Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament

2008 Men's Olympic football tournament

Tournament details
Host country	China
Dates	7 August – 23 August
Teams	16 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)	6 (in 5 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Argentina (2nd title)
Runners-up	Nigeria
Third place	Brazil
Fourth place	Belgium
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	75 (2.34 per match)
Attendance	1,404,254 (43,883 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Giuseppe Rossi (4 goals)

Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Tournament
men  women
Squads
men  women

The men's association football tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held in Beijing and four other cities in the People's Republic of China from 7 August to 23 August. Associations affiliated with FIFA were invited to enter their men's U-23 teams in regional qualifying competitions, from which 15 teams, plus the host nation, reached the final tournament. Men's teams were allowed to augment their squads with up to three players over the age of 23.

For these Games, the men competed in a 16-team tournament. Preliminary matches commenced on 7 August, the day before the Games' opening ceremony. The teams were grouped into four pools of four teams each for a round-robin preliminary round. The top two teams in each pool advanced to an eight-team single-elimination bracket.

The tournament was won by Argentina, who beat Nigeria 1–0 in the final, as part of a record streak of 12 consecutive wins in football competitions at the Summer Olympics (six wins in 2004, six wins in 2008).

Qualifying round

A National Olympic Committee may enter one men's team in football competitions.

Means of qualification	Date	Venue	Berths	Qualified
Host nation			1	China PR
AFC Preliminary Competition	February – November 2007	–	3	Australia  South Korea  Japan
CAF Preliminary Competition	September 2006 – March 2008	–	3	Cameroon  Ivory Coast  Nigeria
CONCACAF Preliminary Competition	August 2007 – March 2008	United States	2	Honduras  United States
2007 South American Youth Championship	7–28 January 2007	Paraguay	2	Brazil  Argentina
OFC Preliminary Competition	1–9 March 2008	Fiji	1	New Zealand
2007 UEFA U-21 Championship	10–23 June 2007	Netherlands	4	Netherlands  Serbia  Belgium  Italy
Total			16

Squads

For the men's tournament, each nation submitted a squad of 18 players, 15 of whom had to be born on or after 1 January 1985, and three of whom could be overage players, by 23 July 2008.^[1] A minimum of two goalkeepers (plus one optional alternate goalkeeper) had to be included in the squad.^[1]

Match officials

On 22 April 2008, FIFA released the list of match referees that will officiate at the Olympics.^[2]

Confederation	Referee	Assistants
AFC	Khalil Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia)	Mohammed Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia) Hamdi Al Kadrie (Syria)
	Abdullah Al Hilali (Oman)	Khaled Al Allan (Bahrain) Saleh Al Marzouqi (United Arab Emirates)
	Masoud Moradi (Iran)	Hassan Kamranifar (Iran) Luay Subhi Adib (Iraq)
CAF	Jerome Damon (South Africa)	Enock Molefe (South Africa) Célestin Ntagungira (Rwanda)
	Badara Diatta (Senegal)	Bechir Hassani (Tunisia) Evarist Menkouande (Cameroon)
CONCACAF	Roberto Moreno (Panama)	Daniel Williamson (Panama) Hairo Fuentes (Panama)
	Jair Marrufo (United States)	Kermit Quisenberry (United States) Ricardo Morgan (Jamaica)
CONMEBOL	Héctor Baldassi (Argentina)	Ricardo Casas (Argentina) Hernán Maidana (Argentina)
	Pablo Pozo (Chile)	Patricio Basualto (Chile) Julio Díaz (Chile)
	Martín Vázquez (Uruguay)	Mauricio Espinosa (Uruguay) Miguel Nievas (Uruguay)
OFC	Michael Hester (New Zealand)	Tevita Makasini (Tonga) Michael Joseph (Vanuatu)
UEFA	Thomas Einwaller (Austria)	Roland Heim (Austria) Norbert Schwab (Austria)
	Viktor Kassai (Hungary)	Gábor Erős (Hungary) Tibor Vámos (Hungary)
	Stéphane Lannoy (France)	Eric Dansault (France) Frédéric Cano (France)
	Damir Skomina (Slovenia)	Primož Arhar (Slovenia) Marco Stancin (Slovenia)
	Wolfgang Stark (Germany)	Jan-Hendrik Salver (Germany) Volker Wezel (Germany)

All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8).

Preliminaries

Group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarterfinal round.

Group A

Qualified for the quarterfinals

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Argentina	3	3	0	0	5	1	+4	9
Ivory Coast	3	2	0	1	6	4	+2	6
Australia	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1
Serbia	3	0	1	2	3	7	−4	1

---

---

---

---

---

Group B

Qualified for the quarterfinals

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Nigeria	3	2	1	0	4	2	+2	7
Netherlands	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1	5
United States	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
Japan	3	0	0	3	1	4	−3	0

---

---

---

---

---

Group C

Qualified for the quarterfinals

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Brazil	3	3	0	0	9	0	+9	9
Belgium	3	2	0	1	3	1	+2	6
China PR	3	0	1	2	1	6	−5	1
New Zealand	3	0	1	2	1	7	−6	1

---

---

---

---

---

Group D

Qualified for the quarterfinals

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Italy	3	2	1	0	6	0	+6	7
Cameroon	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5
South Korea	3	1	1	1	2	4	−2	4
Honduras	3	0	0	3	0	5	−5	0

---

---

---

---

---

Knockout stage

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Gold medal match

B1

Nigeria

2

A2

Ivory Coast

0

B1

Nigeria

4

C2

Belgium

1

D1

Italy

2

C2

Belgium

3

B1

Nigeria

0

A1

Argentina

1

A1

Argentina (aet)

2

B2

Netherlands

1

A1

Argentina

3

Bronze medal match

C1

Brazil

0

C1

Brazil (aet)

2

C2

Belgium

0

D2

Cameroon

0

C1

Brazil

3

Quarter-finals

---

---

---

Semi-finals

---

Bronze medal match

Gold medal match

Final ranking

Rank	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Argentina (ARG)	6	6	0	0	11	2	+9	18
2	Nigeria (NGR)	6	4	1	1	10	4	+6	13
3	Brazil (BRA)	6	5	0	1	14	3	+11	15
4	Belgium (BEL)	6	3	0	3	7	10	–3	9
5	Italy (ITA)	4	2	1	1	8	3	+5	7
6	Ivory Coast (CIV)	4	2	0	2	6	6	0	6
7	Netherlands (NED)	4	1	2	1	4	4	0	5
8	Cameroon (CMR)	4	1	2	1	2	3	–1	5
9	United States (USA)	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
10	South Korea (KOR)	3	1	1	1	2	4	−2	4
11	Australia (AUS)	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1
12	Serbia (SRB)	3	0	1	2	3	7	−4	1
13	China (CHN)	3	0	1	2	1	6	−5	1
14	New Zealand (NZL)	3	0	1	2	1	7	–6	1
15	Japan (JPN)	3	0	0	3	1	4	–3	0
16	Honduras (HON)	3	0	0	3	0	5	–5	0

Statistics

Goalscorers

With four goals, Giuseppe Rossi of Italy was the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 75 goals were scored by 53 different players, with only one of them credited as own goal.

4 goals

• Giuseppe Rossi

3 goals

• Mousa Dembélé
• Victor Obinna

2 goals

1 goal

Own goals

• Slobodan Rajković (playing against Ivory Coast)

References

• "Sports Competition Schedule". BOCOG. 17 April 2006. Retrieved 10 August 2006. 
• "Football". International Olympic Committee. 2006. Retrieved 10 August 2006. 
• "Programme of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, Beijing 2008" (PDF). International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 10 August 2006. 

External links

• Olympic Football Tournaments Beijing 2008 - Men, FIFA.com
• RSSSF Summary
• FIFA Technical Report