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.

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 and the defending champions. 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.

Preparations 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. The tournament was originally planned to run from September 23 to October 11 at venues in Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu and Hangzhou. 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. The United States, Canada and Australia were mentioned as potential replacement hosts at the time.

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. FIFA also announced that they would instead award the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup to China and pay $1 million to the organizing committee to compensate for planning expenses. On May 26, 2003, the United States was announced as the tournament's new host, ahead of the other formal bid submitted by Sweden. 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; the league ultimately folded a few days before the tournament began in September.

Venues

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. 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. 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.

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.

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. Giants Stadium in the New York City area backed out of hosting after being unable to resolve scheduling issues with the New York Giants. 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; it was the only venue to host matches during the 1999 and 2003 tournaments. 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.

Philadelphia Boston Washington, D.C. 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 Los Angeles Portland Columbus Home Depot Center PGE Park Columbus Crew Stadium Capacity: 27,500 Capacity: 28,359 Capacity: 22,555

Participating teams and officials

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. Three teams, Argentina, France, and South Korea, made their Women's World Cup debuts in the 2003 tournament. 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. The remaining fifteen participants, including the replacement host, were determined through a series of continental tournaments from a field of 99 teams. 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. The 2003 Women's World Cup was also used to determine the two European participants in the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Africa (CAF) (23) (52) Asia (AFC)

(4) (retained automatic qualification as original host)

(14) South America (CONMEBOL) (6) (35) Europe (UEFA) (9) (3) (11) (2) (5) Oceania (OFC) (15) North America, Central America & Caribbean (CONCACAF) (12) (replacement host)

Numbers in parentheses indicate the FIFA Women's World Ranking for the team on August 29, 2003, prior to the tournament.

Squads

Match officials

+ Referees Confederation Referee AFC Im Eun-ju (South Korea) Zhang Dongqing (China PR) CAF Bola Elizabeth Abidoye (Nigeria) Xonam Agboyi (Togo) CONCACAF Sonia Denoncourt (Canada) Kari Seitz (United States) CONMEBOL Florencia Romano (Argentina) Sueli Tortura (Brazil) OFC Tammy Ogston (Australia) UEFA Katriina Elovirta (Finland) Cristina Ionescu (Romania) Nicole Petignat (Switzerland) + Fourth officials Confederation Referee CONCACAF Jennifer Bennett (United States) Sandra Hunt (United States)

+ Assistant referees Confederation Assistant referee AFC Choi Soo-jin (South Korea) Hong Kum-nyo (North Korea) Liu Hsiu-mei (Chinese Taipei) Hisae Yoshizawa (Japan) CAF Florence Biagui (Senegal) Perpétué Désirée Krebé (Ivory Coast) CONCACAF Lynda Bramble (Trinidad and Tobago) Denise Robinson (Canada) Karalee Sutton (United States) Sharon Wheeler (United States) CONMEBOL Alejandra Cercato (Argentina) Sabrina Lois (Argentina) Cleidy Mary Nunes Ribeiro (Brazil) Marlei Leite da Silva (Brazil) OFC Airlie Keen (Australia) Jacqueline Leleu (Australia) UEFA Elke Lüthi (Switzerland) Irina Mirt (Romania) Katarzyna Nadolska (Poland) Emilia Parviainen (Finland) Andi Regan (Northern Ireland) Nelly Viennot (France)

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. 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. 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.

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. 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.

Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 (A1) (D1)

Group stage

The tournament format was unchanged from the 1999 edition, with the first round consisting of sixteen teams organized into four groups by the final draw. The round-robin group stage consisted of 24 matches in which each team played one match against the other three teams in their group. The winners and runners-up from each group qualified for the knockout stage, which began with the quarter-finals.

Tie-breaking criteria for group playThe ranking of teams in the group stage was determined as follows:

Points obtained in all group matches (three points for a win, one for a draw, none for a defeat); Goal difference in all group matches; Number of goals scored in all group matches; Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question; Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question; Number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question; Drawing of lots.

Group A

Group A included three teams from the previous edition's Group A—hosts and defending champions United States, African champions Nigeria, and Asian champions North Korea—alongside European runners-up Sweden. It was dubbed the tournament's "Group of death" at the time of the final draw, due to the presence of three continental champions and a runner-up. Nigeria were defeated 3–0 by North Korea in the opening match of the tournament, played in Philadelphia on September 20, with two goals by Jin Pyol-hui and one by Ri Un-gyong during a dominating performance for most of the match. The United States began its title defense by winning 3–1 in its match against Sweden in Washington, D.C. at RFK Memorial Stadium, which was attended by 34,144 spectators. Kristine Lilly volleyed a shot from in the 28th minute and was followed by a Cindy Parlow header for a 2–0 halftime lead. A header by Victoria Svensson in the 58th minute cut the lead, but the two-goal margin was restored in the 78th minute by Shannon Boxx's header on a corner kick.

Sweden won 1–0 in its second match, played against North Korea in Philadelphia, with a seventh-minute volley by Svensson. The Swedish defense limited North Korea to a single shot in the first half, but goalkeeper Ri Jong-hui prevented a rout with several saves. The United States moved further ahead in group standings with a 5–0 defeat of Nigeria, but were unable to clinch an early quarterfinal berth. Mia Hamm, the longtime face of the team, scored from a penalty kick in the sixth minute and a free kick in the twelfth minute. Her strike partner, Cindy Parlow, scored a goal of her own just after halftime by heading in a corner kick taken by Hamm. Substitute forward Abby Wambach scored her first Women's World Cup goal and the match's final goal came from a penalty kick taken in the 89th minute by Julie Foudy.