# Football at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament

The football tournament at the 2000 Summer Olympics was the second edition of the women's Olympic football tournament and was held from 13 to 28 September 2000. It was hosted at three venues along the Eastern side of Australia with matches being held in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.
The tournament features eight women's national teams from six continental confederations with the qualification coming from the previous year's World Cup. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four and each group plays a round-robin tournament. At the end of the group stage, the top two teams advanced to the knockout stage, beginning with the semi-finals and culminating with the gold medal match at the Sydney Football Stadium.
At the end of the group stage, Brazil, Germany, Norway and the United States qualified through to the knockout stage. After Norway and the United States both won the semi-finals, the final was played on the 28 September 2000. The match would go to extra time, with a controversial handball in the 102nd minute from Dagny Mellgren securing Norway the gold medal as they won 3–2. Germany won the bronze medal defeating Brazil 2–0.

## Medal winners

| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Norway (NOR)Gro Espeseth Bente Nordby Marianne Pettersen Hege Riise Kristin Bekkevold Ragnhild Gulbrandsen Solveig Gulbrandsen Margunn Haugenes Ingeborg Hovland Christine Bøe Jensen Silje Jørgensen Monica Knudsen Gøril Kringen Anne Tønnessen Unni Lehn Dagny Mellgren Anita Rapp Brit Sandaune Bente Kvitland | United States (USA)Brandi Chastain Joy Fawcett Julie Foudy Mia Hamm Michelle French Kristine Lilly Tiffeny Milbrett Carla Overbeck Cindy Parlow Briana Scurry Lorrie Fair Shannon MacMillan Siri Mullinix Christie Pearce Nikki Serlenga Danielle Slaton Kate Sobrero Sara Whalen | Germany (GER)Ariane Hingst Melanie Hoffmann Steffi Jones Renate Lingor Maren Meinert Sandra Minnert Claudia Müller Birgit Prinz Silke Rottenberg Kerstin Stegemann Bettina Wiegmann Tina Wunderlich Nicole Brandebusemeyer Nadine Angerer Doris Fitschen Jeannette Götte Stefanie Gottschlich Inka Grings |

## Venues

The tournament was held in three venues across three cities:
* Bruce Stadium, Canberra
* Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne
* Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney

## Qualification

The seven best quarter-finalists at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup and the host nation Australia qualified for the 2000 Olympic women's football tournament.

### Africa (CAF)

* Nigeria

### Asia (AFC)

* China

### North and Central America (CONCACAF)

* United States

### South America (CONMEBOL)

* Brazil

### Europe (UEFA)

* Germany
* Norway
* Sweden

   ### Oceania (OFC)

* Australia – host nation

## Seeding

| Pot 1 | Pot 2 |
| Australia (hosts)  United States  China  Brazil | Germany  Nigeria  Norway  Sweden |

## Match officials

Referees :
| Confederation | Referee |
| AFC | Im Eun-ju (South Korea) |
| CAF | Bola Abidoye (Nigeria) |
| CONCACAF | Sonia Denoncourt (Canada) |
| CONCACAF | Sandra Hunt (United States) |
| CONMEBOL | Martha Toro (Colombia) |
| OFC | Tammy Ogston (Australia) |
| UEFA | Vibeke Karlsen (Norway) |
| UEFA | Nicole Petignat (Switzerland) |
| UEFA | Wendy Toms (Great Britain) |
Assistant referees :
| Confederation | Assistant referee |
| AFC | Hisae Yoshizawa (Japan) |
| CAF | Comfort Cofie (Ghana) |
| CONCACAF | Jackeline Sáez Blanquice (Panama) |
| CONMEBOL | Ana Isabel Pérez Assante (Peru) |
| CONMEBOL | Cleidy Mary Nunes Ribeiro (Brazil) |
| OFC | Lynn Fox (New Zealand) |
| UEFA | Sanna Luhtanen (Finland) |
| UEFA | Marie-Louise Svanström (Sweden) |

## Group stage
### Group E

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| Germany | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 9 |
| Brazil | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 6 |
| Sweden | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | −3 | 1 |
| Australia | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | −4 | 1 |

### Group F

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| United States | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 7 |
| Norway | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 6 |
| China | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 4 |
| Nigeria | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 9 | −6 | 0 |

## Knockout stage

| Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| 24 September – Sydney | 24 September – Sydney |
| Norway | 1 |
| Norway | 1 | 28 September – Sydney | 28 September – Sydney |
| Germany | 0 | 28 September – Sydney | 28 September – Sydney |
| Germany | 0 | Norway | 3 |
| 24 September – Canberra | 24 September – Canberra | | Norway | 3 |
| 24 September – Canberra | 24 September – Canberra | United States | 2 |
| United States | 1 | United States | 2 |
| Brazil | 0 | | |
| Brazil | 0 | Third place | Third place |
| | | 28 September – Sydney | 28 September – Sydney |
| | | Germany | 2 |
| | | Brazil | 0 |

### Gold medal match
## Statistics
### Goalscorers

There were 42 goals scored in 16 matches, for an average of 2.62 goals per match. Sun Wen of China was the top scorer of the tournament with four goals.
4 goals
* Sun Wen
3 goals
* Birgit Prinz
* Tiffeny Milbrett
2 goals
* Kátia
* Raquel
* Renate Lingor
* Mercy Akide
* Dagny Mellgren
* Marianne Pettersen
* Mia Hamm
1 goal
* Sunni Hughes
* Cheryl Salisbury
* Pretinha
* Zhao Lihong
* Inka Grings
* Ariane Hingst
* Bettina Wiegmann
* Perpetua Nkwocha
* Gro Espeseth
* Ragnhild Gulbrandsen
* Margunn Haugenes
* Hege Riise
* Malin Andersson
* Brandi Chastain
* Julie Foudy
* Kristine Lilly
* Shannon MacMillan
1 own goal
* Tina Wunderlich (against Norway)
Source: FIFA

### Assists

5 assists
* Hege Riise
2 assists
* Formiga
* Maren Meinert
* Bettina Wiegmann
* Mia Hamm
1 assist
* Sharon Black
* Kátia
* Pretinha
* Liu Ailing
* Inka Grings
* Birgit Prinz
* Ragnhild Gulbrandsen
* Julie Foudy
* Shannon MacMillan
* Tiffeny Milbrett
* Carla Overbeck
Source: FIFA

### FIFA Fair Play Award

* Winner: Germany
Germany won the FIFA Fair Play Award, given to the team with the best record of fair play during the tournament.

### Tournament ranking

Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.
| Pos | Grp | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final result |
| 1 | F | Norway | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 6 | +3 | 12 | Gold medal |
| 2 | F | United States | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 10 | Silver medal |
| 3 | E | Germany | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 2 | +6 | 12 | Bronze medal |
| 4 | E | Brazil | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 6 | −1 | 6 | Fourth place |
| 5 | F | China | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 4 | Eliminated in group stage |
| 6 | E | Sweden | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | −3 | 1 | Eliminated in group stage |
| 7 | E | Australia (H) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | −4 | 1 | Eliminated in group stage |
| 8 | F | Nigeria | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 9 | −6 | 0 | Eliminated in group stage |