The Unique Moments of the Women’s World Cup: Celebrations, Shortened Matches, and Sudden-Death Heartbreakers
The Women’s World Cup has been around for 32 years, and in that time it has seen its fair share of unique moments. From overnight sleeper trains, shared food feasts, and unusual celebrations to shortened matches and sudden-death heartbreakers, the tournament has seen it all. BBC Sport takes a look back at the early days of the Women’s World Cup and speaks to some of the people involved.
## Shortened Matches and Timeouts
The first Women’s World Cup in 1991 was given the lengthy title of the ‘1st FIFA World Championship for Women’s Football for the M&Ms Cup’. It was retrospectively rebranded as the World Cup, and matches lasted just 80 minutes. By the time the 1995 edition came around in Sweden, the women were given the full 90 minutes, but another energy-saving experiment was introduced: two-minute timeouts. Two were allowed per match and debutants Australia used the most, with coach Tom Sermanni taking the maximum allowed in each of their three matches. Reigning European champions Germany, on the other hand, avoided the experiment completely by using none on their way to the final.
## Pass the Pasta
The teams stayed in the same hotels back then and there were times when the menu was not to everyone’s taste. But some nations had come prepared – Germany brought snacks of salami and black bread. Gero Bisanz, Germany’s coach at the time, allowed his players a can of beer, telling them it would help them sleep. When Denmark’s players found out, they joined the German team for an evening of merriment. USA head coach Anson Dorrance had seen his players exist on “candy” in previous tours of China, so he brought in his brother Pete to help cook the team’s favourite pasta dishes. And after realising group stage opponents Sweden were struggling to adapt to the food, Dorrance shared the American rations.
## Swedish Surprise
The USA were the first to lift the trophy after a 2-1 victory over Norway in front of 63,000 spectators in Guangzhou. When they returned to their hotel, bronze-winning Sweden had a surprise in store. Outside the lift door, the Swedes – who had actually lost 3-2 in the group stage to the USA – had laid out their golden yellow socks to spell out “USA gold”. Former USA defender Carla Overbeck says the memory of it still gives her goosebumps. Sweden added to the celebratory mood with a made-up song, according to then captain Pia Sundhage.
## The Spider Mystery
The trophy that the USA held aloft in 1991 became known as “the spider”. It bore the words ‘World Championship for Women’s Football’ on its black base; its six leg-like strands reached up to hold a shiny golden football. Norway raised the same trophy to the rainy skies after their 1995 title triumph – except they did not keep it for long because it disappeared in 1997 during renovations at the Norwegian Football Association. Little is known about the theft, but luckily for posterity, it is thought that the lost one was a winners’ replica rather than the actual trophy, which lies at the FIFA Museum in Switzerland.
## Journeys End
England went on quite the journey at their first Women’s World Cup in 1995 and not just with an impressive run to the quarter-finals. After a double from Doncaster Belles legend Gill Coultard helped secure victory in a nail-biting 3-2 win against Canada in Helsingborg, it was all aboard… an overnight train to Karlstad to face Norway two days later – more than 300 miles and seven and a half hours away. Germany, who travelled by plane, would put the brakes on England’s run, however, with a 3-0 quarter final victory.
## It’s Official
The female officials who ran the line in the 1991 Women’s World Cup were dubbed “lineswomen” but unlike their male counterparts, they had no FIFA tournament badges to describe their status. But the women who trod that path in the second edition of the competition four years later did – the shield sewn into their shirts bearing the words “Lineswoman FIFA 95”. Those blue badges soon became FIFA Museum pieces, though, because the following year saw the switch to the all-encompassing “assistant referees”. The 1999 Women’s World Cup would become the first to feature only female officials – the foundations had been laid at the 1991 tournament by Brazil’s Claudia Vasconcelos, the first woman to referee a match in a FIFA competition, and in 1995, by Swede Ingrid Jonsson, the first woman to take charge of a FIFA final.
## Sudden-Death Heartbreakers
The Women’s World Cup was the last senior FIFA tournament to feature a golden goal decider. Just two matches in the history of the competition were settled in that most heartbreaking of ways. The first, at USA 1999, saw Brazil forward Sissi crush Nigeria’s spirited three-goal comeback with a 104th-minute quarter-final winner in front of almost 55,000 fans in Washington DC. Sweden were the only other team to suffer golden goal despair. Level at 1-1 with Germany after 90 minutes in the 2003 final, their dreams of glory abruptly ended by substitute Nia Kunzer’s headed winner in the 98th minute.
From overnight sleeper trains and shared food feasts to shortened matches and sudden-death heartbreakers, there have been many unique moments during 32 years of Women’s World Cup history. The tournament has seen its fair share of unusual celebrations and experiments, but it has also seen female officials take charge for the first time and teams come together to support each other off the pitch. It is clear that these moments have helped shape what is now one of football’s biggest tournaments.