2003 FIFA Women's World Cup
2003 edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial championship of women's national soccer teams organized by FIFA. It was held in the United States from September 20 to October 12, 2003, at six venues in six cities across the country. The tournament was won by Germany, who became the first country to win both the men's and women's World Cup.
FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003 | |
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Tournament details | |
Host country | United States |
Dates | September 20 – October 12 |
Teams | 16 (from 6 confederations) |
Venue(s) | 6 (in 6 host cities) |
Final positions | |
Champions | Germany (1st title) |
Runners-up | Sweden |
Third place | United States |
Fourth place | Canada |
Tournament statistics | |
Matches played | 32 |
Goals scored | 107 (3.34 per match) |
Attendance | 679,666 (21,240 per match) |
Top scorer(s) | Birgit Prinz (7 goals) |
Best player(s) | Birgit Prinz |
Best goalkeeper | Silke Rottenberg |
Fair play award | China |
← 1999 2007 → |
China was originally awarded the right to host the tournament, which would have taken place from September 23 to October 11 in four cities. A severe outbreak of SARS in early 2003 affected Guangdong in southern China and prompted FIFA to move the Women's World Cup to the United States, who had hosted the previous edition in 1999. China was instead granted hosting rights for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup and financial compensation while the United States Soccer Federation made new arrangements to host at smaller stadiums.
Host selection and change
FIFA awarded hosting rights for the Women's World Cup to China on October 26, 2000, beating a bid by Australia.[1] The tournament was originally planned to run from September 23 to October 11 at venues in Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu and Hangzhou.[2] Several sporting events in China were canceled or postponed in early April due to the outbreak of SARS in Southern China, including the official draw for the Women's World Cup; FIFA launched a joint investigation with the World Health Organization into whether the outbreak would subside by the time of the tournament.[2] The United States, Canada and Australia were mentioned as potential replacement hosts at the time.[2][3]
On May 3, 2003, FIFA announced that they would move the tournament to an alternate host country, which would be determined at a later date; the United States and Australia had expressed interest in hosting, while Brazil was floated as another potential host.[4] FIFA also announced that they would instead award the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup and pay $1 million to the organizing committee to compensate for planning expenses.[5][6] On May 26, 2003, the United States was announced as the tournament's new host, ahead of the other formal bid submitted by Sweden.[7] The United States was judged to be a suitable emergency host because of their experience with organizing the 1999 tournament, despite potential conflicts in the fall sports schedule with American football and baseball. Women's soccer boosters in the United States also hoped that interest generated by the tournament would save the struggling professional league, the Women's United Soccer Association, from folding;[7] the league ultimately folded a few days before the tournament began in September.[8]
The tournament's 32 matches were played at six venues and organized into 15 doubleheaders, with the exception of the third-place and final matches, which were played on separate days. The Los Angeles area repeated as host of the final, which was moved from the Rose Bowl to the Home Depot Center, a smaller stadium in Carson, California.[9] The matches were scheduled in doubleheaders and moved from four venues on the East Coast to two on the West Coast as it progressed to later matchdays.[9] The size and scope of the tournament were also reduced from the 1999 edition due to the limited time to organize and prepare for the event.[10]
Mostly due to the rescheduling of the tournament on short notice, FIFA and the United States Soccer Federation were forced to creatively schedule matches. Nine doubleheaders were scheduled in group play (similar to the 1999 format). They also had to abandon the modern practice of scheduling the final matches of the group stage to kick off simultaneously. In Groups A and D, the final matches were scheduled as the two ends of a doubleheader. The final matches in Groups B and C were also scheduled as doubleheaders, but split between two cities, with a Group B match in each city followed by a Group C match. The four quarter-finals were also scheduled as two doubleheaders, and both semi-finals were also a doubleheader.[9][11]
The host stadiums were announced on June 13, 2003, including three large stadiums to open the tournament and three small, soccer-specific stadiums for later stages.[10] Giants Stadium in the New York City area backed out of hosting after being unable to resolve scheduling issues with the New York Giants.[10] For the tournament, Portland's newly renovated PGE Park (formerly Civic Stadium) received a new grass surface and temporary bleachers to expand capacity to 28,359;[12] it was the only venue to host matches during the 1999 and 2023 tournaments.[13] Gillette Stadium replaced the demolished Foxboro Stadium, while RFK Stadium was chosen in place of Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in the Washington, D.C. area. The venues also employed new security measures that were required by the U.S. government following the September 11 attacks in 2001.[14]
Philadelphia | Boston (Foxborough, Massachusetts) |
Washington, D.C. |
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Lincoln Financial Field | Gillette Stadium | Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium |
Capacity: 70,000 | Capacity: 68,000 | Capacity: 53,000 |
Venues of the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup in the United States[15] | ||
Los Angeles (Carson, California) |
Portland | Columbus |
Home Depot Center | PGE Park | Columbus Crew Stadium |
Capacity: 27,500 | Capacity: 28,359 | Capacity: 22,555 |
Qualification
Sixteen teams participated in the 2003 Women's World Cup, determined by a set of continental qualification tournaments that took place from August 18, 2001, to July 12, 2003.[16][17] Three teams, Argentina, France, and South Korea, made their Women's World Cup debuts in the 2003 tournament.[18] The remaining thirteen teams had competed in the previous World Cup.
China was granted automatic qualification as the host and retained it after the United States were named the replacement host.[19] The remaining fifteen participants, including the replacement host, were determined through a series of continental tournaments from a field of 99 teams.[20] FIFA allocated five berths to Europe; two each to Africa, Asia, North America, and South America (increased by one from the 1999 tournament); and one to Oceania.[19][21] The 2003 Women's World Cup was also used to determine the two European participants in the 2004 Summer Olympics.[22]
Numbers in parentheses indicate the FIFA Women's World Ranking for the team on August 29, 2003, prior to the tournament.[23]
Squads
For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup squads.
Match officials
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Draw
The group draw was originally scheduled to take place on May 24, 2003, in Wuhan, China, but was postponed prior to the relocation decision.[2] It instead took place at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California on July 17, 2003, and included a formal handover ceremony for the FIFA Women's World Cup trophy, which was given to U.S. coach April Heinrichs by Chinese coach Ma Liangxing.[24][25] FIFA also unveiled its Women's World Rankings system, which was used to determine seeded groups and retroactively calculated points for over 3,000 international fixtures dating back to 1971.[26]
The United States was placed in Group A and China was placed in Group D, while Norway and Germany were also seeded in Pot 1. The remaining three pots were distributed geographically to prevent two teams from the same confederation from being drawn into the same group, with the exception of one group that would have two European teams.[27] The hosting United States was drawn into the tournament's "Group of death" alongside Sweden, Nigeria, and North Korea—all considered strong teams from their respective confederations.[28]