Which Country Won the First Women’s Soccer World Cup?

The United States holds the record for winning the first women’s Soccer World Cup in 1991. Twelve international teams took part in the inaugural tournament. The participating countries were the USA, Brazil, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Nigeria, China PR, Japan, Chinese Taipei, and New Zealand. If you are a true fan of soccer then you should learn these interesting facts about the first women’s world cup.

1991- Women’s World Cup

Do you know what the first women’s World Cup was called?

The FIFA Women’s World Cup is known as an international association football competition founded in 1991. It is managed by the women’s national teams of the members of FIFA which is the sport’s global governing body. The tournament is held every four years.

The 1991 FIFA Women’s World Cup was the first FIFA Women’s World Cup, which was held in Guangdong, China between 16th November to 30 November 1991. 

The football’s international governing body FIFA decided to choose China as the host country because Guangdong was known for hosting a prototype world championship three years earlier, following Foshan, Zhongshan, and Jiangmen.

The tournament was sponsored by Mars, Inc who is the producer of M&M’s candy. This competition was officially declared as the first FIFA World Championship for Women’s Football for the M&M’s Cup.

The United States won the 1991 women’s World Cup. Captain April Heinrichs created a front line called “triple–edged sword” along with Carin Jennings and Michelle Akers-Stahl. Jennings became the player of the competition and Akers-Stahl won the Golden Shoe for scoring ten goals.

Norway was defeated by the United States with a score of 2-1 in the final. The match was watched by a crowd of 65,000 people at Guangzhou’s Tianhe Stadium.

Touranmanet’s total attendance was 510,000 with an average of 19,615 each match. During the opening in the same stadium, China defeated Norway with a score of 4-0.

Ma Li became the first person to score a goal in women’s Soccer World Cup history; she was a well-known defender from China. The first official ‘clean sheet’ was posted by the Chinese goalkeeper Zhong Honglian in the tournament.

In the competition, twelve teams participated and they were classified into three groups with four teams. The top two teams and the two best third-place finishers from the three groups moved to the knockout round, containing eight teams. All competitions lasted for 80 minutes, instead of 90.