All About Olympic Soccer - Football - "the beautiful game,"

The rules for Olympic soccer are the same as for other international competitions, with one important difference. All but three players on men's teams must be under 23 years old. The reason is so the Olympic competition does not rival the World Cup, the only sporting event on earth to attract more fans than the Summer Olympics. It also serves to distinguish the Olympic game and to attract exciting young players.

Since the women's World Cup has not yet reached the kind of international stature the men's side enjoys, there's no age cap in the women's tournament, although there is a minimum age requirement of 16 for women players.

Differences in skill levels and strategies will become noticeable over the course of the Olympic tournament. Because of the under-23 rule, the men's tournament can produce some big upsets - there are a lot of diamonds in the rough on the pitch waiting for a chance to shine, while other players might not have matured enough to perform to their full potential.

Don't be surprised if there's more intensity in the women's games. The Olympic tournament might play second fiddle to the World Cup for the men, but it's a very big deal, indeed, on the women's side. For some countries, skill wins out because the players know how to conserve energy and then attack. Others are highly energized and opt for offensive play. Also, teams with smaller players will try to keep the ball low when passing to avoid setting players up to be tackled.

As host nation, China is guaranteed a berth in both men's and women's competition. Sixteen men's and 12 women's teams (up from 10 in Athens) will compete for the gold medal. Both the men and women will compete in four rounds (preliminaries, quarter-finals, semifinals, finals).

The 16 men's teams will be divided into four pools of four teams each to play a preliminary round-robin tournament, with the top two teams advancing to the quarter-finals. Then a knockout format begins to eliminate teams and narrow the field to the final gold medal game. The women's competition will follow the same type of format.

Teams will kick off on August 6 at the National Stadium, also known as "the Bird's Nest," located on Beijing's Olympic Green.

The first official men's Olympic soccer tournament dates back to the 1908 London Games, where Great Britain defeated Denmark to claim the first soccer gold medal. Since that time soccer has been part of every Olympic Games Program, with the exception of the 1932 Los Angeles Games. The 1940 and 1944 Olympic Games were cancelled completely due to the political tensions surrounding World War II.

The United States has competed in the men's Olympic finals 12 times, including five straight tournaments from 1984 to 2000. In addition, the U.S. qualified for but did not compete in the 1980 Moscow Games following a boycott by the U.S. Olympic Committee. The U.S. missed out on qualifying for the 2004 Athens Olympics, winning their group but then losing a one-game qualifying match against Mexico at Estadio Azteca in Mexico after the Mexicans had finished in second in their group.

For the U.S. women, Olympic gold show twice for the team, with first place medals in 1996 in Atlanta and in 2004 in Athens.

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