A hat-trick queen crowned, plus other stats and stories you might have missed from Olympic football so far

“When you see everyone collecting medals left and right, you say to yourself: ‘Now, it’s our turn’,” were the words of France head coach Thierry Henry after his side qualified for the final of the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament for the second time in their history.

Henri Michel’s team won gold at the Los Angeles Games forty years ago. Henry’s team aims to repeat this success on home soil.

Spain stands in their way; they are just one win away from securing the nation’s second gold medal at the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament. This would be a significant achievement, echoing their predecessors’ triumph at Barcelona 1992.

In the women’s competition, the USA aims to win a record-extending fifth Women’s Olympic Football Tournament gold when they play against Brazil in Saturday’s Paris showpiece. Emma Hayes’ team has won all their matches at the Games, but they have faced tough competition in the knockout matches against Japan and Germany to keep their title hopes alive.

Silver medalists in Athens and Beijing, Brazil will face the United States for the third time in a gold-medal showdown at the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament. Just as they did in 2004 and 2008, the Seleção defeated European opposition in the semifinals to reach the final fixture of the quadrennial jamboree.

Before that, it was tough, with the South Americans sneaking into the knockout stage as the eighth and final qualifier, having lost two of their three group-stage matches.

With so much going on, it’s easy for a historical note, statistic, or curious story to go unnoticed. Here are some from this summer’s tournament.

A momentous finale

While this will be the first time gold in the men’s tournament has been won by a European team since Spain’s victory at Barcelona 1992, it also ends the dominance of Latin American nations after the last five editions of the tournament saw ­victories for Brazil and Argentina – two each – and Mexico.

Spain are the first European team to reach the gold medal match in successive editions since Germany DR did so in 1976 and 1980.

Crystal Palace connection

Crystal Palace supporters have every reason to be smiling as France heads to Paris with both Jean-Philippe Mateta and Michael Olise performing well. Both ended on a high note last season and carried that form into the summer games. Olise garnered attention from teams across Europe and has since joined Bayern Munich, breaking the connection with Mateta after 61 matches together in Eagles colours.

During their time together, they combined for three goals, while for Les Bleus, they have jointly participated in two goals across five matches: the quarter-final winner against Argentina and the semi-final equaliser against Egypt. If Spain are to succeed, preventing this duo from creating scoring opportunities is paramount.

Morocco made history by winning its first-ever medal at the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament with a fantastic victory over Egypt. After their 2-1 semifinal loss to Spain, Tarik Sektioui’s team responded strongly by securing a bronze medal with their biggest win of the tournament. Goals from Abde Ezzalzouli and Soufiane Rahimi gave the Atlas Lions a 2-0 lead at halftime. Bilal El Khannouss scored a third goal in the 51st minute, and Rahimi netted his second of the match and eighth at Paris 2024. Akram Nakach extended Morocco’s lead to 5-0 in the 73rd minute, and Achraf Hakimi finished the scoring with a fine free-kick three minutes from time.

Roi Rahimi

Barring a spectacular finish, Rahimi should be the top scorer in this men’s competition. As mentioned, he concluded a sensational individual campaign by netting twice in Nantes. In doing so, he took his goal tally for the Games to eight and became the first player in the competition’s history to score in six successive matches. Furthermore, it’s the joint third-most in a single Olympiad, equaling Carlos Tevez’s effort in 2004, with only Polish legend Kazimierz Deyna (9 in 1972) and German marksman Gottfried Fuchs (10 in 1912) registering more.

Worth the wait

Morocco finished on a strong and empathetic note. But it’s also fair to say the Atlas Lions started as they meant to go on in Paris: by making history. The North African nation stunned Argentina on July 24 to win their first match at the Olympics in a staggering 7,280 days. Iraq’s wait for a victory was just three days shorter, having beaten Australia in the quarterfinals 20 years ago.

Age is but a number

The men’s competition is unique because it’s essentially a U23 tournament with three overage players allowed. But when it comes to age, well, at 73 years and 266 days, Paraguay’s Carlos Jara Saguier became the oldest coach ever at the Games when he took charge of his side’s match against Japan, overtaking Jean Rigal, who was 69 years and 264 days old when he led France to Rome in 1960.

Leaving it late

Paraguay scored two goals in the third and sixth minutes of second-half stoppage time in a thrilling match at Parc des Princes. Fabian Balbuena and Marcelo Fernandez were the heroes with the crucial goals, helping their team secure a 4-2 victory over Israel. This was the first time in 32 years that a team had scored twice in added time during a group-stage match. The last occurrence was in 1992 when Egypt’s Hady Khashaba scored two quick goals to secure a 4-3 win over Colombia at the Barcelona games.

Mind the gap

The largest age gap between two goalscoring team-mates in the same match was 12 years. It came in that Paraguay defeat of Israel, when 19-year-old Julio Enciso netted before Balbuena, exactly 12 years and five months his senior, scored in stoppage time.

Marta’s reprieve, a magical end?

The evergreen Marta became only the second Brazilian to rack up 200 appearances for the Seleção in their 2-1 defeat to Japan. Unfortunately, she was sent off in her 201st match against Spain.

A six-time FIFA World Player of the Year and perhaps the most celebrated player in women’s soccer history, she had already announced that the 2024 Olympics would mark her retirement from international football.

Having left the pitch in tears after the unfortunate but correct call, one wondered if that was the final act in an illustrious career. An international title had long eluded her: World Cup final runner-up (2007) and Summer Olympics runner-up (2004, 2008).

The South Americans had finished third in their respective group, forced to wait to see whether they would advance to the knockout stages. Results elsewhere fell in their favour, but they were facing an uphill battle against hosts France, without their captain and facing a side with home momentum.

A late strike from Gabi Portilho served as the game-winner, sending this unassuming Brazil side through to the final four. No matter what happened from here, they had extended Marta’s sixth and final Olympic Games by ensuring a third-place playoff at the very least. But they were not willing to settle.

Up against reigning world champions, Spain, in the semi-final, Arthur Elias’s side was emphatic as they picked apart the European favourites in a 4-2 thriller. Many had written Brazil off after a lacklustre showing in the group stages, but the willingness to see their legendary No. 10 out with a gold-medal match inspired a remarkable run of form.

This squad grew up watching Marta, idolised her phenomenal career, and relished the chance to play alongside her. Reaching the final was their way of repaying the incredible legacy the 38-year-old has blazed in her 22 years on the national team.

“Honestly, in these games without Marta, we did it for her,” said midfielder Angelina.

“We want to give her a really great send-off. It was a dream of mine to play with Marta, and now it’s a dream come true.

“To do it in the final in the Olympics, it’s just perfect.”

Curse continues

For 28 years or eight cycles, women’s football has had a place at the Summer Olympics. Yet from the inaugural event at the 1996 Atlanta Games and through all seven editions, the World Cup holders from the previous year have yet to complete the double and collect a gold medal.

Even the great German team — the first to win back-to-back World Cups in 2003 and 2007 — could only claim bronze in 2004 and 2008. United States teams crowned world champions in 2015 and 2019 fared far worse, as they were eliminated in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.

Champions at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023, La Roja landed on French soil as one of the favourites for gold, but a 4-2 defeat to Brazil in Marseille has dashed those dreams, and the curse of never holding the two most prestigious prizes simultaneously continues.

Spain can still end its first Olympic adventure on a high in the bronze-medal match against Germany. That fact, perhaps, helped Jennifer Hermoso remain philosophical about the semifinal defeat.

“What is failure? That’s football at the end of the day. Some days you’re firing on all cylinders and on others nothing seems to go right for you. We didn’t play well at all against Brazil. It was a chance to win a medal, but now we’re in another final against Germany and we’ve got to give it our all.”

Katoto-dépendance

As hosts, France hoped to rise to the occasion in the women’s competition. Hervé Renard, stepping down after this summer, witnessed his side open up with a nervy 3-2 win over Colombia before suffering a 2-1 loss to defending champions Canada. But they bounced back through a 2-1 success against New Zealand, with Marie-Antoinette Katoto finishing the group phase in excellent form.

She netted five of France’s six goals in the first round to top the scoring charts, accounting for 83.3% of her nation’s strikes. She joins Sun Wen of Sydney 2000 and Barbra Banda of Tokyo 2020 in scoring 80 percent or more of her team’s goals, of those to have netted three or more, at this stage of a tournament. Katoto and company blanked as Brazil eliminated them in the first knockout round.

Game of the competition

If there was one game you needed to watch, it was this: no defence, just vibes, as the kids would say. Australia’s 6-5 victory over Zambia unsurprisingly broke all sorts of records. Perhaps most incredibly, Australia, having trailed from the 21st minute until the 78th minute when Steph Catley levelled the game at 5-5, set a new record for the longest time a team had trailed a game before winning it.

They smashed Sweden’s record of 43 minutes when they came from a goal down to defeat Nigeria at Athens in 2004. The match was also the second-highest-scoring game in tournament history, while the Matildas also became the first side to recover from three goals down to win.

Brilliant Banda

Barbara Banda became the first player to score three hat tricks at the Games in that rip-roaring Australia tussle. She already held the record for being the first player to score hat tricks in back-to-back matches at Tokyo 2020, with her third treble taking her further into the annals of Olympic history.

That being said, she did not win the game every time she achieved this special feat. Preceding the 6–5 loss to Australia were a 4–4 draw against China and a 10–3 defeat to the Netherlands.

To say Banda has carried her nation would be an understatement: she has netted 10 of the 12 goals Zambia has scored in six Olympic women’s football matches. That said, they have yet to secure a single win.