Several of the best footballing nations in the world will compete for gold at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Spain, Argentina, Brazil, France and Germany are favorites in the men’s soccer tournament, which will award its first prize on Saturday, August 7.

But upheaval is the norm in the men’s tournament where teams must field a roster of players 24 and under, with the exception of three players who may be older (this age limit is usually 23, but it has been modified since the postponement of the Olympic Games for one year). This rule was formally put in place in 1992 to differentiate competition from the Men’s World Cup following the opening by the IOC of Olympic participation to professional athletes.

While Spain and Brazil are still stacked with an Under-24 roster – Spain will have six players from their Euro 2021 semi-finalist squad – some big names will invariably not survive the group stage , where a total of 16 teams will be reduced to eight quarterfinals. The knockout round of 16 will take us to the bronze and gold medal matches.

Host nation Japan are hoping for a chance at a medal, while Mexico, gold medalist in men’s football in 2012, could pull off another memorable streak. Honduras has always performed well at the Olympics, while Côte d’Ivoire and Egypt will dream of becoming Africa’s first gold medalists since Cameroon in 2000.

MORE: Complete Women’s Olympic Soccer Calendar

How to watch Olympic football in the United States

• TV channels: NBCSN, USA Network, Olympic Channel
• Television in Spanish: Telemundo, Universo
• Streams: fuboTV, NBCOlympics.com, NBC Sports app, Telemundo Deportes app, TelemundoDeportes.com

Television coverage of select matches of the men’s soccer tournament will be broadcast by five of the NBC family of networks in English and Spanish (match-by-match listings below).

Each football match in the men’s and women’s tournaments will be broadcast on NBCOlympics.com (English), TelemundoDeportes.com (Spanish), the NBC Sports app and the Telemundo Deportes app, all with user authentication (verification of cable / satellite subscription).

Each channel in the NBC and Telemundo family of networks is also available on fuboTV (7 day free trial): NBC, NBCSN, USA Network, CNBC, Olympic Channel, Golf Channel, Telemundo and Universo.

2021 Olympic Football Calendar

NOTE: All matches will be broadcast in the United States on NBCOlympics.com, TelemundoDeportes.com, NBC Sports app and the Telemundo Deportes application with user authentication.

Thursday July 22 (group stage, day 1)

Sunday July 25 (group stage, day 2)

Wednesday July 28 (group stage, day 3)

Saturday July 31 (Quarter-finals)

Tuesday August 3 (Semi-finals)

Friday August 6 (Bronze)

Saturday August 7 (Gold / Silver)

Men’s Olympic Football Tournament Format

The men’s football tournament begins with a group stage that eliminates half of the field from the 16 teams. The other eight advance to the quarter-finals and the start of the round of 16.

Group stage: The 16 teams are divided into four groups called Group A, Group B, Group C and Group D. The two best teams after the group match of the round robin automatically advance to the quarter-finals.

Here’s how they progress: The group stage rewards teams with three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. Teams are ranked by points, with the first tiebreakers being (1) goal difference and (2) goals scored in that order. If the teams are still tied after the second tiebreaker, there are other predetermined criteria for separating the teams.

Knockout rounds: The top two teams from each pool (eight in total) advance to a fixed pool, a knockout knockout round starting with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and medal matches.