1999 Women's World Cup Final: USA Beats China at the Rose Bowl

The United States won the 1999 Women’s World Cup on July 10, 1999, beating China 5-4 in a penalty shootout after a scoreless final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Brandi Chastain scored the deciding kick in front of 90,185 fans, then the largest crowd ever at a women’s sporting event. The match closed a home tournament that changed how Americans saw women’s soccer.

The Final at the Rose Bowl

The final kicked off at 12:50 p.m. Pacific time on a Saturday afternoon. Swiss referee Nicole Petignat took charge. Tony DiCicco coached the United States, and Ma Yuanan coached China.

Neither team scored in 90 minutes. Extra time was played under the golden goal rule, meaning the first goal would end the match immediately, and China came closest. A header by Fan Yunjie was bound for the goal near the post when US midfielder Kristine Lilly cleared it.

Michelle Akers started in the US defensive midfield. She was cautioned in the 74th minute and was substituted in the 91st, at the start of extra time. After 120 minutes, the score was still 0-0, and the title went to penalties.

The Penalty Shootout, Kick by Kick

China shot first. The sequence went like this:

Round	China	United States
1	Xie Huilin, scored	Carla Overbeck, scored
2	Qiu Haiyan, scored	Joy Fawcett, scored
3	Liu Ying, saved by Briana Scurry	Kristine Lilly, scored
4	Zhang Ouying, scored	Mia Hamm, scored
5	Sun Wen, scored	Brandi Chastain, scored

The only miss came in the third round, when goalkeeper Briana Scurry stopped Liu Ying’s shot. Replays showed Scurry had moved off her goal line before the kick, which under the rules could have led to a retake. The referee let it stand, and Scurry later acknowledged stepping forward, saying “everybody does it.”

Chastain, a defender, took the fifth US kick. She shot past Chinese goalkeeper Gao Hong, pulled off her jersey and dropped to her knees in celebration. The image appeared on the covers of Sports Illustrated and TIME, and two decades later it became the model for a statue.

The Road to the Final

The United States won its group with three wins and nine points, then faced its hardest test in the quarterfinals. On July 1 in Landover, Maryland, Germany led early after Chastain accidentally put the ball into her own net in the fifth minute. The Americans recovered to win 3-2, with goals from Tiffeny Milbrett, Chastain herself and Joy Fawcett.

The semifinal fell on July 4 at Stanford Stadium in California. Cindy Parlow scored in the fifth minute and Akers added a penalty in the 80th as the US beat Brazil 2-0. The same day in Foxborough, Massachusetts, China routed Norway 5-0, with two goals each from Sun Wen and Liu Ailing.

Brazil and Norway played the third-place match at the Rose Bowl on the same day as the final. That game also ended 0-0 after extra time, and Brazil won its shootout 5-4, the same score as the title game.

A Home Tournament That Drew Record Crowds

The 1999 Women’s World Cup ran from June 19 to July 10 in eight American stadiums, from Giants Stadium in New Jersey and Soldier Field in Chicago to Civic Stadium in Portland, Oregon, and the Rose Bowl. It was the third edition of the event and the first with 16 teams, up from 12 in 1995. The tournament covered the Fourth of July holiday, and the 1999 calendar shows how the knockout rounds stretched across early July.

Crowds were large from the opening day. The United States beat Denmark 3-0 at Giants Stadium in New Jersey before 78,972 fans, a US record for a women’s sporting event at the time. The final at the Rose Bowl topped that. Total tournament attendance came to roughly 1.2 million, though published figures vary slightly.

The final also drew a big television audience. ABC’s broadcast averaged 17.9 million viewers in the United States and peaked at about 40 million. China’s Sun Wen and Brazil’s Sissi tied for the tournament lead with seven goals each, and Sun Wen was named best player.

What the 1999 Victory Changed

The win made the United States the first nation to capture two Women’s World Cup titles, after its victory at the inaugural tournament in 1991. Players such as Hamm, Chastain, Scurry, Lilly and Akers became household names, and the tournament’s crowds and ratings set records for women’s sports that boosted interest in the women’s game.

The momentum led to the Women’s United Soccer Association, a professional women’s league. It launched after the tournament and played three seasons before folding because of financial difficulties.

The final remained a reference point for decades. Chastain was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2017. On July 10, 2019, the 20th anniversary of the win, a statue of her celebrating with her jersey in hand was unveiled outside the Rose Bowl. You can count the years since that afternoon with the days between dates calculator, or browse other summer 1999 events on the 1999 calendar.