States was granted automatic qualification as the host. The remaining participants were determined through a series of six tournaments run by the continental confederations of world soccer from 1997 to 1998; these comprised 63 countries playing in 141 matches. FIFA allocated six berths to Europe; three to Asia; two to Africa; and one each to North America (excluding the hosts), Oceania, and South America. Another berth (for Mexico) was determined by a play-off series between the second-place finishers in the North and South American tournaments. Draw The tournament's final draw took place on February 14, 1999, on a temporary outdoor stage at Spartan Stadium in San Jose, California. It was televised live by ESPN during the halftime of an exhibition match between the United States women's team and the FIFA Women's World Stars at the stadium. The United States lost the match 2–1, their first home defeat in more than 40 matches. The draw was conducted using four pots of four teams each. The four highest-ranked teams, China, Germany, Norway, and the United States, were seeded into Pot A. The remaining pots were organized based on geographic location, with four European teams in Pot B, South America, Asia, and Oceania represented in Pot C, and North America and Africa in Pot D. The United States was placed in slot A1, separated from Canada and Mexico; similarly, China was separated from Japan and North Korea in the draw. As a result of the restrictions in seeding and pot placement, two of the World Cup groups each contained two European teams. Group B was dubbed the "group of death" because it contained non-seeded Brazil, an Olympic semi-finalist, alongside Germany, Italy, and Mexico. The teams drawn in Groups C and D were switched to place China's opening match at Spartan Stadium in San Jose, with hopes of attracting the San Francisco Bay Area's Chinese-American community. Squads Each team's squad for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup consisted of 20 players, the same as the 1995 tournament. The sixteen participating national associations were required to confirm their final rosters no later than June 9, 1999. Three days after the deadline, the full rosters were published by FIFA on their website. Several teams, including the United States, Canada, and Mexico, drew much of their roster from U.S. college teams. The oldest player at the tournament was Norwegian captain Linda Medalen, who turned 34 before the