U.S. beats Germany, 1-0, in women’s soccer exhibition at Augsburg

AUSGBURG, Germany — Abby Wambach scored in the 34th minute after capitalizing on a defensive mistake as the United States beat world champion Germany, 1-0, in Thursday’s exhibition match at the new Impuls Arena.

“It was kind of wet out there tonight and for this game to be only 1-0 is surprising considering the conditions," said Wambach. "I think we were kind of lucky to get the goal. It was a missed clearance, the keeper came out, probably shouldn’t have, and I put away a decent goal.”

Germany earlier wasted a half-dozen clear opportunities and dominated most of the match without breaching the U.S. defense.

“It was a really good game, and Germany is a really good team," said U.S. coach Pia Sundhage. "I said before the game that we would be winners regardless of the outcome, but I am very happy about the Abby Wambach goal, and we did some good defending today. So we go back to the USA, and we know what to work on.”

Germany is the host of the 2011 World Cup. The match was played before a capacity crowd of 28,367.

“The crowd was amazing," said U.S. defender Rachel Buehler. "It was definitely a fun environment to play in. It was hard to hear each other out there and it was a kind of World Cup environment. There are a lot of factors in a World Cup game you don’t experience every day so that was cool and really good practice for us.”