Australia 31-0 American Samoa
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Australia 31-0 American Samoa is the result of the world record match for the highest scoreline in an international football match. The game was held in Coffs Harbour Australia, April 11, 2001, between Australia and American Samoa. The match is recognized by Guinness book of records.
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[edit] Background
Australia was by far the best team in the oceanian zone. Australia is ranked 38th in the FIFA World ranking, and was ranked 31st in 1997. New Zealand was the only team in oceanian zone that was making a hard time for Australia. New Zealand was ranked 47th at its best. On the other hand, American Samoa was, and still is, one of weakest teams in the world, ranked 200th in the FIFA World ranking, and was never ranked higher than 192nd.
Australia were drawn to play against American Samoa in Group One of the 2002 World cup qualification for the oceanian zone (OFC), together with Tonga, Fiji and Samoa. Before the game, American Samoa played two matches, a 13-0 loss to Fiji and a 8-0 Samoa. Australia defeated Tonga 22-0 which was an easy win for Australia.
[edit] The match
Surprisingly, American Samoa held Australia scoreless for the first ten minutes of play, but then Con Boutsianis scored Australia's first goal of the match. In the 25th minute, David Zdrilic achieved a hat-trick, making the score 9-0 for Australia. Archie Thompson scored 6 of the next 7 goals as Australia led 16-0 at the half. Thompson led Australia in scoring with 8 goals at halftime, Zdrilic with 4, Tony Popovic with 2, Boutsianis and Aurelio Vidmar each scored one goal.
Boutsianis, who scored the first goal of the first half, scored the first goal of the second half, too, while Simon Colosimo and Fausto De Amicis added their first goals of the match, and Thompson scored his ninth to make it 20-0. Thompson and Zdrilic continued the onslaught adding 4 goals each to finish up the scoring.
At the end, with 13 goals to his name, Thompson equaled John Petrie's record for the most goals in a match. Petrie scored 13 goals when he was only 18 years old, part of a 36-0 win, the world record match for the highest score in a football match (national or international).
Thompson's 13 goals, together with Zdrilic's 8 goals, Boutsianis' 3 goals, 2 goals each for Aurelio Vidmar, Simon Colosimo and Tony Popovic, and Fausto De Amicis' single goal, broke the record for the highest scoreline in an international football match, 31-0.
[edit] Match details
| April 11, 2001 | Australia  |
31 – 0 |  American Samoa |
International Sports Stadium, Coffs Harbour Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Ronan Leaustic  Tahiti |
Boutsianis  10' 50' 84'Thompson 12' 23' 27' 29' 32' 37' 42' 45' 56' 60' 65' 85' 88'Zdrilic 13' 21' 25' 33' 58' 66' 78' 89'Vidmar 14' 80'Popovic 17' 19'Colosimo 51' 81'De Amicis 55' |
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[edit] After the match
Australia continued the qualifications with a minimal 2-0 win over Fiji and 11-0 win over Samoa. Australia finished with a +68 goal difference (an average of 17 goals scored in a game in the groups stage), without conceding a single goal. At the final round, Australia defeated New Zealand by the aggregate score of 6-1, but were subsequently defeated by Uruguay in the OFC/COMNEBOL playoff.
American Samoa lost the final groups stage match 5-0 to Tonga. American Samoa finished with a -58 goal difference (an average of 14.5 goals goals conceded in a game in the groups stage), without scoring a single goal in the qualifications.
