Hey guys!
I'm asking you to have a look at the predictions game of Euro 2012 which Banz and I made.
It's more fun when more people are entering!
At the end of the game there will be 3 winners who recieve a prize.
First time in 39 years that neither Australia (who now play in the Asian confederation) or New Zealand win the OFC championship. Tahiti defeated New Caledonia 1-0 in the final.
Before this epic loss, New Zealand blew a 3-0 lead to the Solomon Islands but held on to win 4-3. If you recall in the World Cup, New Zealand was the only undefeated team in the group stage. They tied all three matches.
Australia fielded a team filled with several rarely-used players as many regulars were either rested or omitted from the team. Strikers John Aloisi and Damian Mori who combined for 10 goals in the 22–0 win over Tonga were also omitted for this match. The American Samoa team were troubled by passport issues, with only one member of their original 20-man senior team, goalkeeper Nicky Salapu, eligible to play. American Samoa were also unable to call their under-20 players because most of them were involved in high school exams at the time. Therefore, they were forced to draft in their youth players, including three 15-year-old players, to put together a makeshift team with an average age of 18.[5] According to team manager and Football Federation American Samoa vice-president Tony Langkilde, most of the Samoan players never played a full 90-minute game before the match with Australia.[6]
American Samoa held Australia scoreless for the first ten minutes of play until Con Boutsianis scored Australia's first goal from a corner kick. Archie Thompson scored his first goal in the 12th minute, while his strike partner, David Zdrilic, added his first goal a minute later. Tony Popovic added two successive goals in the 17th and 19th minute to extend Australia's lead into 6–0. In the 25th minute, Zdrilic achieved a hat-trick, making the score 9–0 for Australia. Thompson then scored 6 of the next 7 goals as Australia led 16–0 at the half. Thompson led Australia in scoring with 8 goals at halftime, with Zdrilic trailing with 4 goals.[7][8]
Boutsianis, who scored the first goal of the first half, scored the first goal of the second half in the 50th minute. Boutsianis later added another goal to complete his hat-trick. Thompson and Zdrilic added 5 and 4 goals to finish with 13 and 8 goals respectively. Boutsianis finished with 3 goals, while Popovic, Aurelio Vidmar and Simon Colosimo scored 2 goals each, and substitute Fausto De Amicis scored one goal.[7][8] In the 86th minute, despite being down by 29 goals, American Samoa managed to launch an attack towards Australia's goal when Pati Feagiai had a shot, which was saved by Michael Petkovic. That shot was American Samoa's first and only shot on Australia's goal.[9]
The large number of goals created a confusion over the correct scoreline. At the end of the match, the scoreboard at the stadium showed a 32–0 and Thompson was credited with 14 goals.[10] Only after the statistician did a recount, the 31–0 scoreline was announced, and Thompson's total goals count was reduced to 13.[7] After the match, FIFA went on to release the official statistics after receiving the official report from the referee and match officials, which confirm the 31–0 scoreline and Thompson's 13 goals.
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