Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament

2008 Women's Olympic
football tournament
Tournament details
Host country	China
Dates	6–21 August
Teams	12 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)	5 (in 5 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	United States (3rd title)
Runners-up	Brazil
Third place	Germany
Fourth place	Japan
Tournament statistics
Matches played	26
Goals scored	66 (2.54 per match)
Attendance	740,014 (28,462 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Cristiane (5 goals)
	← 2004 2012 →

The women's association football tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held in Beijing and four other cities in China from 6 to 21 August. Associations affiliated with FIFA were invited to send their full women's national teams.

For these Games, the women competed in a 12-team tournament. Preliminary matches commenced on 6 August, two days before the Opening Ceremony of the Games. The teams were grouped into three pools of four teams each for a round-robin preliminary round. The top two teams in each pool, as well as the best two third-place finishing teams, advanced to an eight-team single-elimination bracket.

The tournament was won by the United States, which beat Brazil 1–0 in the gold medal game. Carli Lloyd scored the game-winning goal in the 96th minute for the United States, which collected their third Olympic gold medal.^[1]^[2]

Qualifying

A National Olympic Committee may enter one women's team for the football competition.

Means of completion	Date of completion	Venue	Berths	Qualified
Host nation	–	–	1	China
AFC Preliminary Competition	February 2007 – August 2007	–	2	Japan North Korea
CAF Preliminary Competition	October 2006 – March 2008	–	1	Nigeria
CONCACAF Preliminary Competition	October 2007 – April 2008	Ciudad Juárez	2	United States Canada
2006 Sudamericano Femenino	10–26 November 2006	Mar del Plata	1	Argentina
OFC Women's Olympic Qualifying	25 August – 7 September 2007 8 March 2008	Apia Port Moresby	1	New Zealand
UEFA (2007 FIFA Women's World Cup)*	10–30 September 2007	China	2*	Germany Norway
UEFA Playoff (Denmark vs Sweden)	8 November 2007 28 November 2007	Viborg Solna	1*	Sweden
CAF-CONMEBOL Playoff (Ghana vs Brazil)	19 April 2008	Beijing	1	Brazil
TOTAL			12

Note – The three best ranked European teams at the FIFA Women's World Cup qualified for the Olympics. However, the third best team England could not participate, because England competes at the Olympic Games as part of Great Britain, which does not compete in football. Therefore, the fourth European team would advance, requiring a play-off between Sweden and Denmark.

Seeding

Pot 1: Asia	Pot 2: Americas	Pot 3: Europe	Pot 4: Rest of the World
China (Hosts) Japan North Korea	Canada Brazil United States	Germany Norway Sweden	Argentina Nigeria New Zealand

Squads

The women's tournament is a full international tournament with no restrictions on age. Each nation must submit a squad of 18 players by 23 July 2008. A minimum of two goalkeepers (plus one optional alternate goalkeeper) must be included in the squad.

Match officials

Referee	Assistants
AFC
Hong Eun-Ah	Sarah Ho Jacqueline Leleu
Pannipar Kamnueng	Daw Kaw Ja Liu Hsiu-mei
Liu Hongjuan	Shamsuri Widiya Habibah Niu Huijun
CONCACAF
Shane de Silva	Milena López Cindy Mohammed
Dianne Ferreira-James	Mayte Chávez Rita Muñoz
Kari Seitz	Marlene Duffy Veronica Perez

Referee	Assistants
CAF
Deidre Mitchell	Nomvula Masilela Tempa Ndah
CONMEBOL
Estela Álvarez	Marlene Leyton María Rocco
UEFA
Christine Beck	Inka Müller María Luisa Villa Gutiérrez
Nicole Petignat	Cristina Cini Karine Vives Solana
Dagmar Damková	Helen Caro Irina Mirt Katarzyna Nadolska Hege Steinlund
Jenny Palmqvist	Helen Caro Irina Mirt Katarzyna Nadolska Hege Steinlund

Group stage

Group winners and runners-up, plus two best third place teams advanced to quarter final round. Groups are lettered sequentially from the last letter in the Men's Football tournament (which has Groups A through D).

All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8)

Ranking of third-placed teams

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Japan	3	1	1	1	7	4	+3	4
Canada	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
North Korea	3	1	0	2	2	3	−1	3

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Knockout stage

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Gold medal match

F1

Brazil

2

G2

Norway

1

F1

Brazil

4

F2

Germany

1

E2

Sweden

0

F2

Germany

2

F1

Brazil

0

G1

United States

1

E1

China

0

G3

Japan

2

G3

Japan

2

Bronze medal match

G1

United States

4

G1

United States

2

F2

Germany

2

E3

Canada

1

G3

Japan

0

Quarter-finals

Template:2008 Summer Olympics women's football game D1

Template:2008 Summer Olympics women's football game D2

Template:2008 Summer Olympics women's football game D3

Template:2008 Summer Olympics women's football game D4

Semi-finals

Template:2008 Summer Olympics women's football game E1

Template:2008 Summer Olympics women's football game E2

Bronze medal match

Template:2008 Summer Olympics women's football game F1

Gold medal match

Template:2008 Summer Olympics women's football game F2

Final ranking

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	United States (USA)	6	5	0	1	12	5	+7	15
2	Brazil (BRA)	6	4	1	1	11	5	+6	13
3	Germany (GER)	6	4	1	1	7	4	+3	13
4	Japan (JPN)	6	2	1	3	11	10	+1	7
5	China (CHN)	4	2	1	1	5	4	+1	7
6	Sweden (SWE)	4	2	0	2	4	5	−1	6
7	Norway (NOR)	4	2	0	2	5	7	−2	6
8	Canada (CAN)	4	1	1	2	5	6	−1	4
9	North Korea (PRK)	3	1	0	2	2	3	−1	3
10	New Zealand (NZL)	3	0	1	2	2	7	−5	1
11	Argentina (ARG)	3	0	0	3	1	5	−4	0
11	Nigeria (NGR)	3	0	0	3	1	5	−4	0