2004 Athens Summer Olympics
2004 Summer Olympics - The Results (Football - Women)
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- Parent Category: Summer Olympic Games
- Category: 2004 Athens Summer Olympics
- Last Updated: 02 January 2020
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Football at the 2004 Athens Summer Games
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Host City: Athina, Greece Participants: 425 (259 men and 166 women) from 22 countries |
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Sally Shipard (16 years, 297 days) 
Joy Fawcett (36 years, 186 days) | Football, known as the "King of Sports", is the most popular sport in the world. Football made its first appearance at the 1900 Paris Olympic Games. Four years earlier in Athens, it had been cancelled due to lack of participating teams. But since its introduction, Football has been consistently in the Olympic Programme, with the exception of 1932 in Los Angeles. Great Britain dominated the first Olympic Football Tournaments, contested mainly by European nations, and in the years before World War II, Uruguay, Belgium and Italy each won the gold medal. After World War II, the Eastern Bloc countries dominated the tournament. At that time, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, and Poland, all took the gold medal. Professional footballers were allowed to take part in the Olympic Tournament for the first time in Los Angeles in 1984, provided that European and South American players had never played in the World Cup. France won the tournament A new set of rules regarding participation in the Men's tournament has been in force from the 1992 Barcelona Games onwards. Today a country cannot send its national side, but only an under-23 team, which is allowed to include three over 23-year-old players. The past two Olympic Games Men's Football gold medal were won by African countries: Nigeria took the gold in 1996 and Cameroon won it in 2000. The women's Olympic Tournament was played for the first time at the 1996 Atlanta Games and was won by host nation USA. In the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Norway defeated the USA in the final with a golden goal in extra time. |  |
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Description
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Argentines Javier Mascherano and Roberto Ayala celebrate with teammates and a national flag of their country at the Olympic Stadium on 28 August, after the Olympic men's football final. Argentina won the football gold medal with a 1-0 victory against Paraguay. © AFP/A. Scorza |
| The team's aim is to score a goal without violating the rules of the sport. A goal is scored when the whole of the ball passes over the goal line between the opposite team's goalposts. The winner is the team to score the most goals. A referee presides over a game and is in charge of implementing the Football rules. Two assistant referees moving along the two touchlines of the field of play facilitate the referee's task. Before the beginning of the game, the referee draws lots. The winning team chooses a goalpost for the first half and the other team gets the ball at the referee's starting whistle. In the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Football Tournament, 16 men's teams competed in four rounds (preliminaries, quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals) and 10 women's teams in three (quarterfinals, semi-finals, finals) | |
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Venues
The Panthessaliko Stadium in Volos, one of the most beautiful cities of Greece, hosted the preliminary phase of the Olympic Football Tournament games. The Panthessaliko Sports Complex entailed the renovation of the existing stands and buildings into a new structure of 22.700 seats. Pampeloponnisiako Stadium, Patra Another stadium that hosted Football is the Pampeloponnisiako Stadium of Patra, a city in the north of the Peloponnese. The existing stadium, which has been used for several regional and national football games in the past, was upgraded by the General Secretariat of Sports to meet Olympic demands. Mainly electromechanical and electronic infrastructures, along with respective equipment, were renewed, whereas more parking areas and surrounding areas were built to go with the overall capacity.
Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city and one of Europe's greatest cultural, commercial and sport centres hosted some of the football preliminaries and semi-finals in the Kaftantzoglio Stadium, very close to the city centre. The General Secretariat of Sports upgraded the existing facilities into a stadium of 22.700 seats with new electromechanical and electronic infrastructure and respective equipment.
Beautiful Crete, the island in the south of Greece, hosted also the sport of Football in a stadium with a capacity of 26.400 seats. The stadium includes an eight-lane 400m track; shot put and hammer throw valves and other facilities (swimming pool, multipurpose hall, administration offices, etc.) for post-Olympic use.
The Karaiskaki Stadium, the second largest stadium in Athens, was used as the velodrome for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. In the 1960s it was renovated into the stadium that still stands today. The stadium, located in the area of Faliro, has been transformed into a modern Football stadium, accommodating 33.000 spectators. During the Olympic Games, it hosted a total of 11 games (preliminaries, quarter-finals and semi-finals), as well as the women's finals.
The Olympic Stadium, the centre of the Olympic Games, situated at Maroussi, is part of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex (OAKA). The Olympic Stadium hosted 72.000 spectators, who attended the Athletics events, the Men's Football gold medal match and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Following an ATHENS 2004 and Ministry of Culture initiative, the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava had designed the upgrade of OAKA using innovative and creative solutions, including the new roof structure for the Olympic Stadium. |
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OverviewThe formats were the similar in 2004 for both the men's and women's tournaments. The men had 16 teams separated into four four-team groups who played a round-robin format, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the quarter-finals and the knock-out phase. The women's field increased to 10 teams separated into three groups who played a round-robin format, with the top two teams in each group, and the two best third-place finishers advancing to the quarter-finals and the knock-out phase. Women played specific qualifying tournaments for the first time, with the 10 teams qualifying as follows ' Greece as the host nation; the top two European teams at the 2003 World Cup (Germany, Sweden); Brazil as winner of the 2003 Sudamericano de Futbol Femenino; two teams from the AFC (Asia) Olympic Qualifying Tournament (China, Japan); two teams from a CONCACAF (North & Central America/Caribbean) Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Mexico, United States); one team from a CAF (Africa) Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Nigeria); and one team from an Oceania Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Australia). The 16 men's teams qualified as follows ' Greece as the host nation; three teams from the 1992 UEFA Europe Under-21 Championships (Italy, Serbia & Montenegro, Portugal); four teams from a CAF (Africa) Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Tunisia); three teams from an AFC (Asia) Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Iraq, Japan, Korea [South]); two teams from a CONCACAF (North & Central America/Caribbean) Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Mexico, Costa Rica); two teams from a CONMEBOL (South America) Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Argentina, Paraguay); and one team from the OFC (Oceania) Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Australia). The tournaments were held in six venues around Greece ' Olympic Stadium, Athina; Karaiskakis Stadium, Athina; Pampeloponnisiako Stadium, Patras; Panthessaliko Stadium, Volos; Kaftanzoglio Stadium, ThessalonÃki; and Pankritio Stadium, Heraklion. The women did not play at the Olympic Stadium. The United States' women won the gold medal, defeating Brazil, 2-1, after extra-time in the final. The men's final came down to two South American teams with Argentina winning gold by defeating Paraguay, 1-0. The football tournament at the 2004 Summer Olympics started on 11 August (two days before the opening ceremony), and ended on 28 August. The tournaments take place every four years, in conjunction with the Summer Olympic Games. The associations affiliated to FIFA are invited to participate with their men's U-23 and women's representative teams.[1] The men's tournament allows up to three overage players to join the U-23 squads. The men's tournament was won by Argentina, coached by Marcelo Bielsa, which held a record of having won every match without conceding a goal in the tournament. The Golden Boot was won by Argentina's Carlos Tevez. The women's tournament was won by the United States. |
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Women's Football |
Host City: Athina, Greece Venue(s): Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, Athina; Kaftanzoglou National Stadium of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki; Pan-Cretan Stadium, Iraklion; Pan-Pelopennese Stadium, Patras; Pan-Thessaliko Stadium, Volos Date Started: August 11, 2004 Date Finished: August 26, 2004 Format: Round-robin pools advance teams to single-elimination tournament of eight teams. |
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SummaryThe women's field was expanded from eight to ten teams, which gave the tournament an odd format as only two teams were eliminated in the group stage. Among them was 1996 silver medalist China, which was slaughtered by World Champion Germany 8-0. The first knockout round saw all favoured teams progress into the semis. The Germans, captained by star player [Birgit Prinz], played 1996 champion United States, but trailed for most of the match. Only in stoppage time, the Germans levelled through [Isabell Bachor]. [Heather O'Reilly] scored the winner for the Americans nine minutes into sudden death overtime. The other 2003 World Cup finalist, Sweden, was also eliminated as Brazil moved to the final for the first time. As in Sydney, the decider went into overtime. Forward [Abby Wambach] headed in the winning goal three minutes away from penalty kicks. |
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The USA Women's Football team made it to Olympic gold medal from three starts, as veterans Mia HAMM, Julie FOUDY and Kristine LILLY helped their side to win in the final against Brazil. After taking the gold medal in the event's Olympic debut in 1996, USA arrived in Athens determined to make up for the relative disappointment of winning silver in Sydney in 2000. Led by the trio of HAMM, FOUDY and LILLY, it took a 112th minute golden goal from Abby WAMBACH (USA) to finally put the gold medal back in American hands. The bronze medal match was a replay of last year's FIFA Women's World Cup Final between Germany and Sweden. Germany won the bronze, beating Sweden 1-0 at Karaiskaki Stadium. Statistically, Brazil was the most dangerous attacking side, scoring 15 goals. Germany scored 14 times, including the highest tally in the history of the tournament, an 8-0 win over China. Brazil also turned on the power in a 7-0 win over Greece. Birgit PRINZ (GER) and CRISTIANE (BRA) were the tournament's equal top scorers, with five goals each. USA, Brazil, Germany and Sweden, all appearing in their third successive Olympic Games tournament, made up the top four. Of the Olympic Games ever-presents, only China was eliminated at the preliminary stage. The only African team to have participated at the Olympic Games, Nigeria, reached the quarterfinals in its second appearance. In its Olympic debut, Mexico qualified for the quarterfinals, while the other newcomer; Greece was eliminated early, after conceding 11 goals and scoring none. Australia savoured its first win at the Olympic Games and made the quarterfinals as a result. In all, 55 goals (including two converted penalties) were scored in 20 matches. There were 39 yellow cards shown, with the USA attracting the most (10). Only one player was sent off. |
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Qualified teamsThe following teams have qualified for the final tournament.
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SeedingOriginally, the tournament was planned to form two groups of five teams in the group stage, then play a knockout stage by four teams (two top teams in each group). The format is later changed: the tournament is to form three groups of three or four teams in the group stage, then play a knockout stage by eight teams (two top teams in each group and two best third-placed teams from three groups).
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Referees
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Knockout stage
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Final
Yenny Palmquist refereed the main time of the match, due to a leg injury she could not serve the match in overtime, so she was replaced by Diane Ferreira-James |
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3rd place match
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Semifinal
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Quarter Final
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First roundGroup A
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Group B
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Group C
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Final ranking
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StatisticsGoalscorersWith five goals, Cristiane of Brazil and Birgit Prinz of Germany are the top scorers in the tournament. In total, 55 goals were scored by 33 different players, with none of them credited as own goal.
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United States 
Germany 
Sweden 
Australia 
Japan 
