2011 South Pacific Games Football – American Samoa

At the time of writing American Samoa lay in 202^nd position (equal last) in the FIFA World Rankings; joint bottom with a few fellow pacific island teams.

To give an idea of the size of American Samoa, the entire population could fit inside Old Trafford and there would still be roughly 10,000 seats left to spare. With such a small population it is not surprising that the national football team of the US owned island has made very little impact on the footballing world, if any at all. American sports such as Basketball, Baseball and American Football all enjoy a lot more popularity than football throughout the island and this of course hinders the growth of the sport on the island.

American Samoa are probably best known on the international football circuit for being on the wrong end of the record victory in an international match. They lost 31-0 to Australia in a 2002 World Cup qualification game. The match saw Archie Thompson score 14 goals and David Zdrilic score 8. The match is not a particularly fair reflection on the football ability of the Samoans as many of their first choice players and reserve players could not play due to visa problems upon trying to enter Australia. As a result, Samoa had to field a very young side which even included some 15 year olds who had never played a 90 minute match before.

Rawlston Masaniai, Am.Samoan midfielder

American Samoa have only appeared at 3 South Pacific Games Football tournaments before with a sixth place in 1987 being their best finish. The last games (2007) saw Samoa’s first entry in the football tournament since that sixth place finish in ’87.

In terms of their aims for this year’s tournament; qualification from the group stages would be a success and one which they could use as a platform from which to build on for the future of football in American Samoa.