| | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | United States |
| Dates | July 20 – August 3 |
| Teams | 16 (from 6 confederations) |
| Venue | 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) |
← 1992 2000 → | |
| Football at the 1996 Summer Olympics | ||
|---|---|---|
| Qualification | ||
| men | women | |
| Tournament | ||
| men | women | |
| Squads | ||
| men | women | |
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]
Nigeria defeated Argentina 3–2 in the final for their first gold medal.
The 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 |
| Athens, Georgia | Birmingham, Alabama | Miami, Florida | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | |||||
| | | |||||
The following 16 teams qualified for the 1996 Olympic men's football tournament:
| Means of qualification | Berths | Qualified |
|---|---|---|
| Host nation | 1 | |
| 1996 CONCACAF Preliminary Competition | 1 | |
| 1996 AFC Preliminary Competition | 3 | |
| 1996 CAF Preliminary Competition | 3 | |
| 1996 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament | 2 | |
| CONCACAF–OFC play-off | 1 | |
| 1996 UEFA European Under-21 Championship | 5 | |
| Total | 16 |
The 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
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.
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 5 | |
| 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 5 | |
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 1 |
| Argentina | 1–1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Ortega | Report | Nuno Gomes |
| United States | 2–0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Kirovski Maisonneuve | Report |
| United States | 1–1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maisonneuve | Report | Paulo Alves |
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | +3 | 7 | |
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 7 | |
| 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | −2 | 3 | |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 0 |
| Spain | 1–0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Óscar | Report |
| Australia | 2–1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Tsekenis Viduka | Report | Al-Khilaiwi |
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 5 | |
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | |
| 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3 |
| South Korea | 1–0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Yoon Jong-hwan | Report |
| Mexico | 0–0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
| Italy | 2–1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Branca | Report | Lee Ki-hyung |
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 6 | |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 6 | |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 | |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 0 |
| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Gold medal match | ||||||||
| July 27 – Miami, FL | ||||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||||
| July 30 – Athens, GA | ||||||||||
| 1 | ||||||||||
| 0 | ||||||||||
| July 27 – Birmingham, AL | ||||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||||
| 4 | ||||||||||
| August 3 – Athens, GA | ||||||||||
| 0 | ||||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||||
| July 28 – Birmingham, AL | ||||||||||
| 3 | ||||||||||
| 0 | ||||||||||
| July 31 – Athens, GA | ||||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||||
| 4 | ||||||||||
| July 28 – Miami, FL | ||||||||||
| 3 | Bronze medal match | |||||||||
| 4 | ||||||||||
| August 2 – Athens, GA | ||||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||||
| 0 | ||||||||||
| 5 | ||||||||||
| Mexico | 0–2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Report | Okocha C. Babayaro |
Nigeria | Argentina |
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| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 6 | +6 | 15 | |
| 2 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 6 | +7 | 11 | |
| 3 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 8 | +8 | 12 | |
| 4 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 10 | −4 | 8 | |
| 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 7 | |
| 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 | −2 | 7 | |
| 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | −1 | 5 | |
| 8 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 8 | −2 | 4 | |
| 9 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 | |
| 10 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| 11 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | |
| 12 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3 | |
| 13 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | −2 | 3 | |
| 14 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 1 | |
| 15 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 0 | |
| 16 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 0 |
With 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.