American Samoa Makes History - By Winning First Soccer Match Ever!

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While the tiny nation of American Samoa has been successful in producing great American Football players like Junior Seau and Troy Polamalu, the same cannot be said about their soccer team. In the 17 years that they have been affiliated with FIFA, the team has not won one single game.

The team's lowest moment came in 2001, when they suffered a 31-0 defeat against Australiaand made the history books for suffering the worst international defeat ever. However, despite these crushing defeats, the players kept persevering and, it has finally paid off.

On Tuesday, November 22nd the South Pacific island recorded its first 2-1 victory against Tonga in the preliminary round of the Oceania Cup Tournament, a pre-qualifier for the 2014 World Cup. To prove that this was not just a fluke win, two days later, they drew a 1-1 against Cook Islands.

Unfortunately, the winning trend came to an end on Saturday, when the team lost 1-0 against Samoa, thanks to a goal scored at the last minute by the opposing team. However, that loss did not damper the spirits of this resilient soccer team that had played well above their FIFA rankings.

The victories were especially sweet for goalkeeper Nicky Salapu who was also the goal keeper in the disaster match against Australia and, is the only surviving member from that team.

What is amazing is that this transformation is happening just a month after the team hired a new coach - Thomas Rungon, a former MLS coach who used to train the under 20's US team. We can only wonder how well the team will do the next time around - Get to the World Cup finals maybe?

Resources: telegraph.co.uk, guardian.co.uk

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167 Comments
  • zaviaalmost 13 years
    I bet the team felt really good when they won.I fill happy for that team.That is great news!
    • tierra
      tierraalmost 13 years
      hi my name is tierra and i think this article is amazing becausethey won there first game haray 4 them hope u win agin
      • aunestialmost 13 years
        i dont wathch soccer at all but they really used teamwork to become a team and work hard to sucseed p.s i think this article is kind of boring because i am a girl but i like the teamwork and partnership good job
        • Jakealmost 13 years
          even though i dont like soccer i think that is pretty amazing for them to finalywin a soccer game.
          • samalmost 13 years
            what is the american samoa??? any body tell me
            • crackfransalmost 13 years
              the worst team i ever heard of... THIS IS HILARIOUS
              • joealmost 13 years
                Good for them, they actually won.
                • EVAN!!!almost 13 years
                  Wow! Great persistance! they kept trying and finnaly won 2-1. even a 31-0 loss doesnt stop them!!
                  • shawnalmost 13 years
                    i am wonder hard did they have work to win
                    • colealmost 13 years
                      awsome!!!!!!!