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1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics

1996 Summer Olympics - The Results (Football - Women)

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Football at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games

Host City: Atlanta, United States
Date Started: July 20, 1996
Date Finished: August 3, 1996
Events: 2

Participants: 388 (264 men and 124 women) from 21 countries
Youngest Participant: Hanna Ljungberg (17 years, 195 days)
Oldest Participant: Meg (40 years, 203 days)
Most Medals (Athlete): 97 athletes with 1 medal
Most Medals (Country): 6 countries with 1 medal

THE CENTENNIAL OLYMPIC Games football tournament ushered in a new era as women competed for the first time in Olympic play. There were 416 athletes (288 men and 128 women) representing 21 nations taking part in the football competition. During the 12 days of tournament play, 20 July-3 August with three rest days, more than 1.2 million fans jammed five venues, making football the highest-attended sport during the 1996 Games.

VENUES

Five different venues hosted football competition. Preliminary rounds took place at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida, with a seating capacity of 65,000 and located 321 mi (517 km) from Atlanta; Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, with a seating capacity of 81,700 and located 148 mi (238 km) from Atlanta; the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, with a seating capacity of 72,700 and located 668 mi (1,075 km) from Atlanta; and Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Memorial Stadium in Washington, DC, with a seating capacity of 56,500 and located 640 mi (1,030 km) from Atlanta. The Orange Bowl and Legion Field also hosted the men's quarterfinals. All four outlying venues celebrated with Opening Ceremonies, and each had its own Village to house the athletes. The fifth venue was the University of Georgia's Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia, with a seating capacity of 86,100 and located 65 mi (105 km) from Atlanta. Sanford Stadium hosted all the semifinals and finals of the competition.

COMPETITION

In the preliminaries of both the men's and women's tournaments, teams competed in a round-robin. The 16 men's teams were divided into four groups of four, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the singleelimination quarterfinals. The eight teams in the women's tournament were divided into two groups of four, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the semifinals. In the preliminaries, teams were awarded three points for each win and one point for each tie. At the end of the round-robin, ties in points were resolved by calculating the difference between the number of goals scored and the number of goals allowed, with the team with the greater differential advancing. If still tied, the team with the greater number of goals scored received the higher ranking. In the event of a tie at the end of regulation play in the men's quarterfinals and the men's and women's semifinals and medal rounds, teams played up to two sudden-death extra time periods. The first team to score won. If the score remained tied, a penalty-kick shoot-out decided the winner.

Overview

The big news in 1996 was that womenâs football was now an Olympic sport. Women had first competed in a World Cup in 1991, won by the United States, with Norway winning in 1995. Women had an eight-team field, made up of seven of the top eight teams from the 1995 World Cup, with Brazil replacing England, as England could not compete in the Olympics independently. Women had two groups of four teams each with the top two teams in each group advancing to the semi-finals. The United States women won the gold medal, defeating China in the final, 2-1, on a late goal.

The men had the standard field and format of 16 teams separated into four four-team groups, that played a round-robin to determine the top two teams in each group, who advanced to the quarter-finals and the knock-out phase. Both the men and women played in five stadia spread around the United States, as follows â Sanford Stadium, Athens, Georgia; Citrus Bowl, Orlando, Florida; Legion Field, Birmingham, Alabama; Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida; and Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, Washington, DC.

The 16 menâs qualifiers were as follows â the United States as the host nation; five teams from the 1996 UEFA Europe Under-21 Championships (Italy, Spain, France, Hungary, Portugal); three teams from a CAF (Africa) Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Ghana, Tunisia, Nigeria); three teams from an AFC (Asia) Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Korea [South], Japan, Saudi Arabia); one team from a CONCACAF (North & Central America/Caribbean) Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Mexico); two teams from a CONMEBOL (South America) Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Brazil, Argentina); and Australia from the OFC (Oceania) Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Nigeria became the first African nation to win Olympic football gold, defeating Argentina in the final, 3-2. Brazil took bronze with a crushing defeat of Portugal, 5-0.

The football tournament at the 1996 Summer Olympics started on 20 July and finished on 3 August. The women's competition was contested for the first time in Olympic history at these Games.

Women's Football

Host City: Atlanta, United States
Venue(s): Florida Citrus Bowl, Orlando, Florida; Legion Field, Birmingham, Alabama; Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida; Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, Washington, District of Columbia; Sanford Stadium, Athens, Georgia
Date Started: July 21, 1996
Date Finished: August 1, 1996
Format: Round-robin pools advance teams to single-elimination tournament of four teams.

Summary

After 96 years, women footballers were finally allowed to compete at the Olympics. With no restrictions on entry, the tournament effectively became a second World Cup. That tournament had only been established in 1991, with the US winning the first edition and Norway taking the title in 1995. With only the English team failing to qualify from the World Cup's quarter-finalists, the tournament had a high standard of play. As expected, Norway won its pool, but the other favourite, the US, was held to a draw by China and placed second on goal difference.

This pitted the two strongest women's teams against each other in the semi-finals. After 90 minutes, both had scored once, and the match went into golden goal overtime. After just five minutes, [Shannon MacMillan] sent her team to the final. The China-USA rematch was a close affair watch by a record 76,000 crowd. [Tiffeny Milbrett] sealed the match with a second half goal. One of the most remarkable names in the tournament was the shirt name of [Marileia dos Santos]: Michael Jackson. She picked the name not only because she liked his music, but because she claimed her )dancing) abilities on the field matched Jackson's.

In the preliminaries of the women's tournament, the People's Republic of China and the United States advanced to the semifinals out of Group E with two wins and one tie each. Both teams defeated Sweden and Denmark before meeting one another in a scoreless head-tohead draw. Defending World Champion Norway secured the top spot in Group F with two wins and one tie. Brazil, which finished preliminary play with one win and two ties, earned the other berth in the semifinals by finishing ahead of Germany and Japan. Brazil was in position to upset the favored People's Republic of China in the semifinals, but Haiying Wei scored twice in the final seven minutes to propel the Chinese into the women's final with a 3-2 victory. Playing before 64,196 ecstatic fans in the other semifinal match, the US posted a dramatic 2-1 win over Norway in sudden-death overtime. Norway's Linda Medalen—who won the women's tournament scoring title with 15 points (four goals and three assists)—put her team in front at the 18-minute mark by scoring the game's first goal. In the 76th minute of play, Michelle Akers, the all-time leading scorer for the US women, tied the game 1-1 on a penalty kick. The teams remained deadlocked until the 100th minute of play, when the US scored the winning goal off the foot of Shannon MacMillan. Ironically, both medal-round pairings were rematches between teams that had tied each other in head-to-head confrontations in the preliminaries. In the battle of the two unbeaten teams, the United States broke a scoreless tie from its earlier encounter with the People's Republic of China and posted a 2-1 win to capture the first-ever Olympic gold medal in women's football. In front of a Sanford Stadium crowd of 76,481 fans—the largest crowd ever to attend a women's football match—MacMillan put the Americans ahead by scoring in the 19th minute after a scramble in front of China's goal. Later, the People's Republic of China tied the score 1-1 on Wen Sun's goal, only the third given up by US goalkeeper Briana Scurry in the five-game tournament. In the second half, US forward Tiffeny Milbrett received a pass from Joy Fawcett and deposited the ball in China's goal, electrifying the crowd with what turned out to be the game-winning shot. The members of the US team were Michelle Akers, Brandi Chastain, Joy Fawcett, Julie Foudy, Carin Gabarra, Mia Hamm, Mary Harvey, Kristine Lilly, Shannon MacMillan, Tiffeny Milbrett, Carla Overbeck, Cindy Parlow, Tiffany Roberts, Briana Scurry, Tisha Venturini, and Staci Wilson. The silver-medal-winning People's Republic of China team consisted of Yufeng Chen, Yunjie Fan, Hong Gao, Ailing Liu, Ying Liu, Guihong Shi, Qingxia Shui, Qingmei Sun, Wen Sun, Liping Wang, Haiying Wei, Lirong Wen, Huilin Xie, Hongqi Yu, Lihong Zhao, and Honglian Zhong. On the strength of two first-half goals from midfielder Ann Kristin Aarønes, Norway posted a 2-0 victory over Brazil to claim the bronze medal. The members of the Norwegian team were Ann Kristin Aarønes, Agnete Carlsen, Gro Espeseth, Tone Günn Frustol, Tone Haugen, Linda Medalen, Merete Myklebüst, Bente Nordby, Anne Nymark Andersen, Nina Nymark Andersen, Marianne Pettersen, Hege Riise, Brit Sandaune, Reidun Seth, Tina Svensson, and Trine Tangeraas.

The 1996 Summer Olympics—based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States—marked the first time that women participated in the Olympic association football tournament. The tournament featured eight women's national teams from four continental confederations. The teams were drawn into two groups of four and each group played a round-robin tournament (which was held in Miami, Orlando, Birmingham and Washington, D.C.). At the end of the group stage, the top two teams advanced to the knockout stage (which was held at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia), beginning with the semi-finals and culminating with the gold medal match on August 1, 1996.

Competition schedule

G	Group stage	½	Semifinals	B	3rd place play-off	F	Final

Sun 21	Mon 22	Tue 23	Wed 24	Thu 25	Fri 26	Sat 27	Sun 28	Mon 29	Tue 30	Wed 31	Thu 1
G		G		G			½				B	F

Qualification

The following eight teams qualified for the 1996 Olympics football tournament:

Asia (AFC)
- China PR
- Japan
South America (CONMEBOL)
- Brazil

Europe (UEFA)
- Denmark
- Germany
- Norway
- Sweden
North and Central America (CONCACAF)
- United States Host nation

Venues

Athens	Washington DC	Birmingham	Orlando	Miami
Sanford Stadium 92.746	RFK Stadium 56.692	Legion Field 71.594	Citrus Bowl 52.000	Orange Bowl 74.476

Participating Teams
Germany ( GER )	China ( CHN )	United States ( USA )	Norway ( NOR )
Brazil ( BRA )	Denmark ( DEN )	Japan ( JPN )	Sweden ( SWE )

Semifinals			Final

	Athens , July 28
	China	3
	Brazil	2

				Athens , August 1
				China	one
				U.S	2


				Third place
	Athens , July 28		Athens , August 1
	Norway	one	Brazil	0
	U.S	2		Norway	2

Final

August 1, 1996 , 20:30	China	1: 2 (1: 1)	U.S	Sanford Stadium , Athens
	Sun wen 32 '		MacMillan 19 ' Milbrett 68 '	Attendance: 76,481 spectators Referee: Bente Skogvang ( Norway )

Third place

August 1, 1996 , 6:00 PM	Brazil	0: 2 (0: 2)	Norway	Sanford Stadium , Athens
			Aarønes twenty-one' 25 '	Attendance: 64,196 spectators Referee: Ingrid Jonsson ( Sweden )

Semifinals

July 28, 1996 , 3:00 p.m.	China	3: 2 (1: 0)	Brazil	Sanford Stadium , Athens
	Sun qingmei 5' Wei Haiying 83 ' 90 '		Roseli 67 ' Pretinha 72 '	Attendance: 64,196 spectators Referee: Ingrid Jonsson ( Sweden )

July 28, 1996 , 17:30	Norway	1: 2 (1: 0, 1: 1)	U.S	Sanford Stadium , Athens
	Medalen 18 '		Akers 76 '( pen. ) MacMillan 100 '	Attendance: 64,196 spectators Referee: Sonia Denoncourt ( Canada )

Preliminary round

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	China PR	3	2	1	0	7	1	+6	7	Semi-finals
2	United States (H)	3	2	1	0	5	1	+4	7	Semi-finals
3	Sweden	3	1	0	2	4	5	−1	3
4	Denmark	3	0	0	3	2	11	−9	0

July 21, 1996 , 4:00 p.m.	U.S	3: 0 (2: 0)	Denmark	Citrus Bowl , Orlando
	Venturini 37 ' Hamm 41 ' Milbrett 49 '			Attendance: 25,000 spectators Referee: Cláudia de Vasconcellos ( Brazil )

July 21, 1996 , 4:00 p.m.	Sweden	0: 2 (0: 2)	China	Orange Bowl , Miami
			Shi Guihong 31 ' Zhao Lihong 32 '	Attendance: 46,724 spectators Referee: Gamal Al-Ghandour ( Egypt )

July 23, 1996 , 6:00 p.m.	U.S	2: 1 (1: 0)	Sweden	Citrus Bowl , Orlando
	Venturini fifteen' MacMillan 62 '		Overbeck 64 '( ag )	Attendance: 28,000 spectators Referee: Bente Skogvang ( Norway )

July 23, 1996 , 6:00 p.m.	Denmark	1: 5 (0: 4)	China	Orange Bowl , Miami
	Madsen 55 '		Shi Guihong 10 ' Liu Ailing fifteen' Sun qingmei 29 ' 59 ' Yunjie fan 32 '	Attendance: 34,871 spectators Referee: Benito Archundia ( Mexico )

July 25, 1996 , 6:30 p.m.	U.S	0: 0	China	Orange Bowl , Miami
				Attendance: 55,650 spectators Referee: Pierluigi Collina ( Italy )

July 25, 1996 , 6:30 p.m.	Denmark	1: 3 (0: 0)	Sweden	Citrus Bowl , Orlando
	Jensen 90 '		Swedberg 62 ' 68 ' Videkull 76 '	Attendance: 17,020 spectators Referee: Cláudia de Vasconcellos ( Brazil )

Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Norway	3	2	1	0	9	4	+5	7	Semi-finals
2	Brazil	3	1	2	0	5	3	+2	5	Semi-finals
3	Germany	3	1	1	1	6	6	0	4
4	Japan	3	0	0	3	2	9	−7	0

July 21, 1996 , 1:30 p.m.	Germany	3: 2 (2: 2)	Japan	Legion Field , Birmingham
	Wiegmann 5' Tomei 29 '( ag ) Mohr 52 '		Kioka 18 ' Does not give 33 '	Attendance: 44,211 spectators Referee: Sonia Denoncourt ( Canada )

July 21, 1996 , 3:00 p.m.	Norway	2: 2 (1: 0)	Brazil	RFK Stadium , Washington
	Medalen 32 ' Aarønes 68 '		Pretinha 57 ' 89 '	Attendance: 45,946 spectators Referee: José García Aranda ( Spain )

July 23, 1996 , 4:30 p.m.	Brazil	2: 0 (0: 0)	Japan	Legion Field , Birmingham
	Kaita 68 ' Pretinha 78 '			Attendance: 26,111 spectators Referee: Ingrid Jonsson ( Sweden )

July 23, 1996 , 6:30 p.m.	Norway	3: 2 (2: 1)	Germany	RFK Stadium , Washington
	Aarønes 5' Medalen 3. 4' Riise 65 '		Wiegmann 32 ' Prinz 62 '	Attendance: 28,000 spectators Referee: Edward Lennie ( Australia )

July 25, 1996 , 6:30 p.m.	Norway	4: 0 (1: 0)	Japan	RFK Stadium , Washington
	Pettersen 25 ' 86 ' Medalen 60 ' Tangeraas 74 '			Attendance: 30,237 spectators Referee: Omer Al Mehannah ( Saudi Arabia )

July 25, 1996 , 6:30 p.m.	Brazil	1: 1 (0: 1)	Germany	Legion Field , Birmingham
	Sissi 53 '		Wunderlich 4'	Attendance: 28,319 spectators Referee: Sonia Denoncourt ( Canada )

Rank	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	United States (USA)	5	4	1	0	9	3	+6	13
2	China (CHN)	5	3	1	1	11	5	+6	10
3	Norway (NOR)	5	3	1	1	12	6	+6	10
4	Brazil (BRA)	5	1	2	2	7	8	–1	5
5	Germany (GER)	3	1	1	1	6	6	0	4
6	Sweden (SWE)	3	1	0	2	4	5	–1	3
7	Japan (JPN)	3	0	0	3	2	9	–7	0
8	Denmark (DEN)	3	0	0	3	2	11	–9	0

Goalscorers

With four goals, Pretinha of Brazil, Ann Kristin Aarønes and Linda Medalen of Norway are the top scorers in the tournament. In total, 53 goals were scored by 33 different players, with two of them credited as own goals.

4 goals