The tournament opened with a shocker, as Brazil downed host Sweden, 1-0, on a goal by Roseli. The Brazilians could not maintain the pace, and dropped their next two matches to go out of the tournament. Sweden, however, rallied emotionally in front of the home crowd for a dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Germany, as Pia Sundhage and Malin Andersson scored the tying and winning goals in the last 10 minutes. Sweden then cruised by Japan to advance to the quarterfinals. Despite the loss to Sweden, Germany advanced with wins over Japan and a 6-1 thrashing of Brazil, getting two goals from Heidi Mohr. Japan also advanced, based on its win over Brazil, but was quickly put out by the USA in the quarterfinals, 4-0.

China gained a measure of historic revenge in the quarterfinals. After being eliminated in their home country in 1991 by Sweden, China knocked the hosts out of the tournament in penalty kicks. Germany cruised past England, 3-0, to earn a berth in the semifinals.

In GROUP B, Norway romped through perhaps the easiest group, scoring 17 goals while allowing none, and dispatched the always tough Danes in the quarterfinals, 3-1.

GROUP C saw the Americans lose Michelle Akers to injury just seven minutes into their first game, a 3-3 draw in which China scored twice in a five-minute span near the end of the match. The Americans rallied in their second group game to defeat Denmark, 2-0, despite having goalkeeper Briana Scurry ejected on a referee's decision. Against Australia, the USA fell behind 1-0, but rallied to score four times in the second half, with two goals coming in stoppage time, including Debbie Keller's dramatic tally to clinch the group for the USA, her first-ever international goal. The quarterfinals saw a convincing 4-0 victory over Japan as Kristine Lilly scored twice.

The USA went out in the semifinals, 1-0, to Norway on a 10th minute goal from Ann Kristin Aarones and Germany beat China, 1-0, on a goal by Bettina Wiegmann, in a match that could have gone either way.

In steady rain, Norway earned a well-deserved 2-0 victory over Germany, on goals by Hege Riise and Marianne Pettersen, in front of 17,158 fans to win the second Women's World Cup.

1999 FIFA WOMEN'S WORLD CUP USA