Soviet Union Olympic football team
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| Nickname(s) | The Olympic Assembled (Olimpiyskaya sbornaya) (Олимпийская сборная) |
|---|---|
| Association | Football Federation of USSR |
| Most caps | Igor Dobrovolski, Yevgeni Kuznetsov, Alexei Mikhailichenko, Dmitri Kharine, Volodymyr Troshkin (14) |
| Top scorer | Igor Dobrovolski (8) |
| FIFA code | URS |
| First international | |
 Bulgaria 1–1 Soviet Union  (Moscow, USSR; 27 June 1959) |
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| Biggest win | |
Soviet Union 8–0 Cuba  (Moscow, USSR; 24 July 1980) |
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| Biggest defeat | |
 East Germany 4–1 Soviet Union (Warsaw, Poland; 28 June 1964) |
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| Summer Olympic Games | |
| Appearances | 6 (first in 1952) |
| Best result | Gold Medal, 1956, 1988 |
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men’s Football | ||
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1980 Moscow | Team |
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1988 Seoul | Team |
The Soviet Union Olympic football team was the national football team of USSR from 1959 to 1990 in the Soviet Union. The team participated in most of qualification football tournaments for Summer Olympics. Until 1984 when age restriction was officially introduced, the Soviet Union was fielding its reserves in qualification tournaments, while in the finals participated the first team. Starting from 1990 in the Olympic competitions participated the Soviet Union national under-21 football team.
Officially the Olympic national team was found in 1959 after the FIFA adopted its decision in 1958 prohibiting participation in the Olympics players who also played in the World Cup finals. The Soviet Union did not participate in the World Cup until 1958 (see 1958 World Cup (qualifications)), instead it allowed its first team (base team) to compete at the Olympics (since 1952). Upon introducing the first team to the World Cup, the Olympic football team of USSR was created. Under 23 years old restriction was introduced for the 1992 Summer Olympics.
As the Olympic champions the team started out in the UEFA 3rd group along with football teams of Bulgaria and Romania (geographical principle of seeding). The Olympic team was created out of the players of immediate reserve to senior team. Out of all the players only the goalkeeper Boris Razinsky represented the team in Melbourne 1956. The coach of the team was appointed Boris Arkadyev who led the Soviet team in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, while in the couching council were included Mikhail Yakushin and Aleksandr Ponomarev.
The playing calendar was composed that the USSR team played all its games first, particularly all its home games.
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