Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament

The **women's football tournament at the 2012 Summer Olympics** was held in London and 5 other cities in the United Kingdom. This was the first FIFA women's competition in the United Kingdom.

## Qualification

Twelve teams qualified:

- Great Britain (Host nation)
- Japan
- North Korea
- South Africa
- Cameroon
- United States
- Canada
- Brazil
- Colombia
- New Zealand
- Sweden
- France

### Group E

|width=175|Team|width=20 abbr="Played"|Pld|width=20 abbr="Won"|W|width=20 abbr="Drawn"|D|width=20 abbr="Lost"|L|width=20 abbr="Goals for"|GF|width=20 abbr="Goals against"|GA|width=20 abbr="Goal difference"|GD|width=20 abbr="Points"|Pts|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|align=left|Great Britain|3|3|0|0|5|0|+5|**9**|||||||||
|align=left|Brazil|3|2|0|1|6|1|+5|**6**|||||||||
|align=left|New Zealand|3|1|0|2|3|3|0|**3**|||||||||
|align=left|Cameroon|3|0|0|3|1|11|–10|**0**|||||||||

### Group F

|width=175|Team|width=20 abbr="Played"|Pld|width=20 abbr="Won"|W|width=20 abbr="Drawn"|D|width=20 abbr="Lost"|L|width=20 abbr="Goals for"|GF|width=20 abbr="Goals against"|GA|width=20 abbr="Goal difference"|GD|width=20 abbr="Points"|Pts|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|align=left|Sweden|3|1|2|0|6|3|+3|**5**|||||||||
|align=left|Japan|3|1|2|0|2|1|+1|**5**|||||||||
|align=left|Canada|3|1|1|1|6|4|+2|**4**|||||||||
|align=left|South Africa|3|0|1|2|1|7|–6|**1**|||||||||

In Group F play before the official opening ceremonies, the Japanese team won the first match against Canada at Coventry on July 25   The Japan-South Africa game was a draw with no goals for each team.  The Japan-Sweden game was also a draw with no score.

### Group G

|width=175|Team|width=20 abbr="Played"|Pld|width=20 abbr="Won"|W|width=20 abbr="Drawn"|D|width=20 abbr="Lost"|L|width=20 abbr="Goals for"|GF|width=20 abbr="Goals against"|GA|width=20 abbr="Goal difference"|GD|width=20 abbr="Points"|Pts|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|align=left|United States|3|3|0|0|8|2|+6|**9**|||||||||
|align=left|France|3|2|0|1|8|4|+4|**6**|||||||||
|align=left|North Korea|3|1|0|2|2|6|–4|**3**|||||||||
|align=left|Colombia|3|0|0|3|0|6|–6|**0**|||||||||

In Group G play, the American women won each of three matches.

### Ranking of third place teams

|width=175|Team|width=20 abbr="Played"|Pld|width=20 abbr="Won"|W|width=20 abbr="Drawn"|D|width=20 abbr="Lost"|L|width=20 abbr="Goals for"|GF|width=20 abbr="Goals against"|GA|width=20 abbr="Goal difference"|GD|width=20 abbr="Points"|Pts|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|align=left|Canada|3|1|1|1|6|4|+2|**4**|||||||||
|align=left|New Zealand|3|1|0|2|3|3|0|**3**|||||||||
|align=left|North Korea|3|1|0|2|2|6|–4|**3**|||||||||

## Knockout stage

The tournament had a single-elimination format.  When a team lost a match, the competition was ended for them.  In other words, when a team won, the women continued to play until only one team remained as the Olympic champion.

In the first match at St James Park in Newcastle between New Zealand and the United States, the 2-0 victory of the US women ended New Zealand's participation in the 2012 games.  In the semi-final match at Old Trafford in Manchester, the US women won a 4-3 victory over Canada in the last minute of extra time in overtime.

In the opening match at Cardiff between Brazil and Japan, the Brazilians were forced out of the tournament after losing to Japan 2-0.
In the match at Wembley Stadium in London between France and Japan, the Japanese team won 2-1.

### Gold medal match

The United States women's national soccer team and the Japan women's national football  team met in the gold medal match.  This was a rematch of teams which played for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. The match was played at the Wembley Stadium in London on August 9, 2012. The American team won the match 2-1.

## Statistics

- Top scorer :  Christine Sinclair (6 goals)
- Own goal :  Ysis Sonkeng
- Red card :  Choe Mi-Gyong

## Related pages

- 2012 Summer Olympics
- Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament

## Infobox (international football competition)

- **tourney name**: 2012 Women's Olympic
football tournament
- **country**: United Kingdom
- **dates**: 25 July – 9 August 2012
- **num teams**: 12
- **venues**: 6
- **cities**: 6
- **champion**: United States
- **count**: 4
- **second**: Japan
- **third**: Canada
- **fourth**: France
- **matches**: 26
- **goals**: 70
- **top scorer**: Christine Sinclair (6 goals)
- **attendance**: 568348
- **prevseason**: Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament, 2008
- **nextseason**: Football at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament, 2016
- **image**: FIFA Women's World Cup 2019 Final - Alex Morgan and Stefanie van der Gragt.jpg
- **image size**: 250px