International football competition
The association football (soccer) tournament at the 1984 Summer Olympics started on July 29 and ended on August 11, taking place throughout the United States. It was the first Olympic soccer competition in which officially professional players were allowed. Until then, the amateur-only rule had heavily favored socialist countries from the Eastern Bloc whose players were professionals in all but name. However, as agreed with FIFA to preserve the importance of the World Cup, the Olympic competition was restricted to players with no more than five "A" caps at tournament start, regardless of age. Specifically, they allowed teams from countries outside of UEFA and CONMEBOL to field their strongest sides, while restricting UEFA and CONMEBOL (the strongest confederations whose teams had played all finals and won every single World Cup title) countries to players who had not played in a World Cup.
The soccer tournament was held in four venues:
The Gold medal game between France and Brazil at the Rose Bowl attracted an Olympic Games soccer attendance record of 101,799. This remained the record attendance for a soccer game in the United States until 2014, breaking the previous Olympic record attendance of 100,000 set at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia for the game of the 1956 Olympic Games played between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. The Rose Bowl attendance would remain the Olympic record until 104,098 attended the game of the 2000 Summer Olympics between Cameroon and Spain at the Stadium Australia in Sydney.
The attendance also stood as the highest for a soccer game in the United States until 109,318 saw Manchester United defeat Real Madrid during the 2014 International Champions Cup at the Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
Qualifying.
Sixteen teams qualified for the Olympic tournament after continental qualifying rounds. Three Warsaw Pact countries had qualified but withdrew as part of the Soviet-led boycott. They were replaced as follows:
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Medalists.
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Match officials.
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Final tournament.
Group stage.
Group A.
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Group B.
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Group C.
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Group D.
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Final team rankings.
Note: As 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.
Statistics.
Goalscorers.
With five goals, Daniel Xuereb of France, Borislav Cvetković and Stjepan Deverić of Yugoslavia are the top scorers in the tournament. In total, 84 goals were scored by 52 different players, with none of them credited as own goal.
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Discipline.
In the final tournament, a player was suspended for the subsequent match in the competition for getting a red card. The following twelve players were sent off and suspended during the final tournament:
Trivia.
The wave was first broadcast internationally during the 1984 Olympic football final, when it was done among the 100,000 in attendance at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena.
References.
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