The 1996 Men's Olympic Football Tournament, played as part of the 1996 Summer Olympics, was hosted in Birmingham, Alabama, Washington, D.C., Orlando, Florida, Miami, Florida and Athens, Georgia.[1][2][3][4] From 1992 onwards, male competitors should be under 23 years old and starting from this tournament, a maximum of three over-23 players are allowed per squad. The tournament featured 16 national teams from the six continental confederations. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four and each group played a round-robin tournament. At the end of the group stage, the top two teams advanced to the knockout stage, beginning with the quarter-finals and culminating with the gold medal match at Sanford Stadium on August 3, 1996.[5]
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Tournament details | |
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Host country | United States |
Dates | July 20 – August 3 |
Teams | 16 (from 6 confederations) |
Venue(s) | 5 (in 5 host cities) |
Final positions | |
Champions | ![]() |
Runners-up | ![]() |
Third place | ![]() |
Fourth place | ![]() |
Tournament statistics | |
Matches played | 32 |
Goals scored | 90 (2.81 per match) |
Top scorer(s) | ![]() ![]() (6 goals each) |
Competition schedule
editThe match schedule of the tournament.[6]
G | Group stage | ¼ | Quarter-finals | ½ | Semi-finals | B | Bronze medal match | F | Gold medal match |
20 Sat | 21 Sun | 22 Mon | 23 Tue | 24 Wed | 25 Thu | 26 Fri | 27 Sat | 28 Sun | 29 Lun | 30 Tue | 31 Wed | 1 Thu | 2 Fri | 3 Sat |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G | G | G | G | G | G | ¼ | ¼ | ½ | ½ | B | F |
Venues
editAthens, Georgia | Birmingham, Alabama | Miami, Florida | ||||
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Sanford Stadium | Legion Field | Orange Bowl | ||||
Capacity: 86,100 | Capacity: 81,700 | Capacity: 74,476 | ||||
Orlando, Florida | Washington, D.C. | |||||
Citrus Bowl | Robert F. Kennedy Stadium | |||||
Capacity: 65,000 | Capacity: 56,500 | |||||
Qualification
editThe following 16 teams qualified for the 1996 Olympic men's football tournament:
Means of qualification | Berths | Qualified |
---|---|---|
Host nation | 1 | United States |
1996 CONCACAF Preliminary Competition | 1 | Mexico (winner) |
1996 AFC Preliminary Competition | 3 | South Korea (winner) Japan (runner-up) Saudi Arabia (third-place) |
1996 CAF Preliminary Competition | 3 | Ghana Tunisia Nigeria |
1996 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament | 2 | Brazil (winner) Argentina (runner-up) |
CONCACAF–OFC play-off | 1 | Australia |
1996 UEFA European Under-21 Championship | 5 | Italy (winner) Spain (runner-up) France (third-place) Hungary (5th) Portugal (6th) |
Total | 16 |
Match officials
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Seeding
editThe draw for the tournament took place on 5 May 1996. The United States, Spain, Ghana and Brazil were seeded for the draw and placed into groups A–D, respectively. The remaining teams, excluding those from Europe, were drawn away from teams of the same region.
Pot 1: Host, Top-Seeded teams from Africa, Europe and South America | Pot 2: Asia, Non-top seeded team from South America | Pot 3: Non-top seeded teams from Europe | Pot 4: Non-top seeded teams from Africa and North America, Inter-continental playoff winner |
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1 1996 CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournament Champions, team not determined at time of draw.
2 CONCACAF–OFC play-off winner, team not determined at time of draw.
Squads
editGroup stage
editGroup A
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Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Argentina | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 5 |
Portugal | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 5 |
United States | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
Tunisia | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 1 |
Argentina | 1–1 | Portugal |
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Ortega 45' | Report | Nuno Gomes 70' |
United States | 2–0 | Tunisia |
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Kirovski 38' Maisonneuve 90' |
Report |
United States | 1–1 | Portugal |
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Maisonneuve 75' | Report | Paulo Alves 33' |
Group B
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Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
France | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | +3 | 7 |
Spain | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 7 |
Australia | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | −2 | 3 |
Saudi Arabia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 0 |
Spain | 1–0 | Saudi Arabia |
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Óscar 80' | Report |
Australia | 2–1 | Saudi Arabia |
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Tsekenis 11' Viduka 63' |
Report | Al-Khilaiwi 37' |
Group C
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Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mexico | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 5 |
Ghana | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
South Korea | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
Italy | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3 |
South Korea | 1–0 | Ghana |
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Yoon Jong-hwan 41' (pen.) | Report |
Mexico | 0–0 | South Korea |
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Report |
Italy | 2–1 | South Korea |
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Branca 24', 82' | Report | Lee Ki-hyung 62' |
Group D
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Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Brazil | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 6 |
Nigeria | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 6 |
Japan | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 |
Hungary | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 0 |
Knockout stage
editQuarter-finals | Semi-finals | Gold medal match | ||||||||
July 27 – Miami, FL | ||||||||||
Portugal (asdet) | 2 | |||||||||
July 30 – Athens, GA | ||||||||||
France | 1 | |||||||||
Portugal | 0 | |||||||||
July 27 – Birmingham, AL | ||||||||||
Argentina | 2 | |||||||||
Argentina | 4 | |||||||||
August 3 – Athens, GA | ||||||||||
Spain | 0 | |||||||||
Argentina | 2 | |||||||||
July 28 – Birmingham, AL | ||||||||||
Nigeria | 3 | |||||||||
Mexico | 0 | |||||||||
July 31 – Athens, GA | ||||||||||
Nigeria | 2 | |||||||||
Nigeria (asdet) | 4 | |||||||||
July 28 – Miami, FL | ||||||||||
Brazil | 3 | Bronze medal match | ||||||||
Brazil | 4 | |||||||||
August 2 – Athens, GA | ||||||||||
Ghana | 2 | |||||||||
Portugal | 0 | |||||||||
Brazil | 5 | |||||||||
Quarter-finals
editMexico | 0–2 | Nigeria |
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Report | Okocha 20' C. Babayaro 84' |
Semi-finals
editNigeria | 4–3 (a.e.t./g.g.) | Brazil |
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Roberto Carlos 20' (o.g.) Ikpeba 78' Kanu 90', 94' |
Report | Flávio 1', 38' Bebeto 28' |
Bronze medal match
editGold medal match
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Nigeria
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Argentina
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Final ranking
editPos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
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1 | Nigeria (NGR) | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 6 | +6 | 15 |
2 | Argentina (ARG) | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 6 | +7 | 11 |
3 | Brazil (BRA) | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 8 | +8 | 12 |
4 | Portugal (POR) | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 10 | −4 | 8 |
5 | France (FRA) | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 7 |
6 | Spain (ESP) | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 | −2 | 7 |
7 | Mexico (MEX) | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | −1 | 5 |
8 | Ghana (GHA) | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 8 | −2 | 4 |
9 | Japan (JPN) | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 |
10 | United States (USA) | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
11 | South Korea (KOR) | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
12 | Italy (ITA) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3 |
13 | Australia (AUS) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | −2 | 3 |
14 | Tunisia (TUN) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 1 |
15 | Saudi Arabia (KSA) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 0 |
16 | Hungary (HUN) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 0 |
Goalscorers
editWith six goals, Hernán Crespo of Argentina and Bebeto of Brazil are the top scorers of the tournament. In total, 90 goals were scored by 55 different players, with four of them credited as own goals.
- 6 goals
- 5 goals
- 4 goals
- 3 goals
- 2 goals
- 1 goal
- Gustavo Adrián López
- Diego Simeone
- Peter Tsekenis
- Mark Viduka
- Juninho
- Sylvain Legwinski
- Robert Pirès
- Antoine Sibierski
- Felix Aboagye
- Augustine Ahinful
- Charles Akonnor
- Ebenezer Hagan
- Tamás Sándor
- Teruyoshi Itō
- Kenichi Uemura
- José Manuel Abundis
- Francisco Palencia
- Daniel Amokachi
- Emmanuel Amunike
- Victor Ikpeba
- Paulo Alves
- José Calado
- Capucho
- Nuno Gomes
- Mohammed Al-Khilaiwi
- Fuad Anwar Amin
- Lee Ki-hyung
- Yoon Jong-hwan
- Santi
- Mohamed Mkacher
- Jovan Kirovski
- Claudio Reyna
- Own goals
- Roberto Carlos (playing against Nigeria)
- Afo Dodoo (playing against Brazil)
- Tadahiro Akiba (playing against Nigeria)
- Agustín Aranzábal (playing against Argentina)
References
edit- ^ "The inside story of Nigeria's Atlanta '96 gold medal – SuperSport – Football". SuperSport. July 25, 2012. Retrieved December 7, 2013.
- ^ Penner, Mike (August 1, 1996). "Defense Rests for a Stunned Brazil – Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. Retrieved December 7, 2013.
- ^ Penner, Mike (August 4, 1996). "Nigeria's Eagles Catch Argentina in Its Own Trap – Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. Retrieved December 7, 2013.
- ^ "Soccer : Results : Men's Competition Notebook". Usatoday30.usatoday.com. Retrieved December 7, 2013.
- ^ "Football at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
- ^ "Soccer : Results : Men's Competition Notebook". Usatoday30.usatoday.com. Retrieved December 7, 2013.