Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics
# Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics

The association football tournament at the 1956 Summer Olympics was won by the Soviet Union.

## Background

Following five withdrawals, the tournament featured three Eastern bloc teams and four from Asia. The other sides included in the draw were the United States, the United Team of Germany (which was de facto West Germany), Great Britain and the hosts Australia, competing in their first Olympic football tournament.

The tendency of Eastern bloc countries to provide state-funding for their athletes put Western amateurs at a significant disadvantage. As a result, all Olympic football tournaments 1952 onwards were dominated by the Soviet Union and its satellites.

## Venues

Melbourne :

| Olympic Park Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground |
| - | - |
| Capacity: 40,000 | Capacity: 104,000 |
| Olympic Park StadiumMelbourne Cricket Ground ||

## Final tournament

### First round

Five of the sixteen qualified teams withdrew before the final draw: China (who boycotted the Games to protest the reception of Taiwan), Egypt (who boycotted the Games to protest the Israeli, British and French invasion), Turkey, South Vietnam, and the recent World Cup runners-up Hungary, a nation that was cheered in other Olympic contests due to their ongoing suppression by Soviet troops.

Therefore, only three games were played in the first round: as China and Turkey had been drawn against each other, their match was scratched.

The Soviet Union defeated the United Team of Germany 2–1, Great Britain defeated Thailand 9–0, and Australia defeated Japan 2–0.

Byes: Bulgaria (drawn against Egypt, who withdrew), India (drawn against Hungary, who withdrew), Indonesia (drawn against South Vietnam, who withdrew), United States and Yugoslavia (drawn against each other: match was postponed to the quarter-finals).

### Quarter-finals

Yugoslavia defeated the United States 9–1.

Great Britain lost 6–1 to Bulgaria, and at half-time, ratings from HMS Newcastle vaulted the fence and exhorted the team to show more grit, after which they were peacefully escorted off the field.

The Soviets drew their game against Indonesia 0–0 and won 4–0 in the replay.

The Indians defeated Australia 4–2 with a hat trick by centre forward Neville D'Souza, the first by an Asian in the Olympics. Prior to the game there had been debate, once again, as to whether the Indians should be shod. Sir Stanley Rous respected their decision either way, although in the end, the Indians decided to wear boots. The Indonesian referee disallowed two first half goals. Bob Bignall the Australian captain was unable to get an intelligible reply out of him during the break.

### Semi-finals

Yugoslavia defeated India 4–1. It would be their third consecutive Olympic final, after losing both in 1948 and 1952.

The Soviets defeated Bulgaria 2–1. Bulgaria scored first and conceded two goals in the last six minutes of the game.

### Finals

Yugoslavia were playing Red Star Belgrade's Dragoslav Šekularac in this tournament; he would feature in the 1960 European Nations' Cup final. They lost 1–0 to a second half Anatoli Ilyin goal.

Bulgaria took Bronze defeating India 3–0.

**Gold Medal match**

Team details :

Soviet Union

Yugoslavia

GKLev Yashin

RBBoris Kuznetsov

LBAnatoli Bashashkin

RHMikhail Ogonkov

CHIgor Netto

LHAnatoli Maslenkin

ORBoris Tatushin

IRAnatoli Isayev

CFNikita Simonyan

ILSergei Salnikov

OLAnatoli Ilyin

Manager:

Gavriil Kachalin

GKPetar Radenković

RBMladen Koščak

LBNikola Radović

RHIvan Santek

CHLjubiša Spajić

LHDobroslav Krstić

ORDragoslav Šekularac

IRZlatko Papec

CFSava Antić

ILTodor Veselinović

OLMuhamed Mujić

Manager:

Aleksandar Tirnanić :

## Bracket

| First round | First round | Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Yugoslavia | | | | | | | |
| Yugoslavia | | November – Olympic Park | November – Olympic Park | | | | |
| bye | | November – Olympic Park | November – Olympic Park | | | | |
| bye | | Yugoslavia | 9 | | | | |
| | | United States | 1 | | | | |
| United States | | United States | 1 | | | | |
| United States | | | | December – MCG | December – MCG | | |
| bye | | | | December – MCG | December – MCG | | |
| bye | | | | Yugoslavia | 4 | | |
| November | November | | | Yugoslavia | 4 | | |
| November | November | | | India | 1 | | |
| Australia | 2 | | | India | 1 | | |
| Australia | 2 | December – MCG | December – MCG | | | | |
| Japan | 0 | December – MCG | December – MCG | | | | |
| Japan | 0 | Australia | 2 | | | | |
| | | India | 4 | | | | |
| India | | India | 4 | | | | |
| India | | | | | | December – MCG | December – MCG |
| bye | | | | | | December – MCG | December – MCG |
| bye | | | | | | Yugoslavia | 0 |
| | | | | | | Soviet Union | 1 |
| Indonesia | | | | | | Soviet Union | 1 |
| Indonesia | | December – Olympic Park | December – Olympic Park | | | | |
| bye | | December – Olympic Park | December – Olympic Park | | | | |
| bye | | Indonesia | 0 | | | | |
| November | November | Indonesia | 0 | | | | |
| November | November | Soviet Union | 4 | | | | |
| Soviet Union | 2 | Soviet Union | 4 | | | | |
| Soviet Union | 2 | | | December – Olympic Park | December – Olympic Park | | |
| United Team of Germany | 1 | | | December – Olympic Park | December – Olympic Park | | |
| United Team of Germany | 1 | | | Soviet Union | 2 (a.e.t.) | | |
| | | | | Bulgaria | 1 | | |
| Bulgaria | | | | Bulgaria | 1 | | |
| Bulgaria | | December – MCG | December – MCG | | | | |
| bye | | December – MCG | December – MCG | | | | |
| bye | | Bulgaria | 6 | | | | |
| November | November | Bulgaria | 6 | | | December – MCG | December – MCG |
| November | November | Great Britain | 1 | | | December – MCG | December – MCG |
| Great Britain | 9 | Great Britain | 1 | | | India | 0 |
| Thailand | 0 | | | | | Bulgaria | 3 |

## Goalscorers

There were 53 goals scored in 12 matches, for an average of 4.42 goals per match.

4 goals

* Neville D'Souza
* Todor Veselinović
* Dimitar Milanov

3 goals

* Ivan Petkov Kolev
* Jack Laybourne
* Muhamed Mujić
* Zlatko Papec

2 goals

* Bruce Morrow
* Todor Diev
* George Bromilow
* Jim Lewis
* Charlie Twissell
* Sergei Salnikov
* Eduard Streltsov
* Sava Antić

1 goal

* Frank Loughran
* Graham McMillan
* Georgi Dimitrov
* Ernst-Günter Habig
* Laurie Topp
* Krishnaswamy
* Anatoli Ilyin
* Anatoli Isayev
* Valentin Ivanov
* Igor Netto
* Boris Tatushin
* Al Zerhusen

1 own goal

* Muhamed Abdus Salam

## Medalists

| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| - | - | - |
| Soviet Union | Yugoslavia | Bulgaria |
| Lev Yashin Nikolai Tishchenko Mikhail Ogonkov Aleksei Paramonov Anatoli Bashashkin Igor Netto Boris Tatushin Anatoli Isayev Eduard Streltsov Valentin Ivanov Vladimir Ryzhkin Boris Kuznetsov Iosif Betsa Sergei Salnikov Boris Razinsky Anatoli Maslenkin Anatoli Ilyin Nikita Simonyan Yury Belyayev Anatoli Porkhunov | Sava Antić Ibrahim Biogradlić Mladen Koščak Dobroslav Krstić Luka Liposinović Muhamed Mujić Zlatko Papec Petar Radenković Nikola Radović Ivan Santek Dragoslav Šekularac Ljubiša Spajić Todor Veselinović Blagoja Vidinić | Stefan Bozhkov Todor Diev Georgi Dimitrov Milcho Goranov Ivan Petkov Kolev Nikola Kovachev Manol Manolov Dimitar Milanov Georgi Naydenov Panayot Panayotov Kiril Rakarov Gavril Stoyanov Krum Yanev Yordan Yosifov Pavel Vladimirov Iliya Kirchev |
