Whoever does it wins: discover the incredible true story that inspired the film

The new feature film “Quem Fazer Wins” will debut next Thursday (14th) in cinemas, with a screenplay based on an unusual true story. With direction from Taika Waititi, The film tells the story of an English football coach who coaches the American Samoa national team. Previously, the team suffered the biggest defeat in the history of World Cup qualifiers – 31 × 0 against Australia. You can believe?

We tell you the whole true story, which inspired the film which could be among the candidates for this year’s Oscar. In fact, we’ve already talked about it in our list of films to watch in 2024.

The true story of “He Who Wins”

On April 11, 2001, during the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, American Samoa and Australia entered the field. Although the Australian team had beaten its neighbor in previous years, no one expected that the world record for the biggest victory in an international football match would be broken.

A crowd of around 3,000 witnessed the historic moment as Australia scored an incredible 31 goals against a weak American Samoa team. In fact, another record in the match was that of Australian forward Archie Thompson. This is because, in the game, he became the player who scored the most goals in an international match in history. In total there were 13 successes and, oddly enough, second place in this ranking goes to another Australian David Zdrilic, who found the net eight times in the same match.

The team from the small Pacific island, always last in the FIFA rankings, remained in last place until November 2011. This is because, that year, the players from American Samoa, led by the Dutch-American coach Thomas Rogen, won its first victory by defeating its Tongan opponents 2-1.

Source: Terra