And that’s probably a good thing, because I don’t believe they make numbers high enough to properly illustrate just how bad the Micronesia soccer team is.
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“I just wanted the guys to keep fighting all the way through the game so they knew that when they came off they tried their hardest”, he added on the Pacific Games’ website. And before you pile on the Fiji players for being big unsportsmanlike meanies: Fiji needed to win by at least 31 for potential goal differential tiebreaker purposes, as Tahiti defeated Micronesia 30-0.
With the brutal punishment inflicted on them by Fiji, Micronesia handily beat the long-standing club soccer record of Arbroath 36-0 Bon Accord, set in 1885. The Pacific Games doubles up as a qualifying contest for the Olympic Games and features Under-23 teams.
Despite their disastrous campaign, coach Stan Foster was buoyed by the news that Micronesia will be allowed to compete at the next Pacific Games in Nukuʻalofa, Tonga.
Combined with a 30-0 defeat to Tahiti in their opening match, Micronesia conceded a total of 114 goals in the tournament and scored none.
“I took them to Guam the other day and it was the first time they’ve been on an elevator or an escalator”.
In defense of the Micronesian players, majority had never even been in an 11-on-11 match before or played in anything resembling a real, competitive game. They’ve just been beaten 46-0 by Vanuatu.
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Organisers labelled it the biggest win in worldwide football history, although it was unlikely to go in the record books, with Micronesia not being Federation Internationale de Football Association members and it being an under-23 tournament.
