Rio Olympics 2016 - Women's Football Teams
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The 12 female national football teams have been drawn into the following four groups for the initial phase of the tournament:
Group E - Brazil, South Africa, China, Sweden
Group F - Canada, Australia, Zimbabwe, Germany
Group G - United States, New Zealand, France, Colombia
AFRICA (2015 CAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament)
South Africa
Road To the Finals: The South Africans first played Gabon, who opened the scoring after just 3 minutes with a Mapangou penalty. However, Seoponsewe hit back with a first-half brace to put them ahead before they were pinned back to 2-2 in the 70th minute. Mollo’s winner came just 5 minutes later as they ran out 3-2 winners.
Their home fixture was much easier though, as they hammered Gabon for 5 to no reply! In the next round, Kenya were defeated 1-0 home and away, before the Equatorial Guinea fell to another strike from Seoponsewe, who ended as the tournament’s joint top-scorer with 5 goals to send her country to the Olympic Games in Brazil.
Zimbabwe
Road To the Finals: Zimbabwe were beaten 2-1 in the opening leg against neighbouring Zambia, before an away goal meant that 2-2 was enough for them to squeeze through to the next round. Zimbabwe’s first fixture in the next round was a major hash-up – initially, they could not secure the funds to travel for the away leg, which resulted in FIFA defaulting the fixture as a 3-0 win to the Ivory Coast.
On top of that, CAF declared the tie over and awarded the Ivory Coast a win, which would later be overturned by FIFA in order for the second leg to be played. However, the Ivory Coast didn’t show up to that one and the tie was awarded to Zimbabwe – the original defaulters! In the next round, Cameroon’s Ngono Mani 2nd half double overturned a 6th-minute strike by Neshamba to beat Zimbabwe 2-1. The second leg again opened with an early Neshamba goal, but on that occasion they could not overturn it and lost on away goals, sending Zimbabwe through.
ASIA (2016 AFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament)
Australia
Road To the Finals: The Australian national team entered the Olympic Qualifying tournament at the very last round, and had a near-perfect qualification campaign. Their opening match was a 3-1 defeat of the Japanese, before a total obliteration of Vietnam as a Simon hat-trick led the way to a 9-0 victory with 7 different scorers.
Simon struck again against South Korea, opening the scoring within the very first minute. North Korea were the next to fall, 2-1 to Heyman and Gorry goals. The Australians only drew in their final fixture, as Van Egmond equalized China’s Ma Xiaxou goal just 5 minutes from time.
China
Road To the Finals: The Chinese kicked off their qualification campaign with a 2-0 defeat of Vietnam, as Zhang Rui’s penalty killed the match just 6 minutes after Gu Yasha’s 57th minute opener. North Korea drew first blood in the next match through Un-Sim – and they would have won had Wang Shuang not scored an incredible 93rd-minute penalty. Against Japan, Rui & Yasha were at it again this time, with Yasha scoring the second goal. Shanshan beat South Korea just moment before the first had finished, before the Chinese themselves were on the receiving end of a late goal – against the Australians, the only team above them.
EUROPE (2016 UEFA Olympic Qualifying Tournament & 2015 FIFA World Cup)
Germany
Road To the Finals: The Germans were in Group B for the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and just like the men’s team they showed that they were seriously heavy hitters. Their opener was a 10-0 ripping apart of the Ivory Coast, before they drew with Norway 1-1. Thailand were then blasted for 4 prior to their last-16 fixture with Sweden – who scored 1 at least, but were also smashed for 4.
They were then held by the French, but ultimately the German spot-kick efficiency came to the fore as the beat the French 5-4 on penalties. The eventual champions of the USA finally beat them 2-0, before an extra-time time goal by the English consigned them to 4th which was enough to qualify.
France
Road To the Finals: France topped their group, defeating the English 1-0 and putting 5 past Mexico but losing 2-0 to Colombia in-between. South Korea could not handle Delie as her double put them on their way to a 3-0 win prior to their defeat to the Germans.
A 5th place finish would normally not be enough for them to qualify, but England’s lack of a team and the fact that the European quota wasn’t filled mean that the French (as the 2nd-highest ranking European team after Germany) were granted a shoe-in to the Olympic Games!
Sweden
Road To the Finals: Dahikvist scored as early as she could in the all-Scandinavian opener against Norway, as her 3rd-minute strike was enough to beat the Norwegians. Seger struck much later in the first half Switzerland, again edging them by the slimmest margin. In their 3rd match, the Dutch scored first through Miedema, but an equalizer on the stroke of half-time salvaged a point for Sweden. That put them top of the mini-tournament between the 4 teams and sending them to the Rio De Janeiro 2016 Olympics.
OCEANIA (2016 OFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament)
New Zealand
Road To the Finals: New Zealand’s route to the Olympic Games was very much straightforward. As the highest-ranked team registered to the IOC, they simply had to face the best opponent in the Pacific Games, without playing the 1st round. The team they met? Papua New Guinea, who conceded 7 at home. Moreover, they faced several issues to acquire visas for the second leg and had to withdraw from the tie, handing the New Zealanders the tie, and a ticket to Brazil.
SOUTH AMERICA (2014 Copa America)
Colombia
Road To the Finals: Colombia came out of the blocks flying in Group A, as Andrade’s 6th-minute strike set them on course to a fine victory that Ospina capped off with a fourth goal on the 90th minute. Against Venezuela, it took Garcia 78 minutes to finally breach the Colombian net – it was the only consolation as they lost 4-1.
In their final fixture, the Colombians edged Peru 1-0. In the final stage, they played out a stalemate with Argentina but Rincon’s 2nd goal proved to be crucial as Ecuador’s Lattanzio scared them with an 86th-minute goal in their 2-1 win. Their final day draw with Brazil ensured that they would go to the tournament their opponents on the day are about to host.
Brazil
Brazil qualified automatically as the host nation for the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Summer Olympics.
NORTH AMERICA (2016 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament)
United States
Road To the Finals: The current champions were in Group A and showed their class right from the first minute, as Morgan drew blood within the opening minute to lead her side to a 5-0 whitewash of Costa Rica. The Mexicans fell next, losing 1-0 to an 80th minute Lloyd goal.
The real obliteration came against Puerto Rico though, as Dunn notched a 4-goal haul to take the score to double-digits (10-0)! In the semi-finals, Morgan scored a stunning hat-trick as Trinidad & Tobago were buried with 5 goals, confirming a place in Rio. Their northern neighbours Canada were then defeated 2-0 for the 4th Olympic Qualifying title.
Canada
Road To the Finals: Canada’s Lawrence and Rose shared the spoils against Guyana, as they blew the Guyanese away with 5 goals in the opening 50 minutes. Trinidad and Tobago fare even worse, conceding 6 goals to 6 players.
If that was painful, what must Guatemala have felt like when Prince & Quinn both netted hat-tricks in another 10-0 mauling? Costa Rica could do nothing to stop, falling 3-1 to book the Canadians a place in Brazil, and a date with their neighbours US, who ran out 2-0 conquerors.
