“I literally don’t know how I feel'' - Amy Wambach

Wambach, who missed out on a place in the starting XI for the final but came on for the final 10 minutes, said she was always confident her side would win the tournament, but was struggling to come to terms with how "bizarre" the final match was.

“I literally don’t know how I feel,” Wambach told reporters. “It’s a bizarre thing that’s going on right now because of the way it kind of happened.

“I’m just so proud to be on this team and proud to be a part of, in my opinion, what is something really special. It wasn’t just Carli Lloyd who won us this World Cup, although tonight she showed us that she’s a huge reason why we have this World Cup title.

“It’s not easy to not start one of the most decorated goalscorers in the world, but coach Jill Ellis and the staff were confident, as was I, in the players that were starting ahead of me.

“I would never imagine the final would go as wildly, dramatically, smoothly as it just did for us. Seven goals in the final is a little bit outrageous in my opinion, but the first 16 minutes, it seemed surreal, it seemed fake.

"I think I died and this is what my heaven looks like because I could not put together what was going on.”