2003 FIFA Women's World Cup



The FIFA Women's World Cup 2003, the fourth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was held in the United States and won by Germany. The tournament was originally scheduled for China. On 3 May 2003 the tournament was abruptly moved to the United States, as a result of the 2003 SARS outbreak in China. Because the United States had hosted the 1999 World Cup, it was thought the United States could best organize the tournament in the little time remaining before the October scheduled start. In addition, women's soccer boosters in the United States hoped that interest generated by the tournament would save the U.S. women's professional league, the Women's United Soccer Association, from folding.

In compensation for losing the tournament, China retained its automatic qualification as host, and was named as host for the 2007 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 quarterfinals were also scheduled as two doubleheaders, and both semifinals were also a doubleheader.

Teams


16 teams participated in the final tournament. The teams were:

Squads
For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup squads.

Match officials

 * Africa
 * Xonam Agboyi
 * 🇨🇮 Desiree Perpetue
 * Bola Elizabeth Abidoye
 * 🇸🇳 Florence Biagui


 * Asia
 * 🇨🇳 Zhang Dongqing
 * 🇯🇵 Hisae Yoshizawa
 * 🇰🇷 Im Eun-Ju
 * 🇰🇷 Choi Soo Jin
 * 🇰🇵 Hong Kum-Nyo
 * Liu Hsiu-mei


 * North, Central America & Caribbean
 * 🇨🇦 Sonia Denoncourt
 * 🇨🇦 Denise Robinson
 * Lynda Bramble
 * 🇺🇸 Jennifer Bennett
 * 🇺🇸 Sandra Hunt
 * 🇺🇸 Kari Seitz
 * 🇺🇸 Karalee Sutton
 * 🇺🇸 Sharon Wheeler


 * South America
 * 🇦🇷 Florencia Romano
 * 🇦🇷 Alejandra Cercato
 * 🇦🇷 Sabrina Lois
 * 🇧🇷 Sueli Tortura
 * 🇧🇷 Cleidy Mary Ribeiro
 * 🇧🇷 Marlei Silva


 * Europe
 * Andi Regan
 * 🇫🇮 Katriina Elovirta
 * 🇫🇮 Emilia Parviainen
 * 🇫🇷 Nelly Viennot
 * 🇵🇱 Katarzyna Nadolska
 * 🇷🇴 Cristina Babadac
 * 🇷🇴 Cristina Ionescu
 * 🇷🇴 Irina Mirt
 * Nicole Petignat
 * Elke Lüthi


 * Oceania
 * 🇦🇺 Tammy Ogston
 * 🇦🇺 Airlie Keen
 * 🇦🇺 Jacqueline Leleu
 * }

Awards
The following awards were given for the tournament:

Goal scorers
Birgit Prinz of Germany won the Golden Shoe award for scoring seven goals. In total, 107 goals were scored by 56 different players, with only one of them credited as own goal.


 * 7 goals
 * 🇩🇪 Birgit Prinz


 * 4 goals
 * 🇩🇪 Kerstin Garefrekes
 * 🇩🇪 Maren Meinert
 * 🇧🇷 Kátia Cilene


 * 3 goals


 * 🇧🇷 Marta
 * 🇨🇦 Christine Latham
 * 🇨🇦 Christine Sinclair


 * 🇯🇵 Mio Otani
 * 🇯🇵 Homare Sawa
 * 🇳🇴 Dagny Mellgren


 * 🇸🇪 Hanna Ljungberg
 * 🇸🇪 Victoria Svensson
 * 🇺🇸 Abby Wambach


 * 2 goals


 * 🇦🇺 Heather Garriock
 * 🇨🇦 Charmaine Hooper
 * 🇨🇦 Kara Lang
 * 🇨🇳 Bai Jie
 * 🇫🇷 Marinette Pichon
 * 🇩🇪 Sandra Minnert


 * 🇩🇪 Martina Müller
 * 🇩🇪 Bettina Wiegmann
 * 🇬🇭 Alberta Sackey
 * 🇰🇵 Jin Pyol Hui
 * 🇳🇴 Linda Ørmen
 * 🇳🇴 Marianne Pettersen


 * 🇸🇪 Malin Moström
 * 🇺🇸 Shannon Boxx
 * 🇺🇸 Mia Hamm
 * 🇺🇸 Kristine Lilly
 * 🇺🇸 Cindy Parlow
 * 🇺🇸 Cat Reddick


 * 1 goal


 * 🇦🇷 Yanina Gaitán
 * 🇦🇺 Kelly Golebiowski
 * 🇧🇷 Daniela
 * 🇧🇷 Rosana
 * 🇨🇳 Sun Wen
 * 🇩🇪 Stefanie Gottschlich
 * 🇩🇪 Nia Künzer
 * 🇩🇪 Conny Pohlers


 * 🇩🇪 Pia Wunderlich
 * 🇯🇵 Emi Yamamoto
 * 🇰🇵 Ri Un-Gyong
 * 🇰🇷 Kim Jin-hee
 * 🇳🇴 Solveig Gulbrandsen
 * 🇳🇴 Anita Rapp
 * 🇳🇴 Brit Sandaune
 * 🇷🇺 Natalia Barbachina


 * 🇷🇺 Elena Danilova
 * 🇷🇺 Elena Fomina
 * 🇷🇺 Olga Letyushova
 * 🇷🇺 Marina Saenko
 * 🇸🇪 Malin Andersson
 * 🇸🇪 Josefine Öqvist
 * 🇺🇸 Julie Foudy
 * 🇺🇸 Tiffeny Milbrett


 * Own goal
 * 🇦🇺 Dianne Alagich (for Russia)

Tournament ranking
Teams outside of the top four were ranked by points gained across all matches. Goal differences were used thereafter.