Third place playoff
Encyclopedia
The third place playoff (sometimes called the bronze medal game or consolation game) is a single match that is included in many sport
ing knockout tournaments to decide which competitor or team will be credited with finishing third and fourth. The teams that compete in the third place playoffs are usually the two losing semi-finalists in a particular knockout tournament. The third place playoff 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. The third place playoff has also been criticised because a double-elimination would be required to deem second place. Most notable competitions are single-elimination format, which may cause the top sides to face each other before the semifinals or final match.
Most sports using a knockout format in the Olympic Games
have a third place game to determine who wins the bronze medal
, with the exception being boxing
which awards two bronze medals (judo
, taekwondo
, and wrestling
, which also award two bronze medals, both feature two bronze medal matches, between the losing semi-finalists and the winners of the repechage
). As the difference between a bronze medal and no medal is quite significant, competitors still take this game seriously. The Rugby Union 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 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.
However, 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. Interestingly, two of the most celebrated knockout tournaments had featured the third place game for a period of time — the FA Cup Third-fourth place matches
(1970–1974) and the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
(1946–1981). For most of its years, the NCAA consolation game held interest because it usually featured two nationally ranked teams in which only a few teams qualified for the tournament. However, as the field expanded beyond 32 teams, the game lost significance. In addition, eliminating the game allowed the losing teams to return home rather than remaining in the Final Four city for an additional two days to play a game many believed was irrelevant. A third place playoff still exists in the postseason National Invitation Tournament
(NIT); some consider it "the consolation game within the consolation tournament".
The National Football League
had a consolation game, the Playoff Bowl
, from 1960 to 1969, which pitted the second-place team in each of the two divisions (based on regular season record from 1960 to 1966) against each other. It was abandoned in favor of the current playoff structure with the AFL-NFL merger
in 1970.
to have a third place match. That was one of the few third place football matches ever to be decided by a penalty shootout, where Czechoslovakia
defeated hosts Italy 9-8.
The FIFA World Cup
, like the Rugby World Cup
, also 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 stadiums; 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 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 will return 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 three goals scored since Poland's 1-0 win over Brazil in 1974, while all bronze-medal games since 1994 (except for 1998) have seen 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), Davor Šuker
(1998), and Thomas Müller
(2010) getting the goal they needed to take sole possession of the lead. The FIFA Women's World Cup
has had only five 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).
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.
However, teams that are not expected to get this far
usually take this match seriously, as third place can be a historical achievement. The best example of this was Sweden in 1994 who called the match "the bronze match" and after victory they landed at Arlanda with a fighter escort and were then paraded through the streets of Stockholm to millions live on national TV. Another example 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
. German
goalkeeper Oliver 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 a penalty shootout, while Portugal was defeated by the lower-ranked France), so the 2006 third place playoff was seen by some as a "what if" final.
Germany currently holds the most third place finishes in the (men's) World Cup, with three, their most recent in 2010. The USA has the most third-place finishes in the Women's World Cup, with three; they have never finished outside the top three.
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
ing knockout tournaments to decide which competitor or team will be credited with finishing third and fourth. The teams that compete in the third place playoffs are usually the two losing semi-finalists in a particular knockout tournament. The third place playoff 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. The third place playoff has also been criticised because a double-elimination would be required to deem second place. Most notable competitions are single-elimination format, which may cause the top sides to face each other before the semifinals or final match.
Most sports using a knockout format in the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
have a third place game to determine who wins the bronze medal
Bronze medal
A bronze medal is a medal awarded to the third place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The practice of awarding bronze third place medals began at the 1904 Olympic Games in St...
, with the exception being boxing
Boxing at the Summer Olympics
Boxing has been contested at every Summer Olympic Games since its introduction to the program at the 1904 Summer Olympics, except for the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, because Swedish law banned the sport at the time. The 2008 Summer Olympics was the final games with boxing as a male only event...
which awards two bronze medals (judo
Judo at the Summer Olympics
Judo was first included in the Summer Olympic Games at the 1964 Games in Tokyo, Japan. After not being included in 1968, judo has been an Olympic sport in each Olympiad since then. Only male judoka participated until the 1988 Summer Olympics, when women participated as a demonstration sport...
, taekwondo
Taekwondo at the Summer Olympics
Taekwondo made its first appearance at the Summer Olympic Games as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. The opening ceremony featured a mass demonstration of taekwondo with hundreds of adults and children performing moves in unison. Taekwondo was again a...
, and wrestling
Wrestling at the Summer Olympics
Wrestling has been contested at the Summer Olympic Games since the sport was introduced in the ancient Olympic Games in 708 BC. When the modern Olympic Games resumed in Athens in 1896, wrestling became a focus of the Games, with the exception of the 1900 Summer Olympics when wrestling did not...
, which also award two bronze medals, both feature two bronze medal matches, between the losing semi-finalists and the winners of the repechage
Repechage
Repechage is a practice amongst ladder competitions that allows participants that failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round.- Types of repechage :...
). As the difference between a bronze medal and no medal is quite significant, competitors still take this game seriously. The Rugby Union 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 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.
However, 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. Interestingly, two of the most celebrated knockout tournaments had featured the third place game for a period of time — the FA Cup Third-fourth place matches
FA Cup Third-fourth place matches
The FA Cup Third-fourth place matches were played to determine the order of third and fourth place in the FA Cup. They were introduced in 1970 replacing the traditional pre-final match between England and Young England. They were generally unpopular and were only played for five seasons...
(1970–1974) and the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
(1946–1981). For most of its years, the NCAA consolation game held interest because it usually featured two nationally ranked teams in which only a few teams qualified for the tournament. However, as the field expanded beyond 32 teams, the game lost significance. In addition, eliminating the game allowed the losing teams to return home rather than remaining in the Final Four city for an additional two days to play a game many believed was irrelevant. A third place playoff still exists in the postseason National Invitation Tournament
National Invitation Tournament
The National Invitation Tournament is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. There are two NIT events each season. The first, played in November and known as the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off , was founded in 1985...
(NIT); some consider it "the consolation game within the consolation tournament".
The National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
had a consolation game, the Playoff Bowl
Playoff Bowl
The Playoff Bowl was a post-season game for third place in the NFL, played ten times following the -69 seasons. Bell was a co-founder of the Philadelphia Eagles as well as a co-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers during much of the 1940s...
, from 1960 to 1969, which pitted the second-place team in each of the two divisions (based on regular season record from 1960 to 1966) against each other. It was abandoned in favor of the current playoff structure with the AFL-NFL merger
AFL-NFL Merger
The AFL–NFL merger of 1970 was the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States at the time: the National Football League and the American Football League...
in 1970.
FIFA World Cup and other Association Football Tournaments
The 1980 edition was the last UEFA European Football ChampionshipUEFA European Football Championship
The UEFA European Football Championship is the main football competition of the men's national football teams governed by UEFA . Held every four years since 1960, in the even-numbered year between World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the UEFA European Nations Cup, changing to the current...
to have a third place match. That was one of the few third place football matches ever to be decided by a penalty shootout, where Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia national football team
The Czechoslovakia national football team was the national association football team of Czechoslovakia from 1922 to 1993. At the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the team was participating in UEFA qualifying Group 4 for the 1994 World Cup; it completed this campaign under the name...
defeated hosts Italy 9-8.
The FIFA World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
, like the Rugby World Cup
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987....
, also 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 stadiums; 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
Rose Bowl (stadium)
The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., in Los Angeles County. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-12...
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 third-place match in the FIFA Women's World Cup
FIFA Women's World Cup
The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the...
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 will return 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 three goals scored since Poland's 1-0 win over Brazil in 1974, while all bronze-medal games since 1994 (except for 1998) have seen 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
Salvatore Schillaci
Salvatore Schillaci , commonly referred to by his nickname Totò is a former Italian football player. During his career, he played for Messina , Juventus , Internazionale and Júbilo Iwata...
(1990), Davor Šuker
Davor Šuker
Davor Šuker , is a retired Croatian footballer. He played as a striker for a number of European clubs as well as the Croatian national team, where he is the all-time top goal scorer with 45 goals....
(1998), and Thomas Müller
Thomas Müller
Thomas Müller was a German Waffen-SS Colonel who commanded the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen, 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen and the 27. SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division Langemarck during World War II...
(2010) getting the goal they needed to take sole possession of the lead. The FIFA Women's World Cup
FIFA Women's World Cup
The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the...
has had only five 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
United States women's national soccer team
The United States women's national soccer team represents the United States in international soccer competition and is controlled by U.S. Soccer. The U.S. team won the first ever Women's World Cup in 1991, and has since been a superpower in women's soccer. It is currently ranked first in the world...
defeated China
China women's national football team
The China women's national football team represents the People's Republic of China in international women's football.- Records :China had held the record of going for 442 minutes without conceding a World Cup goal, until it was broken by Germany on September 26, 2007, when Germany beat Norway 3-0...
2–0. In 1999, the third-place match between Brazil
Brazil women's national football team
The Brazil women's national football team represents Brazil in international women's association football. Brazil played their first game on July 22, 1986 against the United States....
and Norway
Norway women's national football team
The Norway women's national football team represents Norway in international women's football. The team, controlled by the Football Association of Norway, are former European, World and Olympic champions and thus one of the most successful national teams...
ended in a scoreless draw and penalty shootout (won by Brazil), as did the final between the USA and China (won by the USA).
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.
However, teams that are not expected to get this far
Cinderella (sports)
In American and Canadian sports, a Cinderella or "Cinderella Story" refers to a team or player who advances much further in a tournament or career than originally anticipated. Cinderellas tend to gain much media and fan attention as they move closer to the championship game at the end of the...
usually take this match seriously, as third place can be a historical achievement. The best example of this was Sweden in 1994 who called the match "the bronze match" and after victory they landed at Arlanda with a fighter escort and were then paraded through the streets of Stockholm to millions live on national TV. Another example was in 1998
1998 FIFA World Cup
The 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 16th FIFA World Cup, was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. France was chosen as host nation by FIFA on 2 July 1992. The tournament was won by France, who beat Brazil 3-0 in the final...
, when the recently established Croatian football team
Croatia national football team
The Croatia national football team represents Croatia in international football. The team is controlled by the Croatian Football Federation, the governing body for football in the country, and has been managed since 2006 by former player Slaven Bilić...
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
2002 FIFA World Cup
The 2002 FIFA World Cup was the 17th staging of the FIFA World Cup, held in South Korea and Japan from 31 May to 30 June. It was also the first World Cup held in Asia, and the last in which the golden goal rule was implemented. Brazil won the tournament for a record fifth time, beating Germany 2–0...
, and the German football team
Germany national football team
The Germany national football team is the football team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association , which was founded in 1900....
in 2006
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...
. German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
goalkeeper Oliver Kahn
Oliver Kahn
Oliver Rolf Kahn is a former German football goalkeeper. He started his career in the Karlsruher SC Junior team. He had his debut game in the professional squad in 1987...
, who had been a reserve to Jens Lehmann
Jens Lehmann
Jens Gerhard Lehmann is a German former football goalkeeper. He was voted UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year for the 1996–97 and 2005–06 seasons, and he has been selected for three World Cup squads. He was a member of Arsenal's Invincibles, playing every match of their famous unbeaten title winning...
during the 2006 tournament, was allowed to retire in the third place playoff by then manager Jürgen Klinsmann
Jürgen Klinsmann
Jürgen Klinsmann is a German football manager and former player who is currently the coach of the United States Men's National Team. As a player, Klinsmann played for several prominent clubs in Europe and was part of the West German team that won the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the German one that...
. 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 a penalty shootout, while Portugal was defeated by the lower-ranked France), so the 2006 third place playoff was seen by some as a "what if" final.
Germany currently holds the most third place finishes in the (men's) World Cup, with three, their most recent in 2010. The USA has the most third-place finishes in the Women's World Cup, with three; they have never finished outside the top three.