Goals galore as Dutch flex scoring muscles against Zambia
With Paris 2024 around the corner, FIFA reminisce about the highest-scoring match in the history of the event, which lit up Tokyo 2020.
The Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Paris 2024 kicks off on 25 July. As we count down to the start of the competition, FIFA relive ten great moments in its illustrious history.
“As a forward or winger, it’s always great to play in matches like that where there are loads of goals.”
In an interview with FIFA, Dutch star Lineth Beerensteyn shared fond memories of the highest-scoring match ever seen at the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament: her nation’s emphatic 10-3 victory over Zambia in their group-stage opener at the COVID-19-delayed Tokyo 2020 Games.
The goal-laden contest saw Vivianne Miedema notch four times for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019™ runners-up, while the Copper Queens’ talismanic Barbra Banda plundered all three of the African side’s goals. The other Dutch scorers were Lieke Martens (two), Shanice van de Sanden, Jill Roord, Beerensteyn and Victoria Pelova.
Given the high-scoring nature of the encounter, it is little wonder that several of the goalscorers made their way into the history books. Miedema became the second player to chalk up a four-goal haul in a single match at the tournament, following in the footsteps of Germany’s Birgit Prinz, who bagged a quartet of goals in her team’s 8-0 rout of China PR at Athens 2004.
Incidentally, China PR sharpshooter Wang Shuang joined the record-breaking pair after her dazzling four-goal display earned her team a 4-4 draw against Zambia in the second round of group-stage matches at the Tokyo extravaganza.
As for other record-equalling feats served up by the 13-goal spectacle, Banda took her place alongside Canada’s Christine Sinclair as the only players in tournament history to have ended up on the losing side despite hitting a hat-trick. The Canucks’ iconic goal-getter was unable to prevent her nation falling to an agonising 4-3 extra-time defeat at the hands of eventual champions USA in the sides’ topsy-turvy semi-final showdown at London 2012.
Three days after the goal glut between Zambia and the Netherlands, Banda – who was on the books at Chinese Women’s Super League outfit Shanghai Shengli at the time – grabbed a second hat-trick in as many outings, coming away with the match ball in the above-mentioned draw against China PR – the very match in which Shuang turned in her four-goal performance.
By hitting two trebles on the Olympic stage, the Zambian ace matched the hat-trick exploits of Brazil’s Cristiane, whose three-goal hauls came across two editions of the tournament: Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.
