American Samoa suffer defeats at FIFA Series

The American Samoa men’s team lost both of their matches at the FIFA Series in Puerto Rico. But they take home valuable lessons.

The first match, against the US Virgin Islands, which also marked American Samoa’s first ever outside of Oceania, ended in a 5-2 defeat at the Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. 

With new head coach Diego Gomez leading the nation for the first time, American Samoa did at least score their first international goal against a nation outside of OFC, but it proved in vain after leaking goals in a poor beginning to the contest.

It took just seven minutes for Joshua Ramos to open the scoring for the Caribbean nation.

The USVI team kept adding on, going into the break 3-0 up, before adding a fourth just after half time.

American Samoa weren’t to go down without a fight though, adding some respect to the scoreline with two late goals.  

Captain Ali’i Mitchell scored both – first winning a penalty that saw opposing defender Brad Robinson sent off with a red card.

Mitchell duly sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot, before stealing possession back moments after the restart and adding a second with a sublime finish on his left foot into the bottom-left corner.  

The US Virgin Islands rallied, winning a penalty of their own in second half stoppage-time and added a fifth goal through Jimson St. Louis to hold on for their first victory in an official FIFA-recognised match since 2022.  

In the second match, against Guam, American Samoa again conceded early, falling 2-0 down inside the first 13 minutes.

The Asian side were 4-0 up at half time, and added another two after the break, to seal the deal.

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.  

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