The 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, the second edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was held in Sweden and won by Norway, 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. 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 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.
Australia, Canada, and England made their debuts in the competition. The tournament also hosted as qualification for the 1996 Summer Olympics, 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 Strömvallen, Gävle (Capacity: 7,300) Olympia Stadion, Helsingborg (Capacity: 17,200) Tingvalla IP, Karlstad (Capacity: 5,000) Arosvallen, Västerås (Capacity: 10,000) Råsunda, Solna (Capacity: 36,800)
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:
Africa (CAF)
Asia (AFC)
South America (CONMEBOL)
Oceania (OFC) (debut) Europe (UEFA)
(debut)
North America, Central America & Caribbean (CONCACAF) (debut)
Squads For a list of the squads that competed in the final tournament, see 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup squads.
Match officials
+ Referees Confederation Referee Female officials CONCACAF Sonia Denoncourt (Canada) Catherine Leann Hepburn (United States) CONMEBOL Maria Edilene Siqueira (Brazil) OFC Linda May Black (New Zealand) UEFA Ingrid Jonsson (Sweden) Eva Ödlund (Sweden) Bente Skogvang (Norway) Male officials AFC Pirom Un-prasert (Thailand) CAF Engage Camara (Guinea) Petros Mathabela (South Africa) CONMEBOL Eduardo Gamboa (Chile) UEFA Alain Hamer (Luxembourg)
+ Assistant referees Confederation Assistant referee Female officials AFC Hisae Yoshizawa (Japan) CONCACAF María del Socorro Rodríguez (Mexico) CONMEBOL Ana Bia Batista (Brazil) UEFA Christine Frai (Germany) Gitte Holm (Denmark) Corinne Lagrange (France) Veronika Schluchter-Märki (Switzerland) Male officials AFC Jeon Young-hyun (South Korea) CAF Amir Osman Mohamed Hamid (Sudan) Mamadou Touré (Mali) CONCACAF Peter Kelly (Trinidad and Tobago) CONMEBOL Manuel Yupanqui Souza (Peru)
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, Sweden. The draw was conducted by Sepp Blatter, then the FIFA General Secretary, and assisted by Swedish internationals Tomas Brolin and Kristin Bengtsson, winners of the 1994 Guldbollen and Diamantbollen, respectively. There was no television coverage of the draw.
Group stage 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 B
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 was sent off in the 88th minute of the second group game against Denmark. With all three substitutions used, U.S. manager Tony DiCicco called upon striker Mia Hamm 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 scored Australia's first-ever World Cup goal, but China defeated the Matildas 4–2.
Ranking of third-placed teams
Knockout stage
Bracket
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Third place play-off
Final
Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:Awards 1995
Golden BallSilver BallBronze Ball Hege Riise Gro Espeseth Ann Kristin AarønesGolden ShoeSilver ShoeBronze Shoe Ann Kristin Aarønes Hege Riise Shi Guihong6 goals, 0 assists5 goals, 5 assists3 goals, 2 assistsFIFA Fair Play Award
Statistics
Goalscorers
Assists
Tournament ranking
References
External links FIFA Women's World Cup Sweden 1995, FIFA.com FIFA Technical Report (Part 1) and (Part 2) SVT's open archive