Australian Team Profile
Australia has successfully qualified for the Olympic football tournament for the seventh time. Going through Asian qualifying for the first time the Olyroos successfully negotiated their way through a tough group comprised of Iraq, Korea and Lebanon.
Australia faces a much tougher group at the Olympics, drawn with Ivory Coast, Serbia and 2004 gold medallists Argentina. It will be the second successive time Australia has been drawn with Argentina, going down to them 1-0 in 2004.
With the top two teams progressing to the quarter-finals, the Olyroos should be the second team to qualify behind one of the tournament favourites in Argentina.
The squad's three permitted over-23 players are David Carney from Sheffield United, Melbourne Victory's Archie Thompson and Jade North from the Newcastle Jets.
Australia will play its opening two matches against Serbia (7th Aug) and Argentina (10th August) at the Shanghai Stadium, before venturing to the Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium to face Ivory Coast in its final match.
The tournament begins on August 6, with the final scheduled for August 15.
Australia has participated in six Olympic tournaments, with the best result coming in Barcelona in 1992, when it reached the semi-finals. The Olyroos also made the quarter-finals in 1988 and more recently in 2004.
Unfortunately the Australian women have failed to qualify for the Olympics. In a group with only two legitimate contenders in Australia and Korea, as well as Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei, the Koreans defeated the Aussies 2-0 both home and away to secure top spot.
Australian Olympic Football Team:
Mark Bridge, David Carney, Billy Celeski, Adam Federici, Neil Kilkenny, Adrian Leijer, Trent McClenahan, Mark Milligan, Stuart Musialik, Jade North, Nikita Rukavytsya, Kristian Sarkies, Matthew Spiranovic, Archie Thompson, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, James Troisi, Tando Velaphi, Ruben Zadkovich