The 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the fifth edition of the FIFAWomen's World Cup, was an international association football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but the outbreak of SARS in that country forced that event to be moved to the United States. FIFA immediately granted the 2007 event to China, which meant that no new host nation was chosen competitively until the voting was held for the 2011 Women's World Cup. The tournament opened with a record-breaking match in Shanghai, as Germany beat Argentina 11–0 to register the biggest win and the highest scoring match in Women's World Cup history, records which stood until 2019. The tournament ended with Germany defeating Brazil 2–0 in the final, having never surrendered a goal in the entire tournament. The Germans became the first national team in FIFA Women's World Cup history to retain their title. The golden goal rule for extra time in knockout matches was eliminated by FIFA, although no matches went to extra time nor required a penalty shootout.
Teams
Venues
The venues selected to host the competition were:
Squads
Referees
Draw
The group draw took place on 22 April 2007 at the Guanggu Science and TechnologyExhibition Centre in Wuhan after the completion of the qualifying rounds. FIFA automatically seeded the host and defending champions, slotting China and Germany into Group D and Group A, respectively. The FIFA Women's World Ranking for March 2007 was used to determine the teams to occupy the other seeded positions, B1 and C1. United States were ranked first, Germany second and Norway third, so the United States and Norway were also seeded. Also, no two teams from the same confederation could draw each other, except for those from UEFA, where a maximum of two teams from UEFA could be drawn into the same group. Group B quickly became dubbed the group of death since three of the top five teams in the world were drawn in this group – the USA, Sweden and North Korea, according to the June 2007FIFA Women's World Rankings, the last to be released before the tournament. The same four teams were drawn together in Group A in the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, on that occasion the US and Sweden progressed to the knockout stages.
Group stage
All times are local.
Tiebreakers
Teams are ranked on the following criteria:
Greater number of points in all group matches
Goal difference in all group matches
Greater number of goals scored in all group matches
Greatest number of points in matches between teams
Goal difference in matches between teams
Greatest number of goals scored in matches between teams
Fair play criteria based on red and yellow cards received
The four teams were also paired in the same group in 2003. ---- ----
Group C
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Group D
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Knockout stage
Bracket
Quarter-finals
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Semi-finals
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Third place play-off
Final
Statistics
Goalscorers
Assists
Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament. FIFA.com shortlisted ten goals for users to vote on as the Goal of the Tournament. The Most Entertaining Team award was also decided by a poll on FIFA.com.
All-Star Team
Tournament ranking
Coverage
Numerous TV stations around the world provided coverage of the tournament. One notable example is the Chinese-language channel CCTV-5, which also broadcast over the internet via TVUnetworks.
Monetary rewards
For the first time in FIFA Women's World Cup history, all teams received monetary bonuses according to the round they reached :
Champions: $1,000,000
Runners-up: $800,000
Third place: $650,000
Fourth place: $550,000
Quarter-finalists: $300,000
First round exit: $200,000
Other rewards
used the FIFA Women's World Cup as its qualifying tournament for the 2008 Olympic women's tournament. The best three performing UEFA teams will qualify for the Olympics. Originally it was thought that, should England make the top three European teams, they would compete under the United Kingdom banner. However, on 6 September 2007, FIFA issued a press release indicating that England are ineligible to participate in the 2008 Olympics as England does not have its own Olympic Committee. For the determination of the ranking only first through fourth place, quarterfinal elimination or group phase elimination count. If there is a need to make a distinction between teams eliminated in the quarterfinal or between teams eliminated in the group phase these teams will meet in a play-off match. In no case will the points or goals count for teams eliminated before the semi-final. Germany and Norway qualified for the Olympics at the World Cup, whereas Denmark and Sweden had to enter a play-off for the third Olympics spot. Sweden won both legs of the playoffs with a total of 7–3 on aggregate to qualify for the Olympics.
Controversies
Kenneth Heiner-Møller and Danish players accused the Chinese hosts of harassment and covert surveillance prior to China's first round match against Denmark. China's Swedish coach Marika Domanski-Lyfors and her assistant Pia Sundhage were unaware of the incidents and Heiner-Møller absolved them of any blame, although he refused to shake hands after the match.
