result, they have been the people's champions, the team which, if yours couldn't win the competition, you'd like to see win it instead. They haven't always been the best supported team in the ground - witness the games against Germany, Sweden and the USA - but there has been no "anti-Japan" feeling anywhere along the way. How could there be, with what Japan as a nation has endured this year? The boost the country will gain from the efforts of their champion female footballers, as they rebuild their lives and their nation after enduring Mother Nature's worst side, is inestimable. As Miki Sunasaka, a Japanese women's football writer I worked alongside during the knockout stages of the tournament, said to me after the final, "This is a dream". For the USA, it was anything but. On another day, they would have scored six. To lead twice and hit the woodwork three times in the final, then go home without the trophy … there can be no doubt the gods were in Nadeshiko's corner at Germany 2011, probably from the moment Mana Iwabuchi came on to change the game against the Football Ferns, in hindsight. Our girls can be proud of what they achieved at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Finals. Yes, they missed out on their prime objective of a quarter-final berth, but the world saw the progress New Zealand has made in the last four years. When we went to China in 2007, the prime objective was respectability - keeping the score down. To go in 0-0 at half-time in Tianjin against the host nation in our final game of those Finals, in front of the biggest crowd of the tournament, was massive for us back then. Now look at the Football Ferns. 1-0 down to the soon-to-be world champions after six minutes, they're on level terms six minutes later, and remain so for an hour. And again, for an hour, the Motherland were on course to be beaten by the colonial upstarts. But as in China, the cherubs saved their best till last. Coming back from the dead to score twice in stoppage time and earn a 2-2 draw with Mexico was akin to a win for Oceania's champions, and the reward was a twelfth-placed finish at Germany 2011 - our highest placing on the world stage at any FIFA Finals featuring a minimum of sixteen finalists. For a small nation of 4.3m people, one in which football isn't the national sport, that is a boast to be proud of, make no mistake. (Not that it will cut much ice with those who can't see past the merits of the so-called 'big four' codes which they misguidedly champion at the cost of all other sports). As are the resulting off-shoots. Amber Hearn's excellent tournament was rewarded with a contract to play for USV Jena in the Frauen Bundesliga. Sarah Gregorius has been mentioned in like manner, although nothing has been confirmed at the time of writing. Before the Finals, it was confirmed that Emma Kete and Rosie White had played their last games in NZ for a while, bound for Lincoln City and a UCLA scholarship respectively. Others will follow in due course. Katie Hoyle and Anna Green are certainties for overseas opportunities, for mine, so, too, Hannah Wilkinson, Annalie Longo and Abby Erceg - one hopes the circumstances surrounding her next such experience are far less mysterious. It reflects where the game is in New Zealand now. Just as is the case in the men's game, if we want to achieve as a nation on the world stage, our best players have to spread their wings and fly the nest to take up opportunities either abroad or elsewhere in the country in order to help NZ realise its overall objectives - realise the 'big picture', if you will. Make no mistake, there is an undeniable element of sadness when the likes of Amber, Rosie, Kirsty Yallop, Hayley Moorwood and others leave the local game behind. We've seen them growing up and developing both as players and as young women, and they've made an immense contribution to the growth of the women's game in NZ in recent seasons via their talent, skill and all-round brilliance. As did their predecessors, the likes of Michele Cox, Debbie Pullen RIP, Amanda Crawford, Monique Van de Elzen and Wendy Sharpe among them. But the opportunities available to those pioneers of the women's game in New Zealand don't even begin to compare with those available to players the world over today, and it is as a result of these opportunities that the just-completed FIFA Women's World Cup Finals have been the closest ever. You could count the number of blow-out scorelines on the fingers of one hand - and unlike in 2007, New Zealand wasn't among those on the wrong end of such results this time round. Another indication of the way the game is changing, or, should I say, growing and improving, lies in the fortunes of two of the game's traditional powers at this event. Germany, the only winners of the trophy this century before these finals, won't be at the 2012 Olympics. These Finals served as UEFA's qualifying tournament for that event, and the best two finishers among the European nations were Sweden and France, third and fourth respectively. As for the USA, while they finished runners-up at a FIFA Women's World Cup Finals for the first time,

The crossbar comes to the aid of beaten Japan 'keeper Ayumi Kaihori during the enthralling final against the USA Golden Glove winner Hope Solo can't hide her disappointment after the final whistle in the FIFA Women's World Cup Final Haka time! I'm dead proud of the Football Ferns - love 'em to bits!! Lotta Schelin - Sweden's "Dancing Queen" Amber Hearn - excellent tournament Hayley Moorwood in action against England Carli Lloyd - genius at work Homare Sawa with her Golden Boot and Golden Ball awards photos courtesy Getty Images, except for haka (JR collection)

after two first placings and three third placings, let it not be forgotten that they needed a play-off against Italy just to qualify for Germany 2011 - they came close to not being here at all. So while he's presently about as popular with the footballing public as Brazil's Marta was at Germany 2011, i.e. not very, the long-ago statement of FIFA President Sepp Blatter is proving to be one of great foresight - "The future of football is feminine" rings as true now as it did when first spoken. As you've probably gathered from these "On The March" columns and my fifteen match reports, I have had an absolute ball in Germany. Rather than attend the Women's Football Symposium which is a component of these Finals, I made a point of attending the maximum number of games possible in order to embrace as many styles of play as possible - for mine, it's the only true way to gauge how the game is progressing globally. The only teams I didn't see were Canada and North Korea, who, disappointingly, brought discredit to the women's game by using banned substances to aid the pre-tournament recovery of some of their squad members from lightning strikes - yes, I know, it sounds far-fetched to begin with, but we're talking North Korea here, an intriguing nation, make no mistake. I still can't get over how, following their clash with the USA, the only post-match contact between the teams was between the respective coaches, shaking hands after the final whistle. The lone bizarre memory I have of a hugely memorable tournament. There are so many others which will live long in the memory banks for the right reasons. And it should come as no surprise that the efforts of my second-favourite team top that list, culminating in that unforgettable back-from-the-dead draw with Mexico. One must not forget the Football Ferns' post-match hakas, either - the cherubs top LFC hands down on that score! The Swedes were so taken with the Ferns' special post-match routine that they created their own victory jig, but when I next hear Abba singing "Dancing Queen" on the radio, you know who'll spring to mind - a group of young Kiwi women who battled the odds and finished Germany 2011 on a high, and of whom I'm immensely proud. Japan's achievements, of course, are also up there. While they rode their luck against the USA and, at times, in the quarter-final against Germany - technically the finest game of the tournament, their semi-final display against Sweden was simply superb - an object lesson in possession football which was terrific to witness, and stunned many of the watching media (apart from the massive Japanese contingent and the lone New Zealand scribe present). The USA's titanic tussle with Brazil, the other quarter-final I witnessed, was another fabulous game which had everything you could wish for and a bit more besides. And there were some memorable individual performances from: Carli Lloyd (USA, v. Columbia); Louisa Necib (France, v. Nigeria); Hope Solo (USA, v. Brazil); and Marta (Brazil), just after half-time against Norway - two moments of sheer brilliance which somewhat, but not totally, offset the less edifying aspects of South American football which she brought to the tournament, aspects which earned her the whistled wrath of a knowledgeable footballing public, who embraced this tournament whole-heartedly - 786,000 ticket sales, out of the available 900,000, tells its own tale. There were a few minor issues surrounding the tournament which could have been improved upon - the location of the SMC (Media Centre) in Frankfurt readily springs to mind in this regard, but generally it was extremely well run, and no words of praise are enough to do justice to the efforts of the volunteers, particularly those charged with relaying info from the far distant media centres to the upper echelons of the stadiums in Dresden and Frankfurt. It all happens again in four years' time in Canada, but before then, we have to look forward to, in roughly twelve months, the Olympic Women's Football Tournament in another country where football rules the roost. England / Great Britain haven't yet sorted out how they're going to be represented football-wise at their own event (cue the old terrace chant, "They don't know what they're doing!!"), but Brazil, Columbia, France and Sweden, the four teams to have qualified to date, have no such concerns. And hopefully New Zealand will be joining them - victory in a one-off Oceania qualifying encounter early next year, which will be hosted by the winners of the upcoming South Pacific Games, will be their first objective. I look forward to the day when I'll have the pleasure of including a Football Ferns player in a future Team of the Tournament selection. But at Germany 2011, the squad of players who most impressed me throughout the Finals lines up thus: Hope Solo (USA); Linda Bresonik (Germany), Daiane (Brazil), Christie Rampone (USA), Sonia Bompastor (France); Maurine (Brazil), Carli Lloyd (USA), Homare Sawa (Japan), Louisa Necib (France); Aya Miyama (Japan); Abby Wambach (USA) Subs:  Nadine Angerer (Germany); Ali Krieger (USA), Saki Kumagai (Japan), Sara Thunebro (Sweden); Simone Laudehr (Germany), Mana Iwabuchi (Japan), Lisa Dahlkvist (Sweden); Lotta Schelin (Sweden), Cristiane (Brazil), Alex Morgan (USA) There are a few notable names missing from that list, among them Marta, Fatmire Bajramaj and Birgit Prinz, the 2010 FIFA Women's Player of the Year finalists. I guess it's further evidence that the women's game is on the move - even last year's stars can't rest on their laurels. Final details: Japan 2 (A. Miyama (81), H. Sawa (117)), USA 2 (A. Morgan (69), A. Wambach (104)) aet  HT 0-0  FT 1-1  Japan, 3-1 on penalties