The American Samoa men's national football team () represents American Samoa in men's international association football and is controlled by the Football Federation American Samoa, the governing body of the sport in the territory. American Samoa's home ground is the Pago Park Soccer Stadium in Pago Pago.
History
Early history In 1983, American Samoa entered a football team in the South Pacific Games for the first time. The territory's official first match took place in Apia, Western Samoa on August 20, 1983, and ended in a 3–1 defeat to Western Samoa. Two days later, the team recorded their first win with a 3–0 victory against Wallis & Futuna however, they were eliminated from the competition at the group stage following a 3–2 loss to Tonga on August 24.
The following year, the American Samoa Football Association (ASFA) – now known as Football Federation American Samoa (FFAS) – was founded and took over responsibility for organizing the territory's national team.
After competing in the 1987 South Pacific Games and the 1994 Polynesia Cup, ASFA became full members of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) allowing them to compete in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers for the first time. American Samoa registered their first FIFA-recognized international during the 1998 Polynesia Cup in Rarotonga, Cook Islands when they lost 3–0 to Tonga on September 2.
World record for the worst loss in international matches During their first qualifying campaign for the 2002 FIFA World Cup in April 2001, American Samoa was involved in a match which set the record for the largest margin of victory in international football when they lost 31–0 to Australia. The outcome of the match led to debates about the format of qualification tournaments, with the Australian manager Frank Farina and striker Archie Thompson – who scored 13 times in the match – feeling that preliminary rounds should be introduced to avoid such unbalanced matches, views shared by the international footballing body FIFA. It eventually led to the introduction of a preliminary round in the Oceanian zone qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Stagnation Since joining FIFA, the team has been regarded as one of the world's weakest teams and were, until November 2011, the joint-lowest ranked national team in the FIFA World ranking.
On November 23, 2011, American Samoa recorded their second and first FIFA-recognized win when they defeated Tonga 2–1 in the first round of qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It was also the team's 1st victory after 38 consecutive defeats.
The team's efforts to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup were chronicled in a 2014 British documentary, Next Goal Wins, directed by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison. In October 2015, the territory achieved its highest position in the FIFA World Rankings when they reached 164th following back-to-back wins against Tonga and the Cook Islands in qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
After playing in the 2019 Pacific Games, the team went over four years without playing an international match. This hiatus was caused in part by the COVID-19 pandemic which forced the cancellation of the 2020 OFC Nations Cup and led the team to withdraw from 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification. American Samoa was removed from the FIFA World Rankings in July 2023, due to going 5 years without playing an official match. American Samoa finally competed again at the 2023 Pacific Games.
Player pool American Samoa has struggled in part because of its small player pool. The territory has a small population, and many potential players move away for education or work or choose to play other sports such as baseball. Another limiting factor is that international competition regulations often require that players hold the nationality of the country that they represent, which in the case of American Samoa is United States nationality. Although people born in American Samoa are United States nationals,, , . foreign nationals who immigrate to American Samoa, who comprise about a third of its population, are ineligible to apply for United States nationality. An option for the team would be to recruit players from the United States, as other teams of Pacific territories have done with their parent countries, such as Tahiti drawing players from Metropolitan France.
2026 FIFA Series The men's competition of the 2026 FIFA Series was split into nine different sections hosted across eight countries. In November 2025, FIFA announced that Puerto Rico would host one such section in Bayamón, in which Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa would also compete. The Puerto Rican section of the tournament was held in a four-match format (semi-finals, third-place match and final) in late March 2026. American Samoa finished fourth and last in the section after losing against the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam in the semi-final and third-place match, respectively.
Team image
Home stadium
American Samoa's home ground is the Pago Park Soccer Stadium, however American Samoa have never played there in their history at senior level. The stadium featured in the 2023 film Next Goal Wins and was used as the national team's training ground in the build-up to the 2011 Pacific Games and the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Matches at the stadium must be concluded before 6:30pm because of a village curfew which limits noise and prevents the installation of floodlights. For this reason, the association began planning to build a new facility in Tafuna in 2023. FIFA president Gianni Infantino promised the association $5 million for the project during his visit around Oceania in summer of that year.
Results and fixtures
2026
Coaching staff
Position Name Head coach Diego Gómez Coach Sergio Torán Analyst Sergio Redondo Athletic trainer David Viton Fitness coach David Viton Goalkeeper coach Nicky Salapu
Coaching history
Tiwo Kummings (2000) Anthony Langkilde (2001) Tunoa Lui (2001–2002) Ian Crook (2004) Nathan Mease (2007) David Brand (2007–2010) Iofi Lalogafuafua (2011) Thomas Rongen (2011) Larry Mana'o (2015–2019) Tunoa Lui (2019–2023) Ruben Luvu (2023–2024) David Jones (2024) Thomas Rongen (2024) Shani Simpson (2024) Diego Gómez (2026–)
Players Current squad The following players were called up for the 2026 FIFA Series.
Caps and goals updated as of 9 April 2026, after the game against the Guam.
Player records Goalkeeper Nicky Salapu holds the record for the most appearances for American Samoa. Since his debut against Fiji on April 7, 2001, he has made 24 appearances for the national team – including the world record defeat to Australia and American Samoa's first FIFA-recognized victory against Tonga in November 2011. Ramin Ott holds the record for most goals for American Samoa after scoring three times in 15 appearances between 2004 and 2015. In total, 10 different players have scored a goal in a FIFA-recognized match for American Samoa.
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Most appearances
RankNameCapsGoalsPosition1Nicky Salapu240GK2001–20242Uasi Heleta160DF2004–20193Ramin Ott153FW2004–20154Jaiyah Saelua140DF2004–20195Travis Pita Sinapati120DF2001–20076Roy Ledoux90DF2018–presentJustin Mana'o92MF2011–presentNatia Natia91MF2004–20119Austin Kaleopa80MF2019–presentMaika Molesi80DF2004–2007Ryan Samuelu80DF2015–2019Pesamino Victor80DF2007–2011
Youngest player Jaiyah Saelua – 15 years 300 days vs. Fiji on 15 May 2004
Oldest player Nicky Salapu – 43 years 359 days vs. Samoa on 6 September 2024
Top goalscorers RankNameGoalsCapsAverage1Ali'i Mitchell472015–present2Ramin Ott3152004–20153Demetrius Beauchamp252015–presentJustin Mana'o292011–presentShalom Luani282011
First goal Duane Atuelevao – 12 March 2002 vs. Tonga
Most goals in a match Demetrius Beauchamp – 2 vs. Samoa on 31 August 2015 Ali'i Mitchell – 2 vs. United States Virgin Islands on 25 March 2026
Team records Biggest victory: 3–0 vs. Wallis and Futuna on 22 August 1983 Heaviest defeat: 0–31 vs. Australia on 11 April 2001 Most consecutive victories: 2; achieved September 2015 Most consecutive matches without defeats: 2; achieved November 2011 and September 2015 Most consecutive matches without victory: 37 between 24 August 1983 and 5 September 2011 Most consecutive matches without scoring: 7 between 27 August 2007 and 5 September 2011
Competitive record FIFA World Cup Following FIFA affiliation in 1998, American Samoa first entered the qualifying competition for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. They have entered the qualifiers for each subsequent edition but have never made it beyond the first stage. The closest they came to reaching the second phase was in qualifying for the 2018 edition when they won two of their three matches and narrowly missed out on progressing on goal difference.
FIFA World CupQualificationYearHostRoundSource1930 to 1998colspan=7colspan=82002colspan=7 rowspan=5Group – 5th40040572006First round group – 5th40041342010First round group – 5th40041382014First round group – 3rd3111332018First round group – 2nd3201642022colspan=7 colspan=8 2026colspan=7 First round10010220302034Total00000019311511138—
Notes
OFC Nations Cup Before becoming full members of OFC in 1998, American Samoa entered the 1994 Polynesia Cup which acted as the qualifying round for Polynesian national teams for the 1996 OFC Nations Cup. This was the territory's first time competing for a place in OFC's flagship competition for senior men's national teams.
The OFC Men's Nations Cup has often acted as part of the FIFA World Cup qualification process for Oceanian national teams and, as a result, American Samoa have competed in the qualifiers for both competitions in every edition since 1998. They have yet to qualify for either competition.
Oceania Cup / OFC Nations CupQualification recordYearHostRoundSource1973colspan=7 rowspan=2colspan=8 rowspan=219801996colspan=7 rowspan=84th30033719985th400432320005th400422920025th400422920045th400413420085th400413820123rd31113320162nd3201642024 colspan=7colspan=8Total000000 29312521167—
Notes
Pacific Games American Samoa first entered the South Pacific Games in 1983. This was the first time a team representing the territory had competed in association football and they recorded one win from their three games in the group stage by beating Wallis and Futuna 3–0 – the only time American Samoa have recorded a win in the competition – but that wasn't enough to progress to the next round. American Samoa would go onto enter the 1987 edition where they were again eliminated in the group stage, losing all four of their matches.
It would be another 20 years before they again entered the competition. The 2007 edition was the last known as the South Pacific Games before becoming the Pacific Games four years later and it was also part of the qualification process for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In their third appearance in the competition, American Samoa were again eliminated at the group stage, losing all four matches. The same fate befell American Samoa in the 2011 Pacific Games as they lost all five games to finish bottom of their group.
In 2015, the Pacific Games was an age-restricted tournament that doubled as the OFC Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament and no team representing American Samoa took part. Four years later, they were again eliminated at the group stage however, a 1–1 draw with Tuvalu ended a 32-year losing streak in the competition.
Pacific GamesYearHostRoundSource1963 to 1979colspan=81983Group stage310266198740041421991 to 2003colspan=82007Group stage4004138201150050262015colspan=82019Group stage501423620234004231Total25112312179
Notes
Records and statistics