Samoans lose 31-0 - or was it 32-0?

Take the worst football team in the world, ban 19 of their squad for having the wrong passports, stop under-20s from deputising because of school exams and watch the records tumble.

Australia's 31-0 defeat of American Samoa yesterday smashed their own world record for the most goals in an international, set only 48 hours earlier by the Socceroos in thumping Tonga 22-0.

Yesterday Archie Thompson, 22, a New Zealander with a Papua New Guinean mother, scored 13 goals for Australia - another world record.

Yet both Australia's and Thompson's tallies yesterday may be even greater. With the ball entering the Samoans' net roughly every three minutes, the scoreboard operator at Coffs Harbour is believed to have flashed up one extra goal by mistake in the dying minutes.

Some observers thought the Socceroos had won 32-0, with Thompson striking 14 goals. But in view of the scoreboard error, Fifa announced last night that it "will only confirm the final official score when the various reports from the referee and the match commissioner have been received and checked".

American Samoa, representing a United States territory of five volcanic islands and 65,000 people in the South Pacific, boast only one international win in their history and are officially the world's worst team, ranked 203rd by Fifa.

Their World Cup Oceania group campaign was doomed from the start when Fifa ruled that their players must have US passports. The only member of their first-team squad cleared was the goalkeeper Nicky Salapu, who has now conceded 52 goals in their past three qualifying matches.

A 16-strong squad of US passport holders was scraped together, including two 15-year-olds and with an average age of 19. Their coach Tunoa Lui revealed his team of evangelical Christians prayed for divine intervention before this week's qualifiers at Coffs Harbour, 350 miles north of Sydney.

"We are here to learn. We have had a lot of problems but we don't give up," he said before yesterday's defeat. "We are asking the Lord to help keep the score down."

Although they had lost 13-0 to Fiji and 8-0 to Samoa here, their youngsters had until yesterday avoided a repeat of their previous record defeat, 18-0 away to Tahiti last June.

At 29-0 down to Australia by the 86th minute, they rallied briefly when Pati Feagiai shot weakly at Australia's goalkeeper Michael Petkovic.

Australia were 16-0 up at half-time, despite not calling up up stars like Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell of Leeds, and resting Coventry's John Aloisi after his six goals against Tonga.

Thompson's goals - whether 13 or 14 - saw him surpass Denmark's Sofus Nielsen and Germany's Gottfried Fuchs, who had each scored 10 in a game, Nielsen in the 1908 Olympics against France and Fuchs against Russia at the 1912 games.

The Marconi Stallions striker knocked down his achievement. "Breaking the world record is a dream come true," said Thompson, "but you have to look at the teams we're playing and ask questions. We don't need to play these games. It's really a waste of time.

"Their players were laughing at the end. There wasn't much more they could do. I think their one attack consisted of getting over the halfway line."

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