American Samoa have suffered their second FIFA Series™ defeat in Puerto Rico, losing 6-0 to Guam at the Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium in Bayamón.
Having made history by playing their first game outside of Oceania just three days earlier, American Samoa struggled for a foothold in the contest, conceding four of the six goals in the first half.
Their very first international opponent outside of OFC had previously been Guam at the Pacific Games in 2011, and they reunited with Oceania’s northern neighbours again here in Puerto Rico 15 years later.
Just like in their previous FIFA Series match against the US Virgin Islands though, American Samoa were caught cold at the start, conceding twice inside the first 13 minutes, as Guam sailed into a commanding early lead.
The scorer of their two goals in that previous match (American Samoa’s first two goals against an opponent from outside of Oceania), Ali’i Mitchell, got the scoring underway in this one – except that he put the ball in the back of his own net inside the first three minutes, handing Guam an early lead.
17-year-old Levi Berg added the second in the 13th minute and third in the 35th minute, beating goalkeeper Nicholas Tuiasosopo twice from one-on-one situations for his first two senior international goals.
Elijah Ochoa rounded out the first-half scoring in the 39th minute with his first international goal too, as Guam took a four-goal lead to the break.
New head coach Diego Gomez instructed his American Samoa players to press higher in his second match in charge, stemming the flow of goals in the second half.
They struggled to get Mitchell into space up top though, and Guam added two more goals through Alec Taitague in the 57th minute and Diego Gomez in the 86th to round out a comprehensive victory.
One highlight was the introduction of 17-year-old Dylan Salapu – the son of all-time appearance holder and current goalkeeper coach Nicky Salapu – for his international debut off the bench late on.
Whilst American Samoa depart Puerto Rico with two defeats from the first two matches of Diego Gomez’s reign in charge as head coach, the FIFA Series™ has given them the opportunity to play outside of Oceania for the first time and provided valuable learnings for future campaigns.
American Samoa: 0
Guam: 6 (Own Goal 3’, Levi BERG 13’, 35’, Elijah OCHOA 39’, Alec TAITAGUE 57’, Diego GOMEZ 86′)
HT: 0-4
Photo credit: FIFA via Getty Images