III Olympic Football Tournament (Antwerpen 1920) (From 28-08-1920 to 5-09-1920)
Olympic Poster		Olympic Poster

PARTICIPANTS (16)

· Host nation: Belgium.

· Fifteen invited nations: Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland (withdrew before the competition), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (withdrew before the competition), Yugoslavia.

COMPETITION SYSTEM

· The tournament was played under the so-called Bergvall system, a variation of the tradtional knock-out tournament devised for the Olympic Tournament by the Swedish journalist Erik Bergvall in order to create two parallel “finals” for the silver and bronze medals and alleviate the possibility of the two strongest teams being paired in the first round. According to this system, all the teams eliminated in the knock-out rounds of the main competition (Gold Medal Tournament – T1) by the eventual gold medal winner (including the other finalist) and the four losers of the 1/4 Finals round are given a second chance to compete for the silver medal in a new tournament (Silver Medal Tournament – T2): the latter will play out first for the right to challenge the successive losers to the gold medallist in T1 (except, of course, in the round of 1/4 Final). Finally, the two losers to the silver medal winner in the semifinal and final of T2 are given a last chance in a consolation final for bronze (Bronze Medal Game). In addition to the fact that the Olympic final has to be played before the end of the tournament and that the loser of the gold-medal final can end up empty-handed, the Bervall system assumes that all eliminated teams will have to remain in Belgium until the new pairings are confirmed.

· Sixteen participating teams are paired in a first knock-out round. The winners advance to the 1/4 Finals round and further 1/2 Finals. The two surviving teams after this last round qualify for the final.

· The losers of the elimination rounds are eligible to enter a new tournament for silver and bronze medals according to the specifications of the Bergvall system.

GOLD MEDAL TOURNAMENT (T1)

FIRST ROUND (T1) (28-08-1920)
Yugoslavia - Czechoslovakia	0-7	Antwerpen
Denmark - Spain	0-1	Bruxelles
Italy - Egypt	2-1	Gent
Great Britain - Norway	1-3	Antwerpen
Netherlands - Luxembourg	3-0	Bruxelles
Sweden - Greece	9-0	Antwerpen
France - Switzerland	2-0 (w.o.)	—
Belgium - Poland	2-0 (w.o.)	—

1/4 FINALS (T1) (29-08-1920)
Netherlands - Sweden	5-4 (a.e.t.)	Antwerpen
Czechoslovakia - Norway	4-0	Bruxelles
France - Italy	3-1	Antwerpen
Belgium - Spain	3-1	Antwerpen

1/2 FINALS (T1) (31-08-1920)
France - Czechoslovakia	1-4	Antwerpen
Belgium - Netherlands	3-0	Antwerpen

FINAL – GOLD MEDAL TOURNAMENT

STADIUM: Olympisch Stadion (Antwerpen)

DATE: 2-09-1920 (17:30 h)

ATTENDANCE: 35.000

REFEREE: John Lewis (ENG)

GOALS: 1-0 (Coppée [p.] 6’); 2-0 (Larnoe 30’)

[Incidents: In minute 39, Steiner was sent off and the Czech players abandoned the pitch in protest for what they considered a biased refereeing. After this, Czechoslovakia was disqualified for the silver medal tournament.]

Belgium - Czechoslovakia 2-0 [ABANDONED]

Belgium (coach: William Maxwell) Jan de Bie ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Armand Swartenbroeks Oscar Verbeeck ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joseph Musch Émile Hanse (c) André Fierens ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Louis van Hege Robert Coppée Mathieu Bragard Henri Larnoe Désiré Bastin

Czechoslovakia (coach: John Madden) Rudolf Klapka ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Antonín Hojer Karel Steiner ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- František Kolenatý Káďa Pešek (c) Emil Seifert ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josef Sedláček Antonín Janda Václav Pilát Jan Vaník Otto Mazal

SILVER MEDAL TOURNAMENT (T2)

FIRST ROUND (31-08-1920)
Italy - Norway	2-1 (a.e.t.)	Antwerpen
Spain - Sweden	2-1 (*)	Antwerpen
* Game played on 1-09-1920.

SECOND ROUND (2-09-1920)
Italy - Spain	0-2	Antwerpen

1/2 FINALS (4-09-1920)
Spain - Czechoslovakia	2-0 (w.o.)	Antwerpen
Netherlands - Poland	2-0 (w.o.)	Antwerpen
* This round of T2 was supposed to gather the “challenger” from the previous rounds (Spain) and the losers against the gold medal winner Belgium in T1 (Poland, Netherlands and Czechoslovakia). However, due to Poland’s withdrawal before the tournament and Czechoslovakia’s disqualification in the gold medal final, the only entrants were Spain and Netherlands. Therefore, these two teams entered directly the silver medal final, and the bronze medal final was cancelled.

FINAL – SILVER MEDAL TOURNAMENT (5-09-1920)
Netherlands - Spain	1-3	Antwerpen

FINAL STANDING
1.	Belgium
2.	Spain
3.	Netherlands
4.	France
5.	Sweden
6.	Italy
7.	Norway
8.	Egypt
9.	Yugoslavia
10.	Denmark
11.	Great Britain
12.	Luxembourg
13.	Greece
14.	Czechoslovakia 　(disqualified)

CHAMPIONSHIP SQUAD

Ricardo Zamora (SPA)

Antonín Hojer (CZE)

Oscar Verbeeck (BEL)

Káďa Pešek (CZE)

André Fierens (BEL)

Félix Sesúmaga (SPA)

Robert Coppée (BEL)

Antonín Janda (CZE)

Herbert Carlsson (SWE)

Ber Groosjohan (NED)

Jan Vaník (CZE)

TOP SCORER: Herbert Carlsson (SWE) - 7 goals

BEST PLAYER: Ricardo Zamora (SPA)

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