Australia in record football win

Australia rewrote the record books when they crushed American Samoa 31-0 in the World Cup Football Oceania zone Group I soccer qualifiers on Wednesday.

Australia set the previous record on Monday when they beat Tonga 22-0.

The result was originally given as 32-0 but confusion arose at the ground in the glut of goals.

Archie Thompson established an individual scoring record in international soccer with 13 goals.

That is three more than the old record of 10 goals held by Sofus Nielsen of Denmark and Gottfried Fuchs of Germany.

Nielsen scored 10 when Denmark beat France 17-1 in the 1908 Olympics and Fuchs scored 10 when Germany beat Russia 16-0 in the 1912 Olympics.

Ironically, most of Australia's leading players, including Leeds United pair Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka, and captain Paul Okon from Middlesbrough were unavailable.

Australia, who led 16-0 at halftime, had all the control and their goalkeeper went for long periods without ever touching the ball.

The world record loss had been predicted with American Samoa coach Tunoa Lui disclosing on Tuesday his squad were hoping for some divine intervention.

"We are asking the Lord to help keep the score down," Lui said.

Australia are ranked 75th by world governing body FIFA. American Samoa are 203rd, the worst team in the rankings.