Many sports playoffs and knockout tournaments include a third place playoff, third place match, bronze medal game, or consolation game to decide which competitor or team will be credited with finishing third and fourth. This game is typically competed by the competitors or teams that lost in the semi-finals of the tournament that they competed in. Some tournaments may use the third place playoff to determine who wins the bronze medal, while other tournaments need to hold a third place playoff for seeding purposes if three or all four semi-finalists advance to another tournament. Social psychology studies have found that bronze medalists who had won a third place playoff were significantly happier than silver medalists who had lost a championship final.[1][2]
In tournaments that do not award medals or have the third place finisher advance to something else, a third place playoff is a classification match that serves little more than as a consolation to the losing semi-finalists. A consolation game also allows teams to play more than one game after having invested time, effort and money in the quest for a championship. Third place playoffs held as such consolation games are subject to debate. Many sports tournaments do not have a third place playoff due to a lack of interest. It has been criticised by some who feel that the match serves little purpose, but others see this game as an occasion for the losing semi-finalists to salvage some pride. How seriously the competitors or teams take a third place consolation game may also be mixed: a heavily favoured team that lost in an upset in the semi-final round may not have as much incentive to win as would a "Cinderella" team who was not expected to advance that far.
Olympics
Most sports using a knockout format in the Olympic Games have a third place playoff to determine who wins the bronze medal. As the difference between a bronze medal and no medal is quite significant, competitors still take this seriously.
The martial arts and combat sports events instead award two bronze medals. Since the 1952 Summer Olympics, boxing has automatically awarded bronze medals to both losing semi-finalists, on the grounds that there was not enough time to recover between the semi-final bouts and a third place bout.[3]Judo, taekwondo, and wrestling also award two bronze medals, but these feature two bronze medal matches between the losing semi-finalists and the winners of the repechage.[4]
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup used to give automatic qualification to all teams in the top three of the ongoing tournament to the one that would follow it four years later thus making the third place playoff game important, but this was later scrapped after the 1999 edition of the tournament allowing teams outside the top three to automatically qualify depending on their IRB co-efficient in the rankings.
FIFA World Cup and other association football tournaments
The 1980 edition was the last UEFA European Championship to have a third place match. That was the only third place match in the tournament's history to be decided by a penalty shootout, where Czechoslovakia defeated hosts Italy 9–8 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
The FIFA World Cup features a third place playoff, usually on the day before the final. It is often there to provide a spectacle as there is often a gap of a few days between the semi-finals and the final. The third place playoff is considered a lower-priority match to organizers, as it is frequently scheduled in one of the smaller stadia; the largest stadium (usually located in the host nation's capital city) is reserved for the final, while the semi-finals occupy the second and third-largest stadia. However, the third place match in the 1994 World Cup did use the Rose Bowl stadium, the same venue that would later host the tournament final, setting a record attendance of 91,500 for a third place playoff in FIFA World Cup history.
The UEFA Nations League also has a third place playoff; this game is played prior to the final on the same day.
The third-place match in the FIFA Women's World Cup has been somewhat more important to the organizers – the 1999, 2003, and 2007 matches were all held in the same stadium as the final. In fact, the 1999 and 2007 third-place matches were both held as the first half of a doubleheader that culminated in the final. The 2011 third-place match returned to the more traditional scheduling of the day before the final in a different stadium. Notably, the 1999 third-place match was the curtain-raiser to the most-attended women's sporting event in history, the 1999 final also held in the Rose Bowl.
The third place match is generally a high-scoring affair, as no men's match has seen fewer than two goals scored since Poland's 1-0 win over Brazil in 1974, with four out of the last seven bronze-medal games, since 1994, seeing four goals or more. For tournament top scorers, the third place match's tendency of attacking football is a great opportunity to win the Golden Shoe, with players such as Salvatore Schillaci (1990) and Davor Šuker (1998) getting the goal they needed to take sole possession of the lead.[5] The FIFA Women's World Cup has had only eight editions to date, therefore creating less opportunity for a pattern to form. However, two of the third-place games in that competition have seen fewer than three goals. In 1995, the USA defeated China 2–0. In 1999, the third-place match between Brazil and Norway ended in a scoreless draw and penalty shootout (won by Brazil), as did the final between the USA and China (won by the USA). In 2015, the third place match between Germany and England was the first to go to extra time, and in the second period of extra time, England scored a single penalty and held on to the lead to upset Germany.
How seriously the competing teams take this match is subject to debate. Certain teams, especially ones which had been expected to reach the final, will rest some of their starters to allow some of their reserve team players to participate in a World Cup game. For instance French team captain Michel Platini did not play in either the 1982 or 1986 third place matches, while German goalkeeper Hans-Jörg Butt received his only competitive international appearance in a third place playoff,[6][7] and Michel Vorm came on during injury time of the 3–0 third place play-off win against Brazil in Brasília thus ensuring that all 23 Dutch squad members played at the tournament.[8] By contrast, teams that are not expected to get this far usually take this match seriously, as third place can be a historical achievement. In Sweden "third place playoff" is called "bronze game" and in the 1994 World Cup, the Sweden national team, after the victory in the "bronze game", landed at Arlanda with a fighter escort and were then paraded through the streets of Stockholm to millions live on national TV. Another example of a high-profile third place match was in 1998, when the recently established Croatian football team upset the Netherlands.
If the host nation is involved in the third place match, the team generally uses the match to thank the support of their fans (such as the South Korean football team in 2002, and the German football team in 2006).[5] German goalkeeperOliver Kahn, who had been a reserve to Jens Lehmann during the 2006 tournament, was allowed to retire in the third place playoff by then manager Jürgen Klinsmann. Germany and Portugal fielded strong lineups in that match, after both were narrowly eliminated in their respective semi-finals (Germany and Italy nearly went to penalties,[9] while Portugal was defeated by France[10]). For Brazil, the dismal 3–0 loss to the Netherlands in the 2014 third place match, along with the 7–1 semi-final defeat to Germany, led to coach Luiz Felipe Scolari being dismissed.[11][12] For the Dutch, this was their first bronze medal in the FIFA World Cup.[13]
Germany currently holds the most third-place finishes in the men's World Cup, with four, their most recent in 2010.[14] Sweden has the most third-place finishes in the Women's World Cup, with four.
Professional basketball
The Big3 professional 3-on-3basketballleague features a post-season game for third place; the game is played directly before the league's championship and features the teams who were eliminated in the semifinals. The FIBA World Cup has a third-place game.
Little League World Series
For most of its history, the Little League World Series has featured either a consolation bracket, or consolation games. Currently, the tournament features a single consolation game between the United States runner-up and the International runner-up. Like the championship, the game allows an American team to compete against an International team. All other games are played within their respective American or International pool of eight teams each, except two exhibition games which match the United States teams and International teams which were doubly eliminated, and winless, in their respective brackets (these were eliminated following the 2019 LLWS).
Early season College Basketball Tournaments
Third place games (and consolation games for lower placings) are common in early season college basketball tournaments, as it gives each team an opportunity to play more games before the conference games start in earnest. It also provides the tournament venue with additional games.
Many sports tournaments do not have a third-place playoff, mostly due to a lack of interest from the competitors and also from the fans. Several of the most celebrated knockout tournaments did feature a game for a period of time, but later abandoned it – for example, the FA Cup third-fourth place matches (1970–1974), the UEFA European Championships (1960–1980), and the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament (1946–1981). At the NCAA tourney, the third-place game was usually played immediately preceding the championship game, but was not nationally televised. Until 1976, the NCAA had consolation games in both regional play and the Final Four. However, as the field expanded beyond 32 teams, the game lost significance; the regional third-place games were not played after 1975, and the last national third-place game was in 1981. Eliminating the game also allowed the losing teams of the semifinals to return home rather than remaining in the Final Four city for an additional two days to play a game holding much less interest than the championship.
The National Football League (NFL) had a consolation game for ten seasons, the Playoff Bowl, from 1960 through 1969, which pitted the second-place team in each of the two conferences (based on regular season record from 1960 to 1966) against each other in Miami, Florida. Through the 1966 season, the only scheduled NFL playoff game was the Championship Game (with unscheduled conference tie-breaker games as necessary; only once during the 1960s, in 1965, was this required.
In 1967, the NFL playoff field expanded to four (division winners), with its first-round losers going to the Playoff Bowl, which had become increasingly unpopular with participating players, fans, and officials. With interest declining for a third-place game, and an eight-team playoff field arriving with the AFL–NFL merger in 1970, the Playoff Bowl was abandoned after the 1969 season with minimal objection. One vestige of the game survived into the 21st century: the losing coaches in each conference championship game coached the respective Pro Bowl squads from 1970–1978 and 1982–2008.
The Philippine Basketball Association, from its inception in 1975, also had third place playoffs, billed as "Battle for Third", preceding its conferences' playoff finals until this was removed the end of the 2009–10 season. These were originally as long as the finals series itself until 1988, when it was shortened to one win less than the finals (so if the finals was a best-of-seven playoff, the third place playoffs is best-of-five). In 1995, it was shortened further to a best-of-three series. From 1996 to 2010, it was a single-game playoff, until it was abandoned starting from the 2010–11 season.
Criticism of use in the Page playoff system
Third place playoffs are especially controversial when they are used in tournaments that use a Page playoff system since there is only one semi-final game in this format.
Critics argue that in such a formula, the loser of the semi-final should simply be awarded third place, while proponents of the third place game argue that without it, the importance of the medal round is lowered since the top two teams heading into the Page playoff would otherwise be guaranteed a medal: this argument carries less weight in tournaments where medals are not awarded, or are considered of relatively minor importance in comparison to winning the tournament.
Basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics was the first appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. The tournament was played between 7 August and 14 August 1936 in Berlin, Germany. 23 nations entered the competition, making basketball the largest tournament of the team sports, but Hungary and Spain withdrew, meaning 21 competed.
Birgit Prinz is a German former footballer, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion and three-time FIFA World Player of the Year. In addition to the German national team, Prinz played for 1. FFC Frankfurt in the Frauen-Bundesliga as well as the Carolina Courage in the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), the first professional women's league in the United States. Prinz remains one of the game's most prolific strikers and is the second FIFA Women's World Cup all-time leading scorer with 14 goals. In 2011, she announced the end of her active career. She currently works as a sport psychologist for the men's and women's teams of Bundesliga club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.
The Sweden men's national football team represents Sweden in men's international football and it is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body of football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is Strawberry Arena in Solna and the team is coached by Jon Dahl Tomasson. From 1945 to the late 1950s, they were considered one of the greatest teams in Europe.
The Germany women's national football team represents Germany in international women's football. The team is governed by the German Football Association (DFB).
The Uruguay national football team, nicknamed La Celeste, represents Uruguay in international men's football, and is administered by the Uruguayan Football Association, the governing body for football in Uruguay.
Association football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport, except 1896 and 1932. Women's football was added to the official program at the Atlanta 1996 Games.
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, whose winner becomes the tournament champion(s). Each match-up may be a single match or several, for example two-legged ties in European sports or best-of series in North American pro sports. Defeated competitors may play no further part after losing, or may participate in "consolation" or "classification" matches against other losers to determine the lower final rankings; for example, a third place playoff between losing semi-finalists. In a shootout poker tournament, there are more than two players competing at each table, and sometimes more than one progresses to the next round. Some competitions are held with a pure single-elimination tournament system. Others have many phases, with the last being a single-elimination final stage, often called playoffs.
Christine Margaret Sinclair is a retired Canadian professional soccer player who most recently played as a forward for the Portland Thorns of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and, from 2000 until her retirement from international soccer in 2023, was a member of the Canadian national team. An Olympic gold medallist, two-time Olympic bronze medallist, CONCACAF champion, and 14-time winner of the Canada Soccer Player of the Year award, Sinclair is officially the world's all-time leader for international goals scored for men or women with 190 goals, and is one of the most-capped international soccer players with 331 appearances.
The FIFA World Cup was first held in 1930, when FIFA, the world's football governing body, decided to stage an international men's football tournament under the era of FIFA president Jules Rimet who put this idea into place. Jules Rimet was the president of FIFA from 1921 to 1954. Rimet was appreciated so much for bringing the idea of FIFA to life that 1946 the trophy was named the Jules Rimet Cup instead of the World Cup Trophy. The inaugural edition, held in 1930, was contested as a final tournament of only thirteen teams invited by the organization. Since then, the World Cup has experienced successive expansions and format remodeling, with its current 48-team final tournament preceded by a two-year qualifying process, involving over 200 teams from around the world. Daniel limpio
The FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup, also known as the Basketball World Cup for Women or simply the FIBA Women's World Cup, is an international basketball tournament for women's national teams held quadrennially. It was created by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). Its inaugural game was in 1953 in Chile, three years after the first men's World Championship. For most of its early history, it was not held in the same year as the men's championship, and was not granted a consistent quadrennial cycle until 1967. After the 1983 event, FIBA changed the scheduling so that the women's tournament would be held in even-numbered non-Olympic years, a change that had come to the men's tournament in 1970.
The Netherlands national football team has represented the Netherlands in international men's football matches since 1905. The men's national team is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB), the governing body for football in the Netherlands, which is a part of UEFA, under the jurisdiction of FIFA. Most of the Netherlands home matches are played at the Johan Cruyff Arena, De Kuip, Philips Stadion, and De Grolsch Veste.
Brazil sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, in August 2008. Brazilian athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games since 1920, except the 1928 Summer Olympics. The country is represented by the Brazilian Olympic Committee. Brazil headed to the Beijing Games with its largest Olympic delegation at the time, 277 athletes, including 132 women.
Beach volleyball was introduced at the Summer Olympic Games in the 1992 Games as a demonstration event, and has been an official Olympic sport since 1996.
The Brazil national under-23 football team represents Brazil in international football competitions during Olympic Games and Pan American Games. The selection is limited to players under the age of 23, except three overage players. The team is controlled by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). Brazil U23 is one of the most successful teams in the Olympic football tournament, having won it twice and securing a record total of seven medals, including two golds, three silvers, and two bronzes.
The Portugal national under-23 football team represents Portugal in international football competitions in Olympic Games, as well as in under–23 football tournaments. The selection is limited to players under the age of 23, except three over-age players. The team is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). In three participations, Portugal's highest place was fourth, in 1996. This team also competed in the now-defunct Under-23 European Championship. The first time Portugal participated in the Olympic Football Tournament, they fielded main team players since the International Olympic Committee rules allowed to do so back then and in the 1980s, the team was composed of semi-professional players. The team currently qualifies in accordance to their under-21 team position in the UEFA Under-21 Championship. The results below comprise both the under-23 team as well as the Olympic team. They won the world championships
The history of the FIBA Basketball World Cup began in 1950, with the first FIBA Basketball World Cup, which was the 1950 FIBA World Championship. The FIBA Basketball World Cup is an international basketball competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been held every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1950.
The Germany Olympic football team represents Germany in international football competitions in Olympic Games. It has been active since 1908, and first competed in 1912.
Brazil competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's twenty-first appearance at the Summer Olympics, having missed the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. The Brazilian Olympic Committee sent a total of 258 athletes to the Games, 136 men and 122 women, to compete in 24 sports. Brazil left London with a total of 17 Olympic medals, winning their third largest number of medals at a single games.
The Iraq national under-23 football team represents Iraq in international under-23 football, Summer Olympics and at the Asian Games, The team is controlled by the governing body for football in Iraq, the Iraq Football Association (IFA).
The Sweden women's national football team has represented Sweden at the FIFA Women's World Cup on nine occasions in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023. There were runners up once and four times bronze medalists: in 1991, in 2011, in 2019 and in 2023.
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