Imagine your worst day at work and multiply it by 31. You might get closer to what Nicky Salapu experienced on April 11, 2001.
It was the very day American Samoa lost in their heaviest defeat on the international stage,
football history is yet to be broken. The 31-0 defeat at the hands of Australia in a 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier remains a dark spot in international football history.
However, more than two decades later, the goalkeeper at the centre of that match tells of what that game did to him and others. Nicky Salapu told the Sporting Witness podcast that strangers still approach him to ask him questions about that particular match. The occasion was a World Cup qualifier against Australia.
Fielding a team full of hastily assembled teenagers, America Samoa stood hapless as their superior counterparts, Australia scored 31 unanswered goals.
Salapu, now 43 years old, said he had to hide his tears in front of his teammates during the 31-0 loss.
“I tried to suppress that feeling while waiting for the match to end,” he said.
In such a heavy loss, there are many extenuating circumstances. And American Samoa’s was at the receiving end of all the negative odds.
A David versus Goliath story….just that David didn’t win
First, American Samoa’s population at the time was only 58,000, compared to Australia’s 19 million. The Boys from the Territory as the team is nicknamed had been admitted to FIFA only three years earlier in 1998. They had never won a match since joining FIFA, prior to their meeting with Australia.
Additionally, ahead of the qualifying match for the 2002 World Cup, FIFA ruled that only players American passports were eligible. The decision robbed the team of 19 of its 20-man first team squad. There was no backup, the team could not even fall on their U-20s for help as the juniors were writing their end-of-term examinations.
And as it turned out, Salapu was the only one remaining from the first team squad of 20 senior players. They were frightened about what would happen on the field of play. And coach Tunoa Lui, turned to the heavens for help.
Speaking ahead of the game, Tunoa Lui said, “Frightened is not the word. We are going to ask for help from above. We are asking the Lord to help keep the score down.” And if that was the Lord’s help that kept the score down at 31-0, then one would just wonder what it would have been without the Lord.
Salapu explained the situation and how the hurriedly assembled squad was picked..
“We had to find someone in two weeks,” he explained. “We ended up choosing kids from high school.” They ended up assembling three 15-year-olds and a squad with average age 18, that made 20-year-old Salapu is a veteran.
High school children playing against professionals
Unsurprisingly, the new team got off to a poor start to the qualifying campaign, following a 13-0 loss to Fiji, they shipped in 8 against Samoa. To add to their misery, the team arrived in camp without football boots and lost two players to injury in the 13-0 defeat to Fiji.
Meanwhile, after narrowly missing out on qualifying for the 1998 World Cup, Australia had something to prove. They were the superior side in Oceania alongside New Zealand and ranked 73rd by FIFA while American Samoa ranked 203rd, the lowest.
The Socceroos go into match against American Samoa after punishing Tonga 22-0. Nicky Salapu said his main ambition before the match was to “not go beyond 22-0”. American Samoa managed to hold them goalless for 10 minutes until Con Boutsianis scored the opener. Archie Thompson scored his first in the 12th minute and his attacking mate, David Zdrilic added his a minute later.
Tony Popovic added two successive goals in the 17th and 19th minutes before David Zdrilic completed his hat-trick in the 25th minute to register a 9-0 lead. Archie Thompson then scored 6 of Australia’s next 7 as they ended the first half with a 16-0 lead.
At the end of the match, Archie Thompson top scored with 13 goals, followed by David Zdrilic with 8. Con Boutsianis finished with 3 while four players; Popovic, Aurelio Vidmar and Simon Colosimo each hit a brace. Fausto De Amicis came off the bench to score one.
Salapu said he spent the entire match urging his teammates to “move forward” instead of “huddle” in front of him because he sometimes struggled to see the ball.
American Samoa’s only attack came in the 86th minute, when they forced Australian goalkeeper Michael Petkovic into a save. That was American Samoa’s only shot on goal and the only time Petkovic touched the ball.
After 23, the 43-year-old former goalkeeper says their counterparts didn’t act with respect.
“What should the difference be?” he asks.
He said if he were coaching Australia that day, he would ask his team to “keep possession until the end of the game” even though they scored 20 goals.
After the match, Australia’s manager Frank Farina criticized the qualification format arguing that these types of matches were unnecessary. Man of the Match winner, Archie Thompson also added his voice and together with others FIFA decided a reform. FIFA introduced preliminary round for Oceania qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup qualifiers.
The final qualifying match against Tonga ended 5-0, a much more respectable score than the previous three. American Samoa continued their losing streak and lost 18 more times.
Moment of redemption
Salapu had to wait 10 years before he could somehow erase the memory of this humiliation when they won their second and first-ever FIFA recognized match in 2011. A 2-1 win over Tonga in November 2011 preceded a 1-1 draw against Cooks Island two days later in 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying series.
The team appointed Dutchman, Thomas Rongen as coach and Nicky Salapu felt confident enough in the project and decided against retirement.
One of Rongen’s improvements was changing the formation from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1, thus providing better defense.
On November 22, 2011, American Samoa faced Tonga in their first qualifying match for the 2014 World Cup. Nicky Salapu spoke about the expectations heading into the match. “Our whole team is convinced that we will win win,” he revealed.
Just before halftime, Tonga goalkeeper Shalom Luanio put Ramin Ott’s shot into his own net. And on the 74th minute, Kaneti Falela threw the ball past Luanio, scoring American Samoa’s second goal.
“I was very happy and told myself: ‘I have to keep this feeling because I have to focus on the match,'” Nicky Salapu recalled.
Tonga scored in the 87th minute but it wasn’t enough. The match ended 2-1 and American Samoa finally got their first win recognized by FIFA.
A decade after his humiliation against Australia, Nicky Salapu finally had his moment of redemption.
“This is the first time I’ve cried in football since against Australia in 2001,” he said.
Rongen’s exploits with American Samoa were documented in the 2023 Taika Waititi film, Next Goal Wins, in which the coach is played by Michael Fassbender.
Salapu still plays for the national team and son Dylan plays for the U17 team as a midfielder.
American Samoa has since achieved two more victories and one draw, 2-1 against Tonga, 2-0 against Cooks Island and 1-1 against Tuvalu. In 55 matches, American Samoa has conceded 371 goals and scored 32, keeping one clean sheet.