12 October 2003 - Künzer's Golden Goal

On 12 October 2003, Germany won their first Women's World Cup, beating Sweden 2-1 in the final with a golden goal from substitute Nia Künzer.

The final continued a growing rivalry between the two teams. Sweden won their first meeting in a major tournament, beating the Germans in the 1991 FIFA World Cup third-place match, then again in the group stage in 1995. But since then, it had been all Germany, who defeated Sweden twice in the final of the UEFA Women's European Championship (1995 and 2001), took them out in the Euro semifinals in 1997 and beat them in the first round in 2001. They also topped them in the group stage of the 2000 Summer Olympics.

In the 2003 World Cup Final, played before a crowd of 26,137 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, Sweden played a strong defensive game, shutting down a high-powered German attack that saw them breeze through the group stage with a goal differential of +11. Although the German side included forward Birgit Prinz, the tournament's leading scorer with seven goals, she was repeatedly denied by Swedish goalkeeper Caroline Jönsson.

Sweden took a surprising lead with a 41st-minute strike from forward Hanna Ljungberg, but the lead didn't last long as German striker Maren Meinert equalized in the 46th minute. That was the last score throughout the first 90 minutes, sending the match into extra time. There, defender-midfielder Künzer (pictured), who had come on in the 88th minute, scored a golden goal, beating Jönsson with a powerful headed ball that just cleared the keeper's outstretched hand.

Germany went on to repeat as champions in 2007. Since the 2003 final, they have beaten Sweden twice more in a major tournament, in the third-place match for the 2004 Olympics and in the quarterfinals of the 2008 Olympics.

See highlights of the 2003 final here on YouTube.

3 May 2003 - FIFA Switches The Pitches

On 3 May 2003, FIFA announced that that year's Women's World Cup, scheduled to start in September, would not be hosted by China as originally awarded.

FIFA had selected China as hosts back in October 2000, choosing them over Australia despite the fact that the Chinese had already staged the 1991 tournament. But in the Spring of 2003, China suffered an outbreak of a virus causing severe acute respiratory syndrome, better known by its acronym SARS. By May, the epidemic had caused over 6,000 illnesses and 400 deaths, most of which occured in China and Hong Kong.

Amid concerns over the health of their athletes, several governing bodies canceled events that had been scheduled to take place in China that year, including the world track cycling championship, the women's ice hockey world championship, and several WNBA exhibition games, all of which had been moved before FIFA made their decision.

FIFA selected the United States to replace China as hosts. The US had hosted the previous tournament in 1999 and FIFA believed that experience would allow the US to best organize the tournament on such short notice. And, indeed, the tournament went ahead as scheduled, with Germany emerging as the eventual winners.

In order to compensate China for losing the 2003 tournament, FIFA alowed them to keep their automatic qualification status for that year and also named them as hosts for the 2007 tournament, which went off without a hitch (and was also won by Germany).