American Samoa national football team

American Samoa

Nickname(s)	The Boys from the Territory
Association	Football Federation American Samoa (FFAS)
Confederation	OFC (Oceania)
Head coach	Tunoa Lui
Captain	Nicky Salapu
Most caps	Nicky Salapu (22)
Top scorer	Samuel Hayward[1] Ramin Ott (3)
Home stadium	Pago Park Soccer Stadium
FIFA code	ASA
First colors Second colors
FIFA ranking
Current	192 (10 December 2020)[2]
Highest	164 (October 2015)
Lowest	205 (May 2006)
First international
unofficial Western Samoa 3–1 American Samoa (Apia, Western Samoa; 20 August 1983) FIFA recognized Tonga 3–0 American Samoa (Rarotonga, Cook Islands; 2 September 1998)
Biggest win
unofficial American Samoa 3–0 Wallis and Futuna (Apia, Western Samoa; 22 August 1983) FIFA recognized American Samoa 2–0 Cook Islands (Apia, Samoa; 4 September 2015)
Biggest defeat
Australia 31–0 American Samoa (Coffs Harbour, Australia; 11 April 2001) (international record)

The American Samoa national football team (Samoan: Au soka Amerika Sāmoa) represents American Samoa in men's international football and is controlled by the Football Federation American Samoa, the governing body of the sport in the territory. American Samoa's home ground is the Pago Park Soccer Stadium in Pago Pago and their head coach is Tunoa Lui.^[4]

History

In 1983, American Samoa entered a football team in the South Pacific Games for the first time. The territory's unofficial first match took place in Apia, Western Samoa on 20 August 1983 and ended in a 2–0 defeat to Western Samoa. Two days later, the team recorded their first win with a 3–0 defeat of Wallis and Futuna however, they were eliminated from the competition at the group stage following a 3–2 loss to Tonga on 24 August.^[5][6][7]

The following year, the American Samoa Football Association (ASFA) was founded and took over responsibility for organising the territory's national team.^[8]

After competing in the 1987 South Pacific Games and the 1994 Polynesia Cup, ASFA became full members of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) allowing them to compete in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers for the first time.^[8] American Samoa registered their first FIFA-recognised international during the 1998 Polynesia Cup in Rarotonga, Cook Islands when they lost 3–0 to Tonga on 2 September.^[6][7][9]

During their first qualifying campaign for the 2002 FIFA World Cup in April 2001, American Samoa was involved in a match which set the record for the largest margin of victory in international football when they lost 31–0 to Australia.^[10] The outcome of the match led to debates about the format of qualification tournaments, with the Australian manager Frank Farina and striker Archie Thompson – who scored 13 times in the match – feeling that preliminary rounds should be introduced to avoid such unbalanced matches, views shared by the international footballing body FIFA. It eventually led to the introduction of a preliminary round in the Oceanian zone qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.^[11]

Since joining FIFA, the team has been regarded as one of the world's weakest teams^[12] and were, until November 2011, the joint-lowest ranked national team in the FIFA World ranking.^[13]

On 23 November 2011, American Samoa recorded their first FIFA-recognised win when they defeated Tonga 2–1 in the first round of qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It was also the team's first victory after 30 consecutive defeats.^[6][12][14]

The team's efforts to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup were chronicled in a 2014 British documentary, Next Goal Wins, directed by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison.^[15][16]

In October 2015, the territory achieved its highest position in the FIFA World Rankings when they reached 164th following back-to-back wins against Tonga and the Cook Islands in qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.^[6][17]

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

Following FIFA affiliation in 1998,^[8] American Samoa first entered the qualifying competition for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. They have entered the qualifiers for each subsequent edition but have never made it beyond the first stage. The closest they came to reaching the second phase was in qualifying for the 2018 edition when they won two of their three matches and narrowly missed out on progressing on goal difference.^[17]

Notes

OFC Nations Cup

Before becoming full members of OFC in 1998,^[8] American Samoa entered the 1994 Polynesia Cup which acted as the qualifying round for Polynesian national teams for the 1996 OFC Nations Cup. This was the territory's first time competing for a place in OFC's flagship competition for senior men's national teams.^[9]

The OFC Nations Cup has often acted as part of the FIFA World Cup qualification process for Oceanian national teams and, as a result, American Samoa have competed in the qualifiers for both competitions in every edition since 1998. They have yet to qualify for either competition.

Notes

Pacific Games

American Samoa first entered the South Pacific Games in 1983. This was the first time a team representing the territory had competed in association football and they recorded one win from their three games in the group stage by beating Wallis and Futuna 3–0 – the only time American Samoa have recorded a win in the competition – but that wasn't enough to progress to the next round.^[5] American Samoa would go onto enter the 1987 edition where they were again eliminated in the group stage, losing all four of their matches.^[25]

It would be another 20 years before they again entered the competition. The 2007 edition was the last known as the South Pacific Games before becoming the Pacific Games four years later and it was also part of the qualification process for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In their third appearance in the competition, American Samoa were again eliminated at the group stage, losing all four matches.^[20] The same fate befell American Samoa in the 2011 Pacific Games as they lost all five games to finish bottom of their group.^[26]

In 2015, the Pacific Games was an age-restricted tournament that doubled as the OFC Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament and no team representing American Samoa took part. Four years later, they were again eliminated at the group stage however, a 1–1 draw with Tuvalu ended a 32-year losing streak in the competition.^[27]

Notes

All-time record

Up to matches played on 18 July 2019.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	WPCT
Australia	1	0	0	1	0	31	−31	0.00
Cook Islands	4	1	1	2	6	8	−2	25.00
Fiji	4	0	0	4	0	39	−39	0.00
Guam	1	0	0	1	0	2	−2	0.00
New Caledonia	4	0	0	4	0	33	−33	0.00
Papua New Guinea	3	0	0	3	0	37	−37	0.00
Samoa[a]	10	0	0	10	5	44	−39	0.00
Solomon Islands	3	0	0	3	1	29	−28	0.00
Tahiti	4	0	0	4	2	40	−38	0.00
Tonga	9	2	0	7	10	28	−18	22.22
Tuvalu	2	0	1	1	1	5	−4	0.00
Vanuatu	4	0	0	4	1	39	−38	0.00
Wallis and Futuna	2	1	0	1	4	5	−1	50.00
Total	51	4	2	45	30	340	−310	7.84

Stadium

Pago Park Soccer Stadium in 2015.

American Samoa's home ground is the Pago Park Soccer Stadium in Pago Pago, however, the team has never played a home match in its history.^[6] The stadium featured in the highly-rated 2014 film Next Goal Wins and was used as the national team's training ground in the build-up to the 2011 Pacific Games and the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.^[28]

Current squad

The following players were called up for the 2019 Pacific Games from 7–20 July in Apia, Samoa.^[29]

Caps and goals updated as of 18 July 2019 after the game against Tahiti.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	GK	Nicky Salapu (captain)	13 September 1980	22	0	PanSa East FC
18	GK	Hengihengi Ikuvalu	2 December 2002	1	0	Pago Youth
2	DF	Takai Pouli	18 July 2000	4	0	Vaiala Tongan
3	DF	Jaiyah Saelua	19 July 1988	15	0	Lion Heart
4	DF	Ryan Samuelu	19 February 1991	9	0	Utulei Youth
5	DF	Ueli Tualaulelei	2 August 1999	5	0	Pago Youth
13	DF	Matthew Taga'i	28 March 2002	2	0	Ilaoa and To'omata
19	DF	Tuaki Latu	15 July 2000	2	0	Vaiala Tongan
20	DF	Uasila'a Heleta	27 February 1987	17	0	Lion Heart
6	MF	Kuresa Taga'i	4 August 2000	5	0	Ilaoa and To'omata
7	MF	Austin Kaleopa	24 November 2001	5	0	Utulei Youth
8	MF	Roy Ledoux	26 June 2000	5	0	Pago Youth
11	MF	Milo Tiatia	18 February 2002	5	0	Royal Puma
12	MF	Mark Taga'i	28 March 2002	2	0	Ilaoa and To'omata
15	MF	Chris Faamoana	2 August 2001	5	1	Vaiala Tongan
21	MF	Puni Samuelu	16 August 1996	4	0	Pago Youth
9	FW	Walter Pati	31 March 2002	5	1	Royal Puma
10	FW	MJ Faoa-Danielson	13 April 2000	3	0	Vaiala Tongan
14	FW	Palauni Tapusoa	1 February 1994	0	0	Utulei Youth
16	FW	Junior Teoni	6 February 2001	1	0
17	FW	King Moe	21 January 2002	1	0

Managers

• Anthony Langkilde (2001)
• Tunoa Lui (2001–02)
• Ian Crook (2004)
• Nathan Mease (2007)
• David Brand (2007–10)
• Iofi Lalogafuafua (2011)
• Thomas Rongen (2011)
• Larry Mana'o (2015)
• Tunoa Lui (2019)

See also

• American Samoa national under-23 football team
• American Samoa national under-20 football team
• American Samoa national under-17 football team
• American Samoa women's national football team
• American Samoa women's national under-17 football team

References

External links

• Official website