International football match Australia - American Samoa 2001

The international football match between Australia and American Samoa took place on April 11, 2001 in the International Sports Stadium of Coffs Harbor as part of qualifying for the 2002 World Cup . The Australian team won the game 31-0. To this day, it is the greatest victory in international football .

prehistory

The world football association FIFA has been organizing separate qualification for the World Cup for oceanic national teams since 1986 . Previously, the teams had participated in the qualification of the Asia zone . Ten teams from Oceania took part in qualifying for the 2002 World Cup. Australia and American Samoa were drawn together with the national teams of Fiji , Samoa and Tonga in Group 1.

• 

   Fiji

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   Samoa

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   Tonga

In March 2001, Australia was ranked 76th in the FIFA World Ranking , making it by far the strongest team in the Confederation , while American Samoa was 203rd and last. The games in Group 1 were played between April 7 and April 16, 2001. Two days before the game against American Samoa, Australia had defeated the Tongan team 22-0. The American Samoans had a goal difference of 0:21 after just two games.

Course of the game

The Australian team consisted largely of players who were rarely used. For example, John Aloisi and Damian Mori , who together scored ten goals in the 22-0 win over Tonga, watched the game from the bench. American Samoa, however, had problems entering the country. Only one member of the originally planned 20-man squad, goalkeeper Nicky Salapu , was eligible for entry due to his US citizenship . The coach Tunoa Lui was also a number of players of the U-20 team not available because they had to pass high school exams at the time. In the end, the American-Samoan team - with the exception of Salapu, who presumably prevented an even bigger defeat with some strong saves - consisted exclusively of players from the youth national team , including three 15-year-olds. The average age of the squad was 18 years.

The game remained goalless until the tenth minute. Then Con Boutsianis scored Australia's first goal after a corner. Archie Thompson scored 2-0 two minutes later, while his strike partner David Zdrilic made it 3-0 shortly afterwards. In the 17th and 19th minutes, Tony Popovic scored the first brace of the game to make it 5-0 and 6-0. By means of two hat tricks , Thompson then scored to make it 16-0 at half-time.

Boutsianis, who had already scored the first goal of the game, scored to 17-0 five minutes after the restart. In the further course of the game, both Thompson and Zdrilic scored four more goals before Zdrilic marked the 31-0 final score with his eighth goal in the 89th minute. With three minutes remaining, Pati Feagiai had shot at the Australian goal, which was the loser's first and only shot on goal.

The unusually high number of goals was also reflected on the scoreboard , when it showed a 32-0 result at the end of the game and Archie Thompson attributed 14 goals. A recount and the information provided by the referee finally resulted in the final result of 31: 0.

Referee Ronan Leaustic from Tahiti did not give a yellow card during the game .

Australia		American Samoa
	Wednesday April 11, 2001 at 7:00 p.m. AEDT in Coffs Harbor , New South Wales , Australia ( International Sports Stadium ) Spectators: 3000 Referee: Ronan Leaustic ( Tahiti ) Linesmen : David Sau ( Solomon Islands ), Michael Angot ( Tahiti ) Fourth official : Derek Rugg ( New Zealand )
	Michael Petkovic - Kevin Muscat , Craig Moore , Tony Popovic (46th Fausto De Amicis ), Tony Vidmar (46th Scott Miller ), Aurelio Vidmar , David Zdrilic , Steve Horvat , Con Boutsianis , Simon Colosimo , Archie Thompson • Squad : Hayden Foxe , Scott Chipperfield , John Aloisi , Steve Corica , Lindsay Wilson , Clint Bolton , Damian Mori Trainer: Frank Farina	Nicky Salapu - Lisi Leututu (50th Richard Mariko ), Soe Falimaua , Lavalu Fatu , Sulifou Faaloua , Travis Sinapati , Sam Mulipola , Pati Feagiai , Ben Falaniko (84th Darrell Ioane ), Tiaoali Savea , Young Im Min • Squad : Marsall Silao , Soga Maina Trainer: Tunoa Lui
	1-0 Con Boutsianis (10th) 2-0 Archie Thompson (12th) 3-0 David Zdrilic (13th) 4-0 Aurelio Vidmar (14th) 5-0 Tony Popovic (17th) 6-0 Tony Popovic (19th) 7: 0 David Zdrilic (21st) 8: 0 Archie Thompson (23rd) 9: 0 David Zdrilic (25th) 10: 0 Archie Thompson (27th) 11: 0 Archie Thompson (29th) 12th : 0 Archie Thompson (32nd) 13: 0 David Zdrilic (33rd) 14: 0 Archie Thompson (37th) 15: 0 Archie Thompson (42nd) 16: 0 Archie Thompson (45th) 17: 0 Con Boutsianis ( 50.) 18: 0 Simon Colosimo (51.) 19: 0 Fausto De Amicis (55.) 20: 0 Archie Thompson (56.) 21: 0 David Zdrilic (58.) 22: 0 Archie Thompson (60.) 23 : 0 Archie Thompson (65th) 24: 0 David Zdrilic (66th) 25: 0 David Zdrilic (78th) 26: 0 Aurelio Vidmar (80th) 27: 0 Simon Colosimo (81st) 28: 0 Con Boutsianis ( 84.) 29: 0 Archie Thompson (85.) 30: 0 Archie Thompson (88.) 31: 0 David Zdrilic (89.)

Records

Record scorer Archie Thompson

With the 31-0, Australia achieved the highest victory in international football. The team had already held this record with their 22-0 victory over Tonga. Previously, Kuwait's best performance against Bhutan was 20-0 on February 14, 2000. The game was also the highest win in a World Cup qualifier. The previous record holder was Iran with a 19-0 victory over Guam on November 24, 2000.

Archie Thompson set the following records with his 13 goals:

• most goals in a recognized senior game (record set by John Petrie from 1885)
• Most goals in an international football match (previous record: ten goals by Sophus Nielsen , Denmark , on October 22, 1908 and Gottfried Fuchs , Germany , on July 1, 1912)
• most goals in a World Cup qualifier (previous record: seven goals by Gary Cole , Australia, on August 14, 1981 and Karim Bagheri , Iran, on June 2, 1997)

Reactions

Trainer Frank Farina

Australia coach Frank Farina criticized the mode of the qualifying games and doubted the sense of the same. Record scorer Archie Thompson was delighted with his world record , but Farina agreed on the matter.

“Breaking the world record is a dream come true for me - that sort of thing doesn't come along every day. But you have to look at the teams we are playing and start asking questions. We don't need to play these games. "

“Breaking the world record is a dream that has come true for me - it's something that doesn't happen every day. But take a look at the teams we play against and start asking questions. We don't need games like that. "

- Archie Thompson

FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper agreed with both comments and suggested a change in the qualification mode, in which the weaker teams should play a qualifying round first. Meanwhile, the President of the OFC continental federation, Basil Scarsella , criticized the remarks and countered that the smaller teams also had a right to play against better teams like Australia and New Zealand , just as Australia could play against Argentina , Brazil and France .

Effects

On April 16, 2001 the first round ended with the following table:

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Australia	4th	4th	0	0	066: 000	+66	12
2.	Fiji	4th	3	0	1	027: 400	+23	09
3.	Tonga	4th	2	0	2	007:300	−23	06th
4th	Samoa	4th	1	0	3	009:180	−9	03
5.	American Samoa	4th	0	0	4th	000:570	−57	00

In the second round, Australia defeated New Zealand's team 2-0 and 4-1. In the play-offs that followed, the Australians had to play against Uruguay . Although the first leg could be won 1-0, Australia could not prevail and could not qualify for the World Cup after a 3-0 defeat in the second leg.

A few times before (most recently against Iran in 1998 and against Canada and Argentina in 1994 ) Australia failed only in the playoffs. The Oceanic Football Confederation (OFC) has not been given a permanent starting place for world championships, the winner of the OFC World Cup qualifying competition must also win against a team from another continental association.

This, as well as the one-sided games, contributed to the fact that, as suggested by Keith Cooper, a preparatory round was played at the beginning of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup . The considerable difference in quality between Australia and New Zealand to the other teams led the Football Federation Australia to leave the OFC on January 1, 2006 and join the AFC, the Asian Football Association. During qualifying for the 2010 World Cup , Australia finally took part in the Asian Games.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Guinness World Records Ltd .: Guinness World Records 2006. Verlag der Rekorde GmbH, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 978-3-89681-009-0 , p. 226.
2. ↑ FIFA / Coca-Cola World Ranking List ( German ) In: de.fifa.com . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
3. ↑ FIFA World Cup Korea / Japan 2002 ™ Preliminary Round ( German ) In: de.fifa.com . Archived from the original on May 12, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 30, 2010. 
4. ↑ youtube.com: American Samoa vs Australia 0-31
5. ↑ FIFA ruling which left Samoans singing the blues ( English ) In: telegraph.co.uk . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
6. ↑ Aussie footballers smash world record ( English ) In: news.bbc.co.uk . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
7. ↑ Australians set World Cup soccer scoring record ( English ) In: cbc.ca . Retrieved September 12, 2010.
8. ↑ Australia 31 - American Samoa 0 (Sarah Winterburn) ( English ) In: ozfootball.net . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
9. ↑ PLUS: SOCCER; What It 31-0 or 32-0 ?; Australia Wins ( English ) In: nytimes.com . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
10. ↑ Australia 31 - American Samoa 0 (Markian Jaworksy) ( English ) In: ozfootball.net . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
11. ↑ 2001 MATCHES OCEANIA. ( English ) In: rsssf.com . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
12. ↑ Biggest margin victories ( English , PDF; 89 kB) In: de.fifa.com . Archived from the original on July 5, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2010.
13. ↑ On this day - September 12 ( English ) In: dailymail.co.uk . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
14. ↑ Aussie Rules as Socceroos smash world record again ( English ) In: guardian.co.uk . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
15. ↑ Iran fanatics keep close eye on the Valley ( English ) In: guardian.co.uk . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
16. ↑ Official licensed product of the 2006 FIFA World Cup ™ : I'll tell you everything - football. Wissen Media Verlag , Gütersloh / Munich 2005, ISBN 978-3-577-16405-4 , p. 18.
17. ↑ Australia score 31 without loss in record win ( English ) In: telegraph.co.uk . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
18. ↑ FIFA World Cup Korea / Japan 2002 ™ - Oceania Zone Preliminary Round ( German ) In: de.fifa.com . Archived from the original on May 12, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 30, 2010. 
19. ↑ FIFA World Cup Korea / Japan 2002 ™ - Play-off CONMEBOL / OFC ( German ) In: de.fifa.com . Archived from the original on May 12, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 30, 2010. 
20. ↑ FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 ™ - Preliminary Round Games Oceania ( German ) In: de.fifa.com . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
21. ↑ 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany ™ - Preliminary Round Oceania Zone ( German ) In: de.fifa.com . Archived from the original on September 2, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 30, 2010. 
22. ↑ Goal at last: Australia joining Asia ( English ) in: smh.com.au . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
23. ^ OFC (Oceania Football Confederation) ( English ) In: soccerlens.com . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
24. ↑ FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 ™ - Asia Preliminary Round Games ( German ) In: de.fifa.com . Retrieved September 30, 2010.

Web links

• FIFA MATCH Report: Australia - American Samoa 31: 0 (16: 0) ( German ) In: de.fifa.com . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
• Socceroo Internationals for 2001 ( English ) In: ozfootball.net . Retrieved September 30, 2010.
• American Samoa vs Australia 0-31 ( English ) In: youtube.com . Retrieved September 30, 2010.