The 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, the second edition of the
FIFA Women's World Cup
The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...
, was held in Sweden and won by
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, who became the first European nation to win the Women's World Cup. The tournament featured 12 women's national teams from six continental confederations. The 12 teams were drawn into three groups of four and each group played a
round-robin tournament
A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition
Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero ...
. At the end of the group stage, the top two teams and two best third-ranked teams advanced to the knockout stage, beginning with the quarter-finals and culminating with the final at
Råsunda Stadium
Råsunda Stadium (; also known as Råsunda Fotbollsstadion, Råsundastadion, Råsunda Football Stadium or just Råsunda) was the Swedish national football stadium. It was located in Solna Municipality in Stockholm and named after the district i ...
on 18 June 1995.
Sweden became the first country to host both
men's and women's World Cup, having hosted the men's in
1958
Events
January
* January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being.
* January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
* January 4
** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...
.
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, and
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
made their debuts in the competition. The tournament also hosted as
qualification
Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to:
* Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...
for the
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
, with the eight quarter-finalists being invited to the Olympics. In the second edition of the Women's World Cup, matches were lengthened to the standard 90 minutes, and
three points were awarded for a win.
Summary
Bulgaria was originally awarded hosting rights for the tournament, but had to relinquish the rights and FIFA ended up awarding the tournament to Sweden. About 112,000 tickets were sold for the entire tournament.
As a FIFA rules experiment, each team was allowed a two-minute time out each half.
Norway won the 1995 title, with one in four Norwegians watching the game on television. Norway's team plane was escorted back to Oslo by two F-16s on their way to a victory celebration.
Venues
Teams
As in the
previous edition of the FIFA Women's World cup, held in 1991, 12 teams participated in the final tournament. The teams were:
Squads
For a list of the squads that disputed the final tournament, see
1995 FIFA Women's World Cup squads
Below are the rosters for the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup tournament in Sweden. The 12 national teams involved in the tournament were required to register a squad of 20 players, including at least two goalkeepers. Only players in these squads were ...
.
Match officials
Notes
Draw
The draw for the group stage was held on 18 February 1995 in a public ceremony at the Elite Hotel Marina Plaza in
Helsingborg
Helsingborg (, , , ) is a city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and ninth-largest in Sweden, with a population of 113,816 (2020). Helsingborg is the cent ...
, Sweden. The draw was conducted by
Sepp Blatter
Joseph "Sepp" Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former football administrator who served as the eighth President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participating in FIFA activities since 2015 as a result of ...
, then the FIFA General Secretary, and assisted by Swedish internationals
Tomas Brolin
Per Tomas Brolin (born 29 November 1969) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a forward or as a midfielder.
At club level, he had a successful period with A.C. Parma during the early 1990s, winning the 1992 Coppa Italia, ...
and
Kristin Bengtsson
Gärd Kristin "Kicki" Bengtsson (born 12 January 1970) is a Swedish former footballer who played as a defender. She represented the Sweden national team from 1991 to 2005.
Career
She holds 157 caps for the Swedish women's national team. Beng ...
, winners of the 1994
Guldbollen
Guldbollen (''Golden Ball'') is a Swedish football award given by ''Aftonbladet'' and the Swedish Football Association to the best male Swedish footballer each year.
History
The award was created by Bengt Liljedahl and between 1946 to 1965 it was ...
and
Diamantbollen
Diamantbollen, Swedish for the ''Diamond Ball'', an annual award for Sweden's best female football player. The award is currently awarded by the Swedish Football Association and Sydsvenskans newspaper, in conjunction with its male equivalent, ''G ...
, respectively. There was no television coverage of the draw.
Group stage
Group A
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Group B
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Group C
Group C started with back-and-forth 3–3 draw between the United States and China with the Chinese coming back from a 3–1 deficit. Denmark's opening 5–0 win over Australia, in which
Sonia Gegenhuber was sent off in the 45th minute for the Aussies, ultimately led to their securing one of the best third place runner up spots as they would lose their next two matches.
United States goalkeeper
Brianna Scurry
Briana Collette Scurry (born September 7, 1971) is an American retired soccer goalkeeper, and assistant coach of the Washington Spirit . Scurry was the starting goalkeeper for the United States women's national soccer team at the 1995 World Cup ...
was sent off in the 88th minute of the second group game against
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
. With all three substitutions used, U.S. manager
Tony DiCicco
Anthony D. DiCicco Jr. (August 5, 1948 – June 19, 2017) was an American soccer player and coach and TV commentator. He is best known as the coach of the United States women's national soccer team from 1994 to 1999, during which time the team won ...
called upon striker
Mia Hamm
Mariel Margaret Hamm-Garciaparra (; born March 17, 1972) is an American retired professional soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Hailed as a soccer icon, she played as a forward for the U ...
to play goalkeeper. Hamm made two saves over eight minutes of stoppage time to secure the 2–0 win. In the other game,
Angela Iannotta
Angela Iannotta (born 22 March 1971) is an Italian Australian soccer coach and former player. As a forward, she represented Australia women's national association football team in the 1995 and 1999 FIFA Women's World Cups and played club footb ...
scored Australia's first-ever World Cup goal, but China defeated the Matildas 4–2.
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Ranking of third-placed teams
Knockout stage
Bracket
Quarter-finals
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Semi-finals
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Third place play-off
Final
Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
Awards 1995
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Statistics
Goalscorers
Assists
Tournament ranking
References
External links
FIFA.com
FIFA Technical Report (Part 1)
an
(Part 2)
SVT's open archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:1995 Fifa Women's World Cup
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments
International women's association football competitions hosted by Sweden
Women's World Cup
Sports competitions in Gävle
Sports competitions in Västerås
Sports competitions in Karlstad
Sports competitions in Helsingborg
June 1995 sports events in Europe
Sports competitions in Solna