The men's football tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held in Beijing and four other cities in the People's Republic of China from 7 to 23 August. Associations affiliated with FIFA were invited to enter their men's under-23 teams in regional qualifying competitions, from which 15 teams, plus the host nation, reached the final tournament. Men's teams were allowed to augment their squads with up to three players over the age of 23.
For these Games, the men competed in a 16-team tournament. Preliminary matches commenced on 7 August, the day before the Games' opening ceremony. The teams were grouped into four pools of four teams each for a round-robin preliminary round. The top two teams in each pool advanced to an eight-team single-elimination bracket.
The tournament was won by Argentina, who beat Nigeria 1–0 in the final, as part of a record streak of 12 consecutive wins in football competitions at the Summer Olympics (six wins in 2004, six wins in 2008).
Despite the absence of an official best player award, the FIFA website highlighted Lionel Messi's campaign by stating that he "posed defenders more problems than anyone else in the tournament". Juan Román Riquelme and Javier Mascherano also received special mentions.
Qualification
A National Olympic Committee may enter one men's team in football competitions.
Means of qualification Date Venue Berths Qualified Host nation 1 AFC Preliminary Competition February – November 2007 – 3 CAF Preliminary Competition September 2006 – March 2008 – 3 CONCACAF Preliminary Competition August 2007 – March 2008 2 2007 South American Youth Championship 7–28 January 2007 2 OFC Preliminary Competition 1–9 March 2008 1 2007 UEFA U-21 Championship 10–23 June 2007 4 Total 16
Venues
Six venues were used during the tournament, four of them outside of Beijing at cities around China. Beijing National Stadium hosted the final. BeijingShanghaiChaoyangXuhuiBeijing National StadiumWorkers' StadiumShanghai StadiumCapacity: 91,000Capacity: 70,161Capacity: 80,000ShenyangTianjinQinhuangdaoHunnanNankaiHaigangShenyang Olympic StadiumTianjin Olympic Centre StadiumQinhuangdao Olympic Sports Centre StadiumCapacity: 60,000Capacity: 60,000Capacity: 33,000
Squads
For the men's tournament, each nation submitted a squad of 18 players, 15 of whom had to be born on or after 1 January 1985, and three of whom could be overage players, by 23 July 2008.Regulations of the Olympic Football Tournaments A minimum of two goalkeepers (plus one optional alternate goalkeeper) had to be included in the squad.
Match officials On 22 April 2008, FIFA released the list of match referees that will officiate at the Olympics.
ConfederationRefereeAssistantsAFCKhalil Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia)Mohammed Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia)Hamdi Al Kadrie (Syria)Abdullah Al Hilali (Oman)Khaled Al Allan (Bahrain)Saleh Al Marzouqi (United Arab Emirates)Masoud Moradi (Iran)Hassan Kamranifar (Iran)Luay Subhi Adib (Iraq)CAFJerome Damon (South Africa)Enock Molefe (South Africa)Célestin Ntagungira (Rwanda)Badara Diatta (Senegal)Bechir Hassani (Tunisia)Evarist Menkouande (Cameroon)CONCACAFRoberto Moreno (Panama)Daniel Williamson (Panama)Hairo Fuentes (Panama)Jair Marrufo (United States)Kermit Quisenberry (United States)Ricardo Morgan (Jamaica)CONMEBOLHéctor Baldassi (Argentina)Ricardo Casas (Argentina)Hernán Maidana (Argentina)Pablo Pozo (Chile)Patricio Basualto (Chile)Julio Díaz (Chile)Martín Vázquez (Uruguay)Mauricio Espinosa (Uruguay)Miguel Nievas (Uruguay)OFCMichael Hester (New Zealand)Tevita Makasini (Tonga)Michael Joseph (Vanuatu)UEFAThomas Einwaller (Austria)Roland Heim (Austria)Norbert Schwab (Austria)Viktor Kassai (Hungary)Gábor Erős (Hungary)Tibor Vámos (Hungary)Stéphane Lannoy (France)Eric Dansault (France)Frédéric Cano (France)Damir Skomina (Slovenia)Primož Arhar (Slovenia)Marco Stancin (Slovenia)Wolfgang Stark (Germany)Jan-Hendrik Salver (Germany)Volker Wezel (Germany)
All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8).
Seeding The draw for the tournament took place on 20 April 2008. Argentina, the Netherlands, China and Cameroon were seeded for the draw and placed into groups A–D, respectively. The remaining teams were drawn from four pots with teams from the same region kept apart.
Pot 1: AsiaPot 2: Africa and OceaniaPot 3: EuropePot 4: Americas (assigned to C1) (assigned to Group D) (assigned to Group B) (assigned to Group A)
Group stage Group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stage
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Bronze medal match
Gold medal match
Source for cards: Team details GK 1 Ambruse VanzekinDF 5 Dele AdeleyeDF 4 Onyekachi Apam DF 2 Chibuzor OkonkwoDF 13 Olubayo AdefemiMF 8 Sani KaitaMF 12 Ajilore OluwafemiMF 11 Solomon Okoronkwo FW 9 Victor Obinna FW 14 Peter OdemwingieFW 10 Isaac Promise (c) Substitutes:FW 16 Victor Anichebe MF 17 Emmanuel Ekpo Manager: Samson Siasia
GK 18 Sergio RomeroDF 4 Pablo ZabaletaDF 2 Ezequiel GarayDF 12 Nicolás ParejaDF 3 Luciano Monzón MF 11 Ángel Di María MF 14 Javier MascheranoMF 5 Fernando GagoMF 10 Juan Román Riquelme (c) FW 15 Lionel Messi FW 16 Sergio Agüero Substitutes:MF 7 José Sosa MF 8 Ever Banega FW 9 Ezequiel Lavezzi Manager: Sergio Batista
Final ranking
Statistics
Goalscorers
With four goals, Giuseppe Rossi of Italy was the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 75 goals were scored by 53 different players, with only one of them credited as own goal.
4 goals Giuseppe Rossi
3 goals Mousa Dembélé Victor Obinna
2 goals
Sergio Agüero Ángel Di María Ezequiel Lavezzi Lionel Messi Kevin Mirallas Diego Jô Thiago Neves Ronaldinho Rafael Sóbis Sekou Cissé Salomon Kalou Gerald Sibon Chinedu Obasi Sacha Kljestan
1 goal
Lautaro Acosta Diego Buonanotte Juan Román Riquelme Ruben Zadkovich Laurent Ciman Faris Haroun Anderson Hernanes Marcelo Alexandre Pato Georges Mandjeck Stéphane Mbia Dong Fangzhuo Robert Acquafresca Sebastian Giovinco Riccardo Montolivo Tommaso Rocchi Gervinho Yohei Toyoda Kim Dong-jin Park Chu-young Ryan Babel Otman Bakkal Jeremy Brockie Olubayo Adefemi Victor Anichebe Peter Odemwingie Chibuzor Okonkwo Isaac Promise Miljan Mrdaković Slobodan Rajković Đorđe Rakić Jozy Altidore Stuart Holden
Own goals Slobodan Rajković (playing against Ivory Coast)
References
External links
Olympic Football Tournaments Beijing 2008 – Men at FIFA RSSSF Summary FIFA Technical Report