The 2003 Women's World Cup Final

A new technical dawn and whether domestic leagues are impacting international success

If the 1999 World Cup was supposed to be a new dawn for women’s football, the 2003 edition suggested that it was more of a false one. The tournament was moved from China to the US at short notice after a SARS outbreak and the country was understandably less prepared. The dates clashed with the men’s sports calendar and games were forced to take place as double headers, with the grounds used considerably less iconic than the ones in 1999. 

Despite this, the 2003 World Cup also marked a real step forward in the development of technical football within the women’s game. In the introduction to Inverting the Pyramid, Jonathan Wilson writes that “the history of tactics, it seems, is the history of two interlinked tensions: aesthetics versus results on the one side and technique versus physique on the other.”¹ If physique had won out in the 1990s, the dawn of the 2000s saw technique take the crown.

There had already been hints of this trend in Germany’s 1995 performances and its rise was being felt all over the world. World Cup winning coach Tony DiCicco parted ways with the US supposedly because of tactical concerns about the way they played.² The growth of domestic leagues was beginning to play a huge role in development. As Tiffeny Milbrett said: “You can’t be a professional athlete for six months out of the year or work two weeks out of every month or every other month. That’s not professional. You need a week in and week-out daily environment.”³ Julie Foudy concurred: “To remain dominant in the world, [a league] is a necessity.”⁴

In the US, they were building to launching a first ever league but in Europe, these environments were already becoming more established. The Damallsvenskan in Sweden had begun in 1988 whilst the Frauen-Bundesliga was launched in 1990. By the time the millennium approached, Europe had its own continental competition: the Women’s Champions League. This was in stark contrast to America whereby the league which kicked off in 2001 had folded just four days before the start of the World Cup.

Sweden and Germany were the dominant nations when it came to European football in its opening decade. Eight of the first ten editions of the Champions League were won by teams from either country, whilst there was only one year in the first eleven European Championship finals that did not feature either side. As the 2003 World Cup arrived, Germany were fresh off beating Sweden with a golden goal in the 2001 Euros - it was their fifth European Championship trophy.

Germany made very light work of their run to the final, scoring 13 goals in their dominant group stage against Canada, Japan and Argentina. Their biggest win was still to come though as they brushed Russia aside 7-1 in the quarter-finals, before getting revenge for their 1999 quarter-final exit at the hands of the US by knocking them out on home turf in the semi-finals. The 3-0 win was slightly flattering for Germany, who scored two goals in injury time as the US were pushing for an equaliser, but Grant Wahl, reporting for Sports Illustrated, described them as the “more skillful” side.⁵

Sweden meanwhile had a bit of a tougher run, having been drawn in a group with the US who they lost to in their opening game. Wins over North Korea and Nigeria saw them qualify for the knockout stages as group runners up and they beat Brazil and Canada 2-1 in both the quarter and semi-finals. That set the stage for a final that pitted Europe’s most successful and technical nations against each other. 

Despite Sweden being limited to long range shots from the start, as the game wore on their confidence grew. Hanna Ljungberg began taking German defenders on 1v1, and should have won a penalty in the first half before she opened the scoring after 40 minutes when she was played in behind. However, Birgit Prinz continued to be a threat for Germany who used their fullbacks to attack far more than previous teams had done. Captain Bettina Wiegmann was constantly dribbling to the byline and looking for the cutback, again opening up different areas of the pitch from which to attack. 

Germany equalised straight after half time when Maren Meinert found herself free on the edge of the area and was able to slide Prinz’s ball past Swedish goalkeeper Caroline Jönsson. The Germans also got even when it came to not getting penalty calls when Kerstin Garefrekes was tripped. Once again, individual players’ footwork was causing defenders far more problems than had been seen in previous finals when players were travelling less with the ball. Despite Germany being on top, Sweden threatened through Ljungberg and Victoria Svensson, who at one point nutmegged two Germany players in the penalty area. However, with the scores tied the match went to extra time. 

The Germans continued to find huge amounts of space on Sweden’s left hand side but their shooting was poor. However, a controversial free kick was awarded and in the 98th minute Nia Künzer scored a Golden Goal, the last one ever to decide an international match. It meant that the 2003 World Cup final was almost an exact rerun of the 2001 Euros final.

How much had the development of the domestic leagues impacted the tournament? Interestingly, Birgit Prinz credited having played in the US league as part of the reason why the Germans felt more confident facing them in the semi-finals, having played with and against them in the league. Prinz had played for the Carolina Courage whilst Maren Meinert was part of the Boston Breakers. Meanwhile in Europe, six of the Sweden squad had started the 2003 Champions League final which Umeå won 7-1 over two legs, with Hanna Ljungberg scoring three times in those matches. 

Not only that, having won two of the first three editions of the World Cup, the US would have to wait until 2015 to win their third trophy. In that time, another league was launched and folded, before the NWSL finally kicked off in 2012. Whilst other countries might not have been running fully professional leagues, there were opportunities for those players to be playing regular football close to home.

But having high profile, high quality leagues causes its own anxieties. The Premier League has been the biggest and richest men’s league for a number of years but that has only raised concerns about opportunities for English players. Similar worries in women’s football means that homegrown rules have been brought in as part of the Women’s Super League in order to ensure that squads are developing younger players based in England. However, the expansion of the league has meant that English players this season played almost the exact same number of minutes as they did in 2017-18.⁶

High quality leagues also continue to drive the standards of professionalisation which in turn improves players. Opportunities like specialist goalkeeping coaching, strength and conditioning, and injury prevention are all areas that certain clubs are leading the way on, in order to compete against the best. All of these things have long term benefits for players, with domestic support translating into international success.

But these high quality leagues are also diversifying. The number of minutes played by English players might have stayed the same, but the number of different nationalities has expanded significantly. There were 17 foreign countries represented in the WSL in 2017-18, with that number now doubled to 34. So the benefits from clubs is helping countries across the world.

For that reason, maybe nations will look back to youth development as a more realistic edge that they can find. Being able to develop higher quality players at a younger age will help expand player pools and presumably raise competitiveness. Intriguingly the robust college system in the US has repeatedly shown it is ready made for this in terms of allowing players to gain significant competitive minutes. Ironically the same set up that allowed them to thrive in the 1990s even without a league. The more things seem to change…

1. Wilson, J (2013) Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics 2nd edition

2. Murray, C (2019) The National Team: The Inside Story of the Women who Changed Soccer

3. Murray, C (2019) ibid.

4. Murray, C (2019) ibid.

5. Murray, C (2019) ibid.

6. 106,884 minutes this season vs 107,018 in 2017-18