There have only been four winners of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and all of them have been knocked out – which means the final on Sunday for the 2023 edition will be contested by completely new teams.
The USA, who lifted the trophy a record four times, were looking to become the first nation – female or male – to win three titles in a row in 2023 following back to back victories in 2015 Canada and 2019 France.
But the Americans saw their hopes dashed by a resilient Sweden in the Round of 16 after a penalty shootout.
Two-time winners Germany couldn’t even last the distance as they concluded their tournament in the group stage.
Norway’s dreams evaporated in the last 16, going down to the other former World Champions Japan, but the latter were also stopped dead in their tracks by Sweden in the quarterfinals.
Now the ninth edition will be lifted by a different nation – the fifth in the history of the competition.
With a new name to be engraved on the trophy on Sunday, 20 August in Sydney, Australia, when England takes on Spain, here’s a look at the last eight tournaments.
FIFA Women’s World Cup China PR 1991™
Winners: USA
Runners-up: Norway
Third place: Sweden
The US are often portrayed as having enjoyed a head-start on their women’s football competitors. In fact, they went into the inaugural Women’s World Cup having failed to win any of the four international tournaments in which they had competed.
Norway, who had come out on top in an invitational tournament FIFA had staged in China three years before, had also beaten the Americans twice in their own back yard in the lead-up to this historic showpiece. “We hated Norway,” Michelle Akers, USA’s star of the time, later admitted. “They were good, they were tough, they were bitchy, they talked smack.”
All of these ingredients – their quality and toughness in particular – made the Norwegians likely candidates to prevail when the two rivals met in the 1991 final. Ultimately, it was Akers who determined otherwise, scoring a match-winning brace that secured the title for her high-energy, hard-pressing team and added the adidas Golden Boot to her personal collection of honours.
FIFA Women’s World Cup Sweden 1995™
Winners: Norway
Runners-up: Germany
Third place: USA
Despite that Akers-inspired defeat in ’91, the Norwegians remained a thorn in USA’s flesh for much of the ensuing decade. European champions in 1993, they went one better by claiming the world crown two years later in neighbouring Sweden, edging out the Americans in the last four before seeing off Germany 2-0 in the final.
Norway would go on win the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament in 2000 too, beating the US – who else – in the final. But Hege Riise, Norway’s talented talisman and current coach, had no difficulty in choosing between these two triumphs. “Winning the Olympics was wonderful, but the flow of the tournament wasn’t the same,” she told FIFA in 2016. “1995 was the best moment of my career without any doubt.”
FIFA Women’s World Cup USA 1999™
Winners: USA
Runners-up:
China PR Third place: Brazil
In all but one of the Women’s World Cups to date, the hosts have exited in the quarter or semi-finals. USA 99 was exceptional in that sense, and in many more besides.
The tournament and its champions – the Americans’ fabled ‘99ers’ – are still remembered as having provided a crucial breakthrough in the evolution of this tournament and the women’s game as a whole. Their matches were played out before vast, packed stadiums, with a total attendance of 1.194 million that stood as a record until 2015.
On the field, and while Sun Wen’s China PR and Sissi’s Brazil dazzled, it was the US – with the beloved Mia Hamm now centre stage – who took the title. They did so, of course, with a dramatic final penalty shootout win over the Chinese, capped by Brandi Chastain’s iconic celebration.
FIFA Women’s World Cup USA 2003™
Winners: Germany
Runners-up: Sweden
Third place: USA
When USA stepped in to host the tournament again four years later after a SARS outbreak forced its relocation from China, the hosts were almost universally expected to once again reign supreme.
The ever-improving Germans had other ideas, however, and heralded the beginning of their golden era by outclassing and outmuscling the Americans in a 3-0 semi-final defeat. The European champions, who had demolished Russia 7-1 in the last eight, then pipped Sweden to the title, with Nia Kunzer scoring a legendary 98th-minute golden goal.
Birgit Prinz and Co ended the tournament having found the net 25 times, setting an average of 4.16 goals per match that equalled USA’s record from 1991 and has never been matched since.
FIFA Women’s World Cup China PR 2007™
Winners: Germany
Runners-up: Brazil
Third place: USA
If high scoring marked out their 2003 triumph, Germany’s success in China four years later was indebted to the tightest defence in the tournament’s history.
With goalkeeper Nadine Angerer in the form of her life, and a sturdy, well-organised backline assembled in front of her, Silvia Neid’s side saw off the likes of Japan, Norway and final opponents Brazil – fresh from a Marta-inspired demolition of the US – without conceding a single goal. No-one in the men’s or women’s World Cup has managed that feat before or since.
FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011™
Winners: Japan
Runners-up: USA
Third place: Sweden
Home advantage made Germany heavy favourites to win a third successive crown but, as with USA in 2003, the hosts found themselves in the shadow of first-time champions.
No team has won the Women’s World Cup scoring as few goals (12) or conceding as many (6) as Japan in 2011. But those statistics belied a hard-earned triumph that contained plenty of slick football and warmed plenty of hearts, coming as it did just a few months after the country had been devastated by a tsunami.
FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015™
Winners: USA
Runners-up: Japan
Third place: England
The first 24-team edition has come to be remembered for the highest-scoring final in Women’s World Cup history, won convincingly by a resurgent US and illuminated by a historic Carli Lloyd hat-trick.
What’s often forgotten is that the Americans’ campaign was the ultimate slow burner; they scored just four times in their three group-stages matches, labouring to a goalless draw with Sweden amid murmured criticisms of coach Jill Ellis. But Lloyd and Co improved with every knockout round and rose to the big occasion by crushing Japan 5-2 – the most lopsided score line yet recorded a Women’s World Cup final.
FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™
Winners: USA
Runners-up: The Netherlands
Third place: Sweden
Ellis was there again, as was the core of the 2015 squad, as the US became just the second team – after Germany (2003, 2007) – to retain the crown.
If their Canadian campaign was a slow burner, this was anything but, with 13 goals in their opening match paving the way to a tournament-record haul of 26. The knockout stage saw Europe’s leading sides swept aside, with Spain, hosts France, England and the Netherlands – then continental champions – unable to halt this unstoppable American juggernaut.
Source: FIFA.com
