Thor director Taika Waititi has an unusual upcoming project. He will be bringing the
American Samoa national football team to Hollywood.
The so far untitled film is based on the 2014 British documentary Next Goal Wins, which
followed American Samoa as it attempted to win its first game since joining FIFA in 1998.
The story centred on the Quixotic campaign to qualify for the 2014 World Cup finals,
despite being ranked the worst team in the world by FIFA and having lost all 29 of their
previous matches.
In those games they conceded 236 goals, including 31 against Australia in a single match in
2001. That result – 31-0 – remains a world record in international football. There seemed
little chance that American Samoa would even score a goal let alone win a game when they
arrived in Apia, Samoa, in December 2011 to play the Oceania Football Confederation's
four team, round robin, preliminary tournament for Brazil 2014 alongside Samoa, the Cook
Islands and Tonga. But what followed would make headlines around the world.
The story really started in Coffs Harbour, on the east coast of Australia in April, 2001.
OFC qualification for the 2002 World Cup was about to begin with a bang. Australia, by
far the strongest team in the five team group, opened with a 22-0 victory over Tonga, a new
World Record that eclipsed Kuwait's 20-0 victory over Bhutan two years previously. Kevin Muscat
scored four, John Aloisi five.
Australia's next game was against an American Samoa side who had just lost to Fiji 13-0
after an administrative mix up. American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United
States with a population of under 60,000. Although it doesn't enjoy the same privileges
and rights as US states, it is still considered part of the US. But it turned out that most
of American Samoa's squad were not eligible because they were Samoan citizens, a sovereign
nation next door with whom American Samoa shares strong cultural links. Almost the entire
squad had to be replaced by youth players, some as young as 15. The one player who kept
his place was the goalkeeper Nicky Salapu.
For the first ten minutes Nicky Salapu played a blinder. But once Con Boutsianis scored
the first, the flood gates opened. When the full time whistle was blown the scoreboard
read 32-0. Archie Thompson had finished with 13 goals, David Zdrilic, eight. After the
game the demoralised American Samoa coach Tunoa Lui was left to grapple with the meaning
it of it all.
“I couldn't see any reason why they would want to score so many goals,” he said.
The story quickly made American Samoa famous, an “and finally” segment on the evening
news where everyone laughed at the hapless underdog. But there would be ramifications.
The tournament forced FIFA to introduce preliminary qualifying to stop such mismatched results
and Australia used the experience to persuade FIFA that they should join the much stronger
Asian Football Confederation instead. For the American Samoa team there would be deeper
consequences.
That 31-0 defeat is the starting point of Next Goal Wins. The opening credits roll with
a slightly grainy video of Australia scoring again and again and again before focusing
in on the prostrate figure of Nicky Salapu.
Almost ten years later things had not got much better for American Samoa. They still
hadn't won, so no one was expecting much when they turned up in Samoa in 2011. Amazingly,
Nicky Salapu was still playing in goal. They were still bottom of FIFA's rankings but they
had a secret weapon.
Enter Thomas Rongen, a tough talking Dutchman who chain smoked filter-less Camels and had
enjoyed success as coach of the US under 20 team. The US federation lent Rongen to the
American Samoa FA. He discovered a team that was in bad shape. “The soccer IQ is low,
lower than I ever encountered,” he said. “Diet and nutrition is poor. You won't believe
the fast food places, people just shoving it down their throats.”
For Rongen the biggest problem was psychological. The players had known nothing but crushing
defeat. Salapu, he said, “has some major demons going on” from that 31-0 defeat.
Indeed, whilst the world laughed, Salapu went back to his day job working in a Safeways
in Seattle where he would be teased about his performance.
His son, too, would be taunted at school. One coping mechanism he designed was to set
up an Australia versus Samoa match on FIFA, on his Xbox (American Samoa wasn't on there).
He would play as Samoa, unplug the second controller and run up a 50-0 scoreline.
So Rongen embarked on a month long, sometimes fiery, crash course in knocking his players
into shape. He also discovered, in his own words, that “essentially, I have a female
starting at centre back.” Jaiyah Saelua was about to become the first transgender
woman to play in a men's World Cup qualification match. She was the member of the fa'faina,
a recognised third sex in Polynesian culture.
No one expected what happened next. At the JS Blatter Complex, a few dozen fans had come
to watch American Samoa play Tonga. Rongen prowled the sidelines, directing his players
to do exactly what he told them to do. And then, for the first time since being recognised
by FIFA, they took the lead in a match thanks to striker Ramin Ott. With 15 minutes left
they went 2-0 up after Shalom Luani poked the ball home before being wiped out by Tonga's
goalkeeper.
A late Tonga goal ruined the chance of Salapu's first ever clean sheet, but American Samoa
held on for their first every victory. Salapu broke down in tears as the rest of the squad
ran on to the pitch. No one really knew how to celebrate because they'd never won before.
So the team performed the Siva Tau, the Samoan version of the Haka. Jaiyah Saelua was man
of the match.
But then something strange happened. American Samoa began to believe. The next game was
against a Cook Island team in turmoil. The FA sacked their Kiwi coach minutes before
before kick off. American Samoa dominated the game but only managed a 1-1 draw. Rongen
was furious afterwards but still believed they could win the tournament. The stage was
set for the decider against Samoa, who were coached by Tunoa Lui, who had been in charge
of American Samoa during that fateful 31-0 defeat.
Whoever won qualified for the next round.
Rongen gave an emotional speech and sent his team out full of confidence. Midway through
the second half it was still 0-0 and Rongen played his trump card, throwing on striker
Tala Luvu. They were going for it.
Time seemed to stop when, with just a few minutes left, Luvu chased a ball over the
top. He was one-on-one with the Samoa goalkeeper. It looked like his shot was going in. The
ball bobbled and swerved and hit the post and bounced out. Samoa rushed up the field
and scored in the 90th minute. The game finished 1-0. American Samoa had lost. At the final
whistle a tropical storm hit. As the rain beat down, Rongen gave his final emotional
speech. There were tears and one final haka. They had lost, but their story already had
a Hollywood ending.
Rongen would go back to the US as the academy director of Toronto FC, then as the coach
of the Tampa Bay Rowdies before going into TV punditry. Shalom Luani, who scored the
winning goal against Tonga, would end up in American Football and was a seventh round
draft pick for the Oakland Raiders in 2017. Jaiyah Saelua held out hopes of making the
squad for 2018 World Cup qualification but she was cut at the last moment. The team would
win two games but would again fall agonisingly short of reaching the next round.
Their story will now be told by Taika Waititi. There had long been rumours that a film was
to be made. The Rock was allegedly suggested for the role of Thomas Rongen. Although it
now looks like Michael Fassbender will play the garrulous Dutchman. But the Hollywood
remake shows just how powerful American Samoa's story is and how much we love the underdog.
They had spent their entire playing careers losing. They had been mocked and jeered. But
those few days in Samoa in 2011 said something more, about success, the love of football
and the indomitable nature of the human spirit. The losers won.