Why does olympic football start early

The majority have Olympic qualifying tournaments, with some of these branded as Under championships in the case of the men. The reason that Africa and South America are listed as having 1. Chile beat Cameroon over two matches to make the Olympics.

MORE: Updated top goal scorers in the men's tournament. In the group stage, teams earn three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. There are tiebreakers for teams that are even on points during the three-match, round-robin group phase and they're used in this order:. If you really want to delve into all the nitty gritty of the rules, all 78 pages of them are published.

During the group stage, draws after 90 minutes result in a point for each team in their respective group standings. Brazil are the defending champions and their squad features veteran face Dani Alves, while two-time winners Argentina will be among a number of teams vying for gold.

Spain are also competing in the tournament and will be eager to add to their solitary gold for football which they picked up in The France team competing will not resemble the one that won the World Cup or the one that played in Euro , but it will feature a number of familiar faces, including Andre-Pierre Gignac and Florian Thauvin.

Germany, who were runners-up in , take part in this year's competition too, as do Egypt, Australia and Japan. A total of 12 teams from six continental federations will compete in the women's Olympics football tournament. The USWNT is the most high profile competitor, featuring star names such as Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, and they'll be looking to add a fifth gold to their collection. Among the other big teams competing for gold are the Netherlands, who are playing in their first ever Olympics tournament, Brazil and Australia.

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