The island nation of Vanuatu defeated Micronesia 46-0 in a soccer game on Tuesday, perhaps one of the biggest blowouts the world's ever seen in the sport.
Part of the 2015 Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea, an Olympic qualifying tournament, the outcome of the match was somewhat expected, as Micronesia lost 38-0 to Fiji and 30-0 to Tahiti last week,
NBC Sports reported.
Stan Foster, the Micronesia coach, said that the loss was not too disheartening, as the players were simply excited to play in the international tournament in the first place.
"Most of these [players] have never been out of their villages let alone on to another island. I took them to Guam the other day [and it was] the first time they’ve been on an elevator or an escalator,"
he told The Guardian U.K.
"It’s been a huge step-up for these guys and they’ve just been overawed really," he added.
Fiji coach Carlos Buzzetti said after Sunday's game that he and his team didn't take pleasure in running up the score on Micronesia, but because of the tournament's particular rules, each team is incentivized to do so.
"We had a benchmark set by Tahiti and as we’re playing them next we didn’t have any other options," he said,
according to Business Insider. "After the game I apologized and they understand. You still feel bad though. They are young kids, they’re coming for the first time and if it wasn’t for the 30 goals Tahiti scored we would never have done that."
Foster said that his players will continue to train and get better.
"It’s just so hard at this early stage — this is kindergarten for us," the coach said. "We have to learn and to know that we go back we have to train harder and learn more skills."
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