New World Rankings - great news for Samoa and American Samoa

The latest FIFA World Rankings have been released, and naturally they confirm the rise of Samoa and American Samoa from the foot of the ranking table after both recorded wins in the recent Oceania World Cup qualifying group.

Samoa’s ascent is quite stunning, leaping an incredible 55 places from equal 204^th and last place to now be ranked 149^th in the world.  And what is more they are now officially the second highest ranked team in Oceania behind New Zealand.  It’s incredible what winning a couple of games when hardly anyone else is playing can do for your ranking!

And as for American Samoa, never having won an official match before, or even drawn one frankly, their rise of 18 places up to 186^th is taking them into nose-bleed territory.  A quite magnificent achievement for a nation that has more often than not been firmly rooted to the bottom of the world rankings.

They have also climbed above both Papua New Guinea and Cook Islands (who they beat in November of course) to be ranked 9^th out of 10 in Oceania.  Heady days indeed.

This now leaves us with just 3 teams remaining as official Worst in the World; Andorra, San Marino and Montserrat.

San Marino's World Cup Qualifying Fixtures

Back on the fixtures front, most of the European qualifying group fixtures have been announced, including San Marino’s fixtures in Group H, which are as follows:

11th September 2012: San Marino v. Montenegro
12th October 2012: England v. San Marino
16th October 2012: San Marino v. Moldova
14th November 2012: Montenegro v. San Marino
22nd March 2013: San Marino v. England
26th March 2013: Poland v. San Marino
6th September 2013: Ukraine v. San Marino
10th September 2013: San Marino v. Poland
11th October 2013: Moldova v. San Marino
15th October 2013: San Marino v. Ukraine

A Blank December

After the major drama of the November fixtures for our World’s Worst down in the South Pacific, December will be distinctly underwhelming from a fixtures point of view.

To put it bluntly, none of our teams are currently scheduled to see any action this month.

What will happen later this month though is that Samoa and American Samoa will be officially no longer World’s Worst when the next FIFA rankings come out. Exciting stuff I’m sure you’ll agree.

Samoa win through: Samoa 1 American Samoa 0

Samoa won the battle of the two Samoas, and also the Oceania World Cup Round One group, with a last minute Silao Malo goal to win 1-0.

It was also of course an almost unprecedented meeting of two current bottom ranked nations, although both had done plenty in their previous two matches to ensure neither of them are bottom any more.

American Samoa did have a golden opportunity of their own in a amatch they needed to win in order to progress, when Diamond Ott broke through but his shot came off the post.

More Samoan Joy - Samoa 1 Tonga 1

Samoa 1 - 1 Tonga

24^th November 2011

J.S. Blatter Stadium, Apia, Samoa
Oceania World Cup Qualifying Round 1

 
Samoa still top the Oceania Round One group after a 1-1 draw with Tonga which has eliminated their opponents and the Cook Islands and set up a humdinger of a final match against American Samoa to decide qualification to the next round.

Perhaps they will feel they should have won this one after Tonga equalised late on from Lokoua Taufahema, in a similar story to Samoa's first match with the Cook Islands.  That time Samoa grabbed a dramatic late winner, but it wasn't to be today.

More Success! - American Samoa 1 Cook Islands 1

American Samoa 1 - 1 Cook Islands

24^th November 2011
J.S. Blatter Stadium, Apia, Samoa
Oceania World Cup Qualifying Round 1

 

After the historic first ever win a couple of days ago, American Samoa have followed that up with a 1-1 draw against Cook Islands.

Shalom Luani scored for the second match in succession during the first half to give American Samoa the lead, but sadly an own goal after an hour from Tala Luvu brought Cook Islands level.

This unprecedented success of 2 games unbeaten means that American Samoa have astonishingly put themselves in a position to win the qualifying group and progress to the bext stage of Oceania World Cup Qualifying.  Staggering stuff.

New FIFA Rankings

The latest FIFA World Rankings were released today, and thanks to the vagaries of international time zones, this was all updated prior to the results of the Oceania World Cup wins for American Samoa and Samoa.  The significance of that?  Their wins aren’t yet reflected in the rankings, and they both remain firmly rooted to the bottom.

The two Samoas can of course look forward to the guarantee of climbing the rankings next month thanks to their respective wins yesterday.

Another win for a World's Worst: Samoa 3 Cook Islands 2

Samoa 3-2 Cook Islands

22^nd November 2011
J.S. Blatter Stadium, Apia, Samoa
Oceania World Cup Qualifying Round 1

Samoa may not have been at the foot of the world rankings for anything like as long as American Samoa have, but at the foot they currently are.  That will soon be changing thanks to an incredible day of World’s Worst action in Apia, Samoa.

Following on from American Samoa’s historic win over Tonga, Samoa grabbed a dramatic last gasp victory over the Cook Islands to win 3-2 and top the Oceania World Cup qualifying table after the first round of matches.

An Historic Win! - American Samoa 2 Tonga 1

American Samoa 2–1 Tonga

22^nd November 2011

J.S. Blatter Stadium, Apia, Samoa

Oceania World Cup Qualifying Round 1

American Samoa, long- standing (joint) World’s Worst nation and without a win or even a draw in their entire FIFA affiliated history finally broke their duck last night after 30 consecutive losses with a truly historic win over Tonga.

The Samoans took the lead just before half-time thanks to a long range shot from Ramin Ott, and doubled it midway through the second half when Shalom Luani chipped the Tongan keeper.

World's Worst Big Match Preview: Oceania Match Day 1

Tuesday 22^nd November is a big day of Worst in the World action as two of our basement dwellers are in action in the South Pacific.

It’s the first day of the Oceania zone World Cup Qualification first round group with 4 teams battling it out in Apia, Samoa, at the horrendously named J.S. Blatter Stadium. 

The hosts, and their near neighbours and fellow Worst in the World, American Samoa take on Tonga, Cook Islands and each other in a four way tussle for the one qualifying place in the next round, to take place in Fiji in June next year.

Oceania World Cup Qualifying: Samoa

The second of our Worst in the World taking part in the Oceania World Cup round one group next week, and indeed hosting it, is Samoa – not to be confused with American Samoa who we looked at last time.

Samoa have only recently sunk to the murky depths of the foot of the world rankings, and have so far clocked up only 2 months in that position thanks to results from a few years ago disappearing from the rankings reckoning. 

However, they will be fancying their chances in this tournament with a strong chance of progressing through the group to reach the next stage of qualification, and of course with a very good chance of hauling themselves off the foot of the world rankings and stepping out of our radar for a while at least.

Oceania World Cup Qualifying: American Samoa

Ahead of the Oceania World Cup qualifying group later this month in Apia, Samoa, featuring not just one but two of our reigning Worst in the World, we’ll take a look at the nations hogging our attention in the tournament.

Today the focus is on American Samoa, long-standing Worst in the World regulars who have taken basement dwelling to new heights depths along with their Caribbean cousins from the island of Montserrat.

American Samoa sit second only to Montserrat on our all-time worst table, and their current run at the foot of the world rankings now stands at 58 months, dating back to January 2007.  With the next FIFA rankings coming out ahead of these fixtures it will be 59 months and counting by then.

What of course stands in the way of any upward progress for our intrepid islanders is that they very rarely play any matches, and when they do they are beaten, never a recipe for success.  Indeed since joining FIFA in 1998 they have never won a FIFA sanctioned match.  Not only that but they’ve never drawn one either, and it’s rare that they even score a goal.  A remarkable achievement I’m sure everyone will agree.

World's Worst Archives - The day Montserrat opened the World Cup!

Sporting glory days don't include Montserrat too often, but earlier this year our record breaking long serving worst in the world nation had the honour of playing in the very first match of the qualifying competition for the 2014 World Cup, against the relative super power of Belize.  What, you didn't think I meant the Finals did you?

Unfortunately for our volcanic island friends they couldn't actually host the match themselves since Montserrat is without a stadium of suitable quality and so both teams had to troop on down to Port of Spain, Trinidad to a near empty Ato Boldon Stadium on June 15th for this first leg match in the CONCACAF qualifying first round.

This is a whole two rounds before the might of Mexico and the USA enter the competition, and basically consists of the real minnows of CONCACAF football - a group we have particular interest in of course.

Dealings Down Under

The first round of the Oceania World Cup Qualification gets under way in Apia, Samoa in late November, and this gives two of our teams the chance to climb off the foot of the world rankings table, with no other action scheduled for our World’s Worst this month.

Indeed one of them at least will have to climb off the bottom since Samoa and American Samoa will face each other on 26^th November.  An unrelated but nonetheless interesting fact about the two Samoas is that while they currently both sit in the far west of the world, Samoa plan to switch to the far east at the end of the year by moving the international date line thus being on the same day as New Zealand.  This would leave American Samoa, only a few miles across the water, being a day ahead of its near neighbour.

But who will be ahead on the football field (nice link there I thought)?  A draw would see both teams rise from the foot of the world rankings, and a win for either would obviously move them up the table.