Nicky Salapu can count to 57 or How the players of American Samoa lost every game but really won
Coffs Harbour, Australia, April 2001
Nicky Salapu picked the ball from his net 57 times during his country’s four World Cup qualifiers over Easter, 2001, but then he is the goalkeeper for American Samoa, officially the worst national team in the world.
For Oceania’s qualifying competition for the 2002 World Cup, Group One was a mini-tournament of inglorious world records. All games were played in Coffs Harbour, a vacation resort on the northern New South Wales coast, a long, long, drive north from Sydney. The games were hard work for most of the competing nations. Ironically for the Australian team, the tournament was a holiday at home.
Australia’s Archie Thompson scored 13 of the record 31 goals the Socceroos racked up against American Samoa. That scoreline broke the record set one game earlier — when Australia beat Tonga 22–0. Australia topped their group with a goal difference of plus-66.
The scores made headlines around the world. Thompson became an international star for 24 hours while coaches, officials, and the media ridiculed Oceania’s credibility as a serious football region.
Two nights after shot after shot after shot whistled past his ears, I sat with Salapu in his…
