Vanuatu Beat 'Worst Team Ever' Micronesia 46-0 And Were Still Knocked Out Of Tournament
Vanuatu had to win by 38 goals and did more than that, yet still ended up getting eliminated.
On 7 July 2015, Vanuatu set an unofficial record for the biggest win in an international football match when they scored 46 goals past Micronesia without reply.
The high-scoring fixture took place in Papua New Guinea as part of the Pacific Games, an under 23 tournament.
Micronesia, who could only fill an 18-man squad instead of 23, were beaten 30-0 by Tahiti in their opening fixture, before Fiji inflicted more humiliation and battered than 38-0.
Their goals conceded tally ended up on 114 in 270 minutes of action after the 46-0 blitzing in the final group game, where Jean Kaltak scored 16 times.
The highlights of the most one-sided game in football history are something else. With defending and goalkeeping virtually non-existent, Vanuatu rained goals and kept hurrying back to the halfway line for the restart.
Vanuatu were leading 22-0 at half-time and scored a further 24 in the second half. Going into the game, they needed to win by at least 38 goals to reach the semi-final and were leading 38-0 with 66 minutes on the clock.
But the result was irrelevant in terms of Vanuatu's progress because Tahiti and Fiji drew 0-0 shortly afterwards and that led to the 200th ranked side finishing in third place with four points and goal difference of +45.
They had lost 2-1 to Tahiti and drew 2-2 with Fiji. However, Tahiti not being a member of the IOC meant Vanuatu did secure passage to the Olympic play-off semi-finals, where they ended up beating New Zealand 3-0 after the All Whites fielded an ineligible player.
The game has become a hot topic on the r/soccer section on Reddit recently and it was uncovered, via the national team's Wikipedia page, that a number of Micronesia players had never actually played 11-a-side football before prior to the Pacific Games.
They also never left their village or used an elevator so were stepping out of their comfort zone in a huge way.
Although they were branded "the worst side ever", the team, managed by Australian Stan Foster, received a heroes welcome upon their return.
Apparently, many of the outfield players told their coach they wanted to become goalkeepers because they liked the reaction the person in between in the sticks received when they made a save.
With Micronesia not officially registered with FIFA, the official world record football result remains Australia's 31-0 win over American Samoa in 2001.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: micronesia, Vanuatu, Pacific Games
Josh Lawless