| Tourney Name: | Women's Olympic Football Tournament |
| Year: | 2008 |
| Size: | 150 |
| Country: | China |
| Dates: | 6–21 August |
| Num Teams: | 12 |
| Confederations: | 6 |
| Venues: | 5 |
| Cities: | 5 |
| Count: | 3 |
| Matches: | 26 |
| Goals: | 66 |
| Prevseason: | 2004 |
| Nextseason: | 2012 |
The women's association football tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held in Beijing and four other cities in the People's Republic of 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]
See main article: Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's qualification.
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 | ||
| February 2007 – August 2007 | – | 2 | |||
| October 2006 – March 2008 | – | 1 | |||
| October 2007 – April 2008 | 2 | ||||
| 10–26 November 2006 | 1 | ||||
| 25 August – 7 September 2007 8 March 2008 | 1 | ||||
| UEFA (2007 FIFA Women's World Cup)* | 10–30 September 2007 | 2* | |||
| 8 November 2007 28 November 2007 | 1* | ||||
| 19 April 2008 | 1 | ||||
| TOTAL | 12 | ||||
The tournament was held in five venues across five cities:
| Beijing | Shanghai | Tianjin | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beijing Workers' Stadium | Shanghai Stadium | Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium | |
| Capacity: 70,161 | Capacity: 80,000 | Capacity: 60,000 | |
| Shenyang | Qinhuangdao | ||
| Shenyang Olympic Stadium | Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Centre Stadium | ||
| Capacity: 60,000 | Capacity: 33,000 | ||
| width=20% | Pot 1: Asia | width=25% | Pot 2: North America and Africa | width=25% | Pot 3: Europe | width=25% | Pot 4: South America and Oceania |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
See main article: Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's team 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.
| Confederation | Referee |
|---|---|
| AFC | Hong Eun-ah (South Korea) |
| Pannipar Kamnueng (Thailand) | |
| Niu Huijun (China PR) | |
| CAF | Deidre Mitchell (South Africa) |
| CONCACAF | Shane de Silva (Trinidad and Tobago) |
| Dianne Ferreira-James (Guyana) | |
| Kari Seitz (United States) | |
| CONMEBOL | Estela Álvarez (Argentina) |
| UEFA | Christine Beck (Germany) |
| Dagmar Damková (Czech Republic) | |
| Jenny Palmqvist (Sweden) | |
| Nicole Petignat (Switzerland) |
| Confederation | Assistant referee |
|---|---|
| AFC | Daw Kaw Ja (Myanmar) |
| Sarah Ho (Australia) | |
| Jacqueline Leleu (Australia) | |
| Liu Hongjuan (China PR) | |
| Liu Hsiu-mei (Chinese Taipei) | |
| Widiya Habibah Shamsuri (Malaysia) | |
| CAF | Nomvula Masilela (South Africa) |
| Tempa Ndah (Benin) | |
| CONCACAF | Mayte Chávez (Mexico) |
| Marlene Duffy (United States) | |
| Milena López (Costa Rica) | |
| Cindy Mohammed (Trinidad and Tobago) | |
| Rita Muñoz (Mexico) | |
| Veronica Perez (United States) | |
| CONMEBOL | Marlene Leyton (Peru) |
| María Rocco (Argentina) | |
| UEFA | Helen Caro (Sweden) |
| Cristina Cini (Italy) | |
| Irina Mirt (Romania) | |
| Inka Müller (Germany) | |
| Katarzyna Nadolska (Poland) | |
| Hege Lanes Steinlund (Norway) | |
| María Luisa Villa Gutiérrez (Spain) | |
| Karine Vives Solana (France) |
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)
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China PR won the FIFA Fair Play Award, given to the team with the best record of fair play during the tournament. Every match in the final competition is taken into account but only teams that reach the second stage of the competition are eligible for the Fair Play Award.
| Team | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 956 | ||
| 2 | 939 | ||
| 3 | 930 | ||
| 4 | 913 | ||
| 5 | 913 | ||
| 6 | 903 | ||
| 7 | 896 | ||
| 8 | 892 |