team US under-17 women beat Samoa 17-0 for biggest win in World Cup history

The United States began their U-17 Women’s World Cup campaign on Monday with a record-setting 17-0 win over Samoa the biggest win at any age level in World Cup history.

The result surpassed the previous record for margin at an 11-a-side World Cup, a 16-0 win by Morocco against New Caledonia in the 2025 U-17 men’s World Cup. Ten players scored for the US, and forward Maddie DiMaria led with six goals in Salé, Morocco.

“I wasn’t aware [we were breaking a record], but I’m super proud of this group and it’s nice that they have something like that behind their name,” US coach Ciara Crinion told Fifa’s website.

DiMaria, a 17-year-old high-schooler from St Louis who is committed to play in college at North Carolina, scored her first goal 63 minutes into the match. It was the most goals by a US player ever in any match and the most by any player in a Women’s World Cup match at any level.

Everybody should knock off the snarking and give a nod to Samoa. This is the U-17 Women’s World Cup. The tournament is run by FIFA.

FIFA isn’t going to tell any country that it can’t play soccer; obviously FIFA wants to encourage everyone who wants to play to lace on the cleats and go out and play. If you play seriously, you should be able to compete at least for a shot at the big dance. So the question becomes whether you can qualify for the 24 team field for the U-17 tournament.

Teams qualify through regional confederations. Samoa plays in OFC (Oceana), which is a very hollow region consisting of New Zealand and a bunch of the tiny island archipeligo nations. This time around, Samoa beat out Tahiti, the Cook Islands, Tonga, etc. for the second OFC slot opposite New Zealand, which has a virtual bye into the World Cup field because no one else in Oceana is remotely competitive.

The U.S. plays into the FIFA World Cup through CONCACAF, which is also a notoriously weak confederation consisting of the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean and Central American countries. This is why the U.S. World Cup teams are always playing Haiti, Jamaica, T&T, etc. in qualifiers. Of course, the U.S. Men’s Team often struggles to qualify while the U.S. and Canadian Women’s Teams generally steamroller their way through. It’s almost as automatic as New Zealand in OFC. Once in awhile, Costa Rica or Mexico puts up a stiff challenge and hats off when they do.

Europe is by far the toughest region. Asia has come a long way and is now consistently good. Africa broke out bigly in the last Men’s World Cup and could turn into a powerhouse as African countries slowly get their acts together.

The thing is, it’s uneven in the qualifying stage, and some noncompetitinve teams are going to win a spot in group play in any World Cup tournament. Once in awhile, one of the micro countries might spring an upset, and then we all laugh and start rooting for the underdog until they get crushed in their next group play games.

For the micro countries, it’s just qualying for the big dance that’s the goal. They know they don’t have a snowball’s chance in the hot place. But they get to take a shot.

17-0 is brutal, but what was the U.S. coach supposed to do? Tell his girls not to play hard? For most of the U-17 girls, this would be their first— and for some, their last — appearance on the world stage. So I imagine the coach cleared the bench, experimented with some position switches to work on versatility, and basically just saw the team keep scoring anyhow. Unless he ordered them not to take a another shot and just run passing drills, what could he do? Samoa was just hopelessly outclassed.

I remember when my daughter first started playing travel soccer. Her team was in the lowest division of a pretty competitive league. (By the time they were U-18s, they had played up to D1, though maybe only a third of the original players were still with the team.) They had a game that quickly got out of hand. When the score reached 6-0, the coach started pulling players. By the end they were playing 7 v 11 and still scored a couple of goals. The other team was relegated at the end of the season and switched to a less competitive league. But that was U-13, with a bunch of goofy 7th graders on the field.

If the NCAA was running the Women’s World Cup the way it runs D1 football and basketball, it would do whatever the television networks told it to do to wring maximum bucks out of the tv rights. The tv markets and poll ratings would decide. At least FIFA settles it on the field. D1 football is now headed towards a 24 team playoff and soon we’ll have four loss SEC and Big Ten teams included, which makes a joke of the regular season, but the SEC and ESPN want Alabama in whatever the record. And the NCAA tournaments in both sports produce plenty of mismatches in the first round too.

“Funny...with a surprise ending!”

It is to me. The aspect of international competition and the purpose of the games is to beat the opponent, not slaughter them. Many times at that level there is a concerted effort to invoke violence, many times outside the rules of the game, to just get even. The US obviously outclassed the Samoans from the beginning, they didn’t have to embarrass them. The US team will pay the price down the road on this. Third world countries stick together and defend themselves.

I am willing to bet some of this will leak over into future games and there wil be some cheap shots and fights involved. I’ve seen too much of it happen and been involved with the officiating of sports that it did happen in. This is embarrassing at the best.

wy69

I didn’t see the game, but did the U.S. team try to pour it on or was Samoa just so hopelessly outclassed that the U.S. kept scoring after clearing the benches and experimenting with position switches.

Maybe Samoa just rolled over and quit. Which is also embarrassing.

I guess the U.S. coach could have just told his players to not take another shot whatever the situation, but if Samoa kept turning the ball over in front of their own goal ....

You can’t bring a U-17 player in off the deep bench and tell her not to play hard. It may be the only time she’ll ever step on the field in international play. You can clear the bench, but if the benchwarmers are still running amuck ....

“...but if Samoa kept turning the ball over in front of their own goal...”

10 or so times? There is a political aspect of international games whether it is wished or not. When you reach this level of play it has a direct effect on how your players will be treated for the remainder of the competition when you take advantage of a weak team and embarrass a country.

This is called amatuer but it isn’t. And the Somoans also play in other international under 17 competitions like Rugby Union and rugby league. This embarrassment will undoubtedly leaks over into any competition with the US and their Under 18 rugby program. You can be sure the hits will be sometimes cheap and dangerous becauswe of this. Samoa is a developing country with the same thought process as from many years ago and they will pay this back.

wy69

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