Playing before a capacity crowd of 113,000 wildly cheering spectators at sold-out Yokohama Municipal Stadium, the Danes took the Cup final in one of the more memorable and exciting championship matches ever played in the 70 year history of FIFA.

Showing a new 2-3-5 formation, Danish coach Morten Olsen clearly had done his homework, and the "Danish Wall" seemed to bother Germany who made repeated rushes towards the Danish goal, only to be thwarted by the spirited defense, led by retiring back, Stig Tøfting, and Thomas Sørensen, the Danish goalie who has been described as the "Superman between the Posts".

The first 90 minutes ended in a 1-1 score. German's Oliver Bierhoff scored in the 14th minute on a penalty kick which the TV replay clearly showed should not have been awarded, and Denmark's Jon Dahl Tomasson hammered home the equalizer from 18 yards out in the 22nd minute, after a nifty sideline throwin from Thomas Helveg.

With the score tied 1-1 afer 120 minutes of play, the match was decided on penalty kicks, and here Denmark prevailed 5-3, with the Danish keeper warding off two of the relatively feeble scoring attempts by Germany's Frank Baumann and Miroslav Klose.

Rated to finish last or second to last in its pool which included returning World Champ France, as well as perennial power Uruguay and newcomer Senegal, Denmark surprised the soccer world with a stunning 2-0 defeat of France during the preliminary round.

This victory not only sent the French team packing in humiliation, having failed to score a single goal during the scheduled three games, but it stunningly left Denmark atop its pool, ahead of Senegal against whom the Danes played a 1-1 tie.

Nonetheless, the doomsday prognosticators appeared to get their due as Denmark seemingly fell apart during the round of 16 where it met a spirited team from England.

Down by a discouraging 0-3 score late in the game, the Danes put on a virtual "blitzkrieg" and scored four goals in the last 9 minutes. The hattrick scored by Jon Dahl Tomasson set a World Cup record for the fastest hat trick scored (Ed. Tomasson scored in the 82, 84 and 89th minutes of play)

The fourth Danish goal was scored by back Stig Tøfting who deftly dribbled the entire left side of the field and hammered home a goal from 35 yards out in the 87th minute.

After its exciting 5-4 defeat of Brazil, Denmark turned its defense up a notch or two, and the semifinal game, against Senegal, turned into a 1-0 defensive gem.

Denmark's Jon Dahl Tomasson scored Denmark's last two decisive goals and ended as the tourney's top goal scorer, with 9, topping the eight goals scored by Brazil's Ronaldo and Germany's Miraslav Klose.

After their quarterfinal victory over Brazil, the Danish Soccer Federation (Dansk Fodbold Union) decided to fly the players' wives to Japan, and the accommodation which cost the Danish State some $168,000 paid off handsomely in the renewed vigor and drive exibited by the Danes who had appeared listless against England.

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It was a shattering loss for Germany, which dominated its European neighbor on the soccer field until recent years.

While Germany held the ball for much of the game, it couldn't get the ball past Danish goalkeeper Thomas Sørensen, who had another brilliant game and acquired the best scored-against record of any goalie in World Cup history. While the Danes earlier lamented the loss of retiring keeper Peter Schmeichel, they seem to have found a perfect replacement.

In another surprise, the United States team finished the tournament in third place, defeating Senegal 2-1.

McBride connected from 12 yards out in the eighth minute off a pass from Josh Wolff after a fine run upfield by U.S. captain Claudio Reyna.

With the Senegalis maintaining the ball nearly 70 percent of the time and pressing for the tying goal, Donovan scored in the 65th minute on a header from just inside the 6-yard box off a cross from Eddie Lewis, who had sped upfield.

The Americans, playing on just two days' rest, appeared envigorated after Friday's 3-2 overtime, come-from-behind win over Italy.

These Americans are far different from the U.S. teams of the past, in talent and temperament. Even the fans showed a marked difference, taunting Italy with chants of "Ciao, amigos."

The last time the United States did this well was in the first World Cup, when it beat Belgium and Paraguay in the first round, then lost to Argentina 6-1 in the semifinals.

The first goal was the work of Reyna, who made a long run up the right side of the field -- faking out a defender along the way -- and Wolff, who was near the goal and flicked the ball back to a wide-open McBride.

Goalkeeper Tony Sylva had virtually no chance on McBride's hard drive into the left side of the net, his fourth goal of the tournament.

He became the first American to score four times in one World Cup since Bert Patenaude had four goals in the first tournament in 1930.

Friedel, meanwhile, made a pair of point-blank saves on Diop's 12 yard scorcher in the 35th minute and his own followup on the rebound.

Donovan's goal, which seemed to break the spirit of the African team, also was his fourth of the tournament.

President Bush telephoned U.S. coach Bruce Arena about 4.5 hours before kickoff for a pregame pep talk, and the players listened on a speaker phone.

"The country is really proud of the team," Bush said. "A lot of people that are clueless about a lot of things, including soccer, like myself, are all excited and pulling for you."

Earlier, Bush and Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade, wished each other luck.

"I just hung up the phone a little earlier with the president of Senegal, a guy called Maître Abdoulaye Wade,[I hope I pronounce that right]" Bush told Arena. "He was very gracious. I don't exactly know where Senegal is, but I feel pretty confident. I think they are a bunch'a interlopers from an underdeveloped foreign country, so how good can they be."

"Anyways, the guy I talked to, don't speak English too good, and I tried my Spanish on him, but he didn't seem to understand. Instead, he spoke to me in a foreign tongue that Connie tells me is French. Heck, I don't speak French - don't feel the need to, so we spoke through interpretators. Those are folks that know two languages, and they translate the gibberish I couldn't understand, into entire sentences in English, that I mostly could, and vice versa. It's really kind of neat."

"As I said, the guy and I couldn't really communicate too good, but his name is Abdullah, so he is probably a foreign evildoer anyways, most likely a heathen, for sure, so you guys beat their little touches off and remind them Asian or African or whatever rogue nations that we are still at war in this country, and they all better listen and pay attention or we will launch preemptative strikes against them all."

"If we do that, and bomb the hell out of their villages and kill off all of their women and children, just try and let them field a team for the World Cup next time around."

"These foreign countries just don't have the right respect for America, and if we have to pound some respect into them, watch my lips, we gonna do it."