The tournament features eight women's national teams from six continental confederations with the qualification coming from the previous year's World Cup. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four and each group plays a round-robin tournament. At the end of the group stage, the top two teams advanced to the knockout stage, beginning with the semi-finals and culminating with the gold medal match at the Sydney Football Stadium.
At the end of the group stage, Brazil, Germany, Norway and the United States qualified through to the knockout stage. After Norway and the United States both won the semi-finals, the final was played on the 28 September 2000. The match would go to extra time, with a controversial handball in the 102nd minute from Dagny Mellgren securing Norway the gold medal as they won 3–2. Germany won the bronze medal defeating Brazil 2–0.
There were 42 goals scored in 16 matches, for an average of 2.62 goals per match. Sun Wen of China was the top scorer of the tournament with four goals.
Germany won the FIFA Fair Play Award, given to the team with the best record of fair play during the tournament.[3]
Tournament ranking
Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.