# Football at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament

Women's Olympic Football tournament was held for the third time at the 2004 Summer Olympics. The tournament featured 10 women's national teams from six continental confederations. The 10 teams were drawn into two groups of three and one group of four and each group played a round-robin tournament. At the end of the group stage, the top teams from each group advanced to the knockout stage, beginning with the quarter-finals and culminating with the gold medal match at Karaiskakis Stadium on 26 August 2004.

## Qualification

Several qualification tournaments were held to determine the participating nations.

## Venues

The tournament was held in five venues across five cities:
* Karaiskakis Stadium, Athens
* Pankritio Stadium, Heraklion
* Pampeloponnisiako Stadium, Patras
* Kaftanzoglio Stadium, Thessaloniki
* Panthessaliko Stadium, Volos

## Seeding

Originally, the tournament was planned to form two groups of five teams in the group stage, then play a knockout stage by four teams (two top teams in each group). The format is later changed: the tournament is to form three groups of three or four teams in the group stage, then play a knockout stage by eight teams (two top teams in each group and two best third-placed teams from three groups).
| Pot 1: Europe | Pot 2: Americas | Pot 3: Rest of the World |
| Greece (Hosts)  Germany  Sweden | Brazil  Mexico  United States | Australia  China  Japan  Nigeria |

## Match officials

Referees :
| Confederation | Referee |
| AFC | Bentla D'Coth (India) |
| CAF | Fatou Gaye (Senegal) |
| CONCACAF | Dianne Ferreira-James (Guyana) |
| CONCACAF | Kari Seitz (United States) |
| CONMEBOL | Silvia Regina de Oliveira (Brazil) |
| OFC | Krystyna Szokolai (Australia) |
| UEFA | Dagmar Damková (Czech Republic) |
| UEFA | Christine Frai (Germany) |
| UEFA | Cristina Ionescu (Romania) |
| UEFA | Jenny Palmqvist (Sweden) |
Assistant referees :
| Confederation | Assistant referee |
| AFC | Shiho Ayukai (Japan) |
| AFC | Liu Hongjuan (China PR) |
| CAF | Mariette Bantsimba (Congo) |
| CAF | Tempa Ndah (Benin) |
| CONCACAF | Denise Robinson (Canada) |
| CONCACAF | Jackeline Sáez Blanquice (Panama) |
| CONCACAF | María Isabel Tovar (Mexico) |
| CONMEBOL | Aracely Castro (Bolivia) |
| CONMEBOL | Ana Paula Oliveira (Brazil) |
| OFC | Airlie Keen (Australia) |
| OFC | Jacqueline Leleu (Australia) |
| UEFA | Katarzyna Nadolska (Poland) |
| UEFA | Emilia Parviainen (Finland) |
| UEFA | Andi Regan (Great Britain) |
| UEFA | Nelly Viennot (France) |
| UEFA | María Luisa Villa Gutiérrez (Spain) |

## Group stage

Competing countries were divided into three groups: two containing three teams (groups E and F) and one containing four teams (group G). Teams in each group played one another in a round-robin. The top two teams of each group advanced to the knockout stage, along with the third-placed team from the four-team group (group G) and the better-ranked third-placed team from the three-team groups (groups E and F).
Key:
* Teams highlighted in green went through to the knockout stages.

### Group E

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Sweden | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | Qualified for the quarterfinals |
| 2 | Nigeria | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | Qualified for the quarterfinals |
| 3 | Japan | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | Qualified for the quarterfinals |

### Group F

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Germany | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | +10 | 6 | Qualified for the quarterfinals |
| 2 | Mexico | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 1 | Qualified for the quarterfinals |
| 3 | China | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | −8 | 1 | |

### Group G

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | United States | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 7 | Qualified for the quarterfinals |
| 2 | Brazil | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 2 | +6 | 6 | Qualified for the quarterfinals |
| 3 | Australia | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | Qualified for the quarterfinals |
| 4 | Greece | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 11 | −11 | 0 | |

### Ranking of third-placed teams from groups of three

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| Japan | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| China | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | −8 | 1 |

## Knockout stage

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | | Final | Final |
| 20 August – Patras | 20 August – Patras | | | |
| Germany | 2 | | | |
| Germany | 2 | 23 August – Heraklio | 23 August – Heraklio | | |
| Nigeria | 1 | 23 August – Heraklio | 23 August – Heraklio | |
| Nigeria | 1 | Germany | 1 | |
| 20 August – Thessaloniki | 20 August – Thessaloniki | | Germany | 1 | |
| 20 August – Thessaloniki | 20 August – Thessaloniki | United States (a.e.t.) | 2 | |
| United States | 2 | United States (a.e.t.) | 2 | |
| United States | 2 | | | | 26 August – Athens | 26 August – Athens |
| Japan | 1 | | | | 26 August – Athens | 26 August – Athens |
| Japan | 1 | | | | United States (a.e.t.) | 2 |
| 20 August – Heraklio | 20 August – Heraklio | | | | | United States (a.e.t.) | 2 |
| 20 August – Heraklio | 20 August – Heraklio | | | | Brazil | 1 |
| Mexico | 0 | | | | Brazil | 1 |
| Mexico | 0 | 23 August – Patras | 23 August – Patras | | | |
| Brazil | 5 | 23 August – Patras | 23 August – Patras | | | |
| Brazil | 5 | Sweden | 0 | | | |
| 20 August – Volos | 20 August – Volos | | Sweden | 0 | | | |
| 20 August – Volos | 20 August – Volos | Brazil | 1 | | Bronze medal match | Bronze medal match |
| Sweden | 2 | Brazil | 1 | | Bronze medal match | Bronze medal match |
| Sweden | 2 | | | | 26 August – Athens | 26 August – Athens |
| Australia | 1 | | | | 26 August – Athens | 26 August – Athens |
| Australia | 1 | | | | Germany | 1 |
| | | | | | Sweden | 0 |

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

There were 55 goals scored in 20 matches, for an average of 2.75 goals per match. Cristiane of Brazil and Birgit Prinz of Germany finished as the top scorers of the tournament, with each scoring five goals.
5 goals
* Cristiane
* Birgit Prinz
4 goals
* Abby Wambach
3 goals
* Marta
* Pretinha
* Kristine Lilly
2 goals
* Formiga
* Renate Lingor
* Conny Pohlers
* Mercy Akide
* Mia Hamm
1 goal
* Lisa De Vanna
* Heather Garriock
* Joanne Peters
* Daniela
* Grazielle
* Ji Ting
* Isabell Bachor
* Steffi Jones
* Martina Müller
* Petra Wimbersky
* Pia Wunderlich
* Eriko Arakawa
* Emi Yamamoto
* Maribel Domínguez
* Vera Okolo
* Sara Larsson
* Hanna Ljungberg
* Hanna Marklund
* Malin Moström
* Shannon Boxx
* Heather O'Reilly
* Lindsay Tarpley
Source: FIFA

### Assists

3 assists
* Renate Lingor
* Kerstin Stegemann
* Perpetua Nkwocha
2 assists
* Formiga
* Grazielle
* Marta
* Pretinha
* Rosana
* Martina Müller
* Conny Pohlers
* Victoria Svensson
* Mia Hamm
1 assist
* Heather Garriock
* Sarah Walsh
* Cristiane
* Daniela
* Maycon
* Qu Feifei
* Sonja Fuss
* Birgit Prinz
* Pia Wunderlich
* Mio Otani
* Kristin Bengtsson
* Malin Moström
* Shannon Boxx
* Julie Foudy
* Kristine Lilly
* Kate Markgraf
* Abby Wambach
Source: FIFA

### FIFA Fair Play Award

Japan and Sweden 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 played at least three matches are eligible for the Fair Play Award.
| Pos | Team | Pts |
| 1 | Japan | 857 |
| 1 | Sweden | 857 |
| 3 | Australia | 843 |
| 4 | China | 815 |
| 5 | Germany | 811 |
| 6 | Nigeria | 781 |
| 7 | Brazil | 772 |
| 8 | United States | 762 |
| 9 | Greece | 752 |
| 10 | Mexico | 686 |

### 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 | G | United States | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 4 | +8 | 16 | Gold medal |
| 2 | G | Brazil | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 4 | +11 | 12 | Silver medal |
| 3 | F | Germany | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 3 | +11 | 12 | Bronze medal |
| 4 | E | Sweden | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 6 | Fourth place |
| 5 | G | Australia | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 4 | Eliminated in quarter-finals |
| 6 | E | Nigeria | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 3 | Eliminated in quarter-finals |
| 7 | E | Japan | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | −1 | 3 | Eliminated in quarter-finals |
| 8 | F | Mexico | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | −7 | 1 | Eliminated in quarter-finals |
| 9 | F | China | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | −8 | 1 | Eliminated in group stage |
| 10 | G | Greece (H) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 11 | −11 | 0 | Eliminated in group stage |