Matchday
USA under-17 women beat Samoa 17-0 as DiMaria scores six in record win
Maddie DiMaria scored six times as the United States beat Samoa 17-0 in Morocco, a result reported as the biggest victory in World Cup history.
The United States under-17 women recorded a remarkable 17-0 victory over Samoa in Salé, Morocco, with Maddie DiMaria scoring six goals in a match The Guardian described as the biggest win in World Cup history.
Ten different players scored for the Americans, making the result notable not only for its extraordinary margin but also for the number of contributors. DiMaria led the scoring, while Carolina Reyna and Loradana Paletta each added two goals.
The result puts the United States firmly in the spotlight ahead of their next group-stage fixture against Kenya on Thursday. Kenya enter that encounter after losing their opening match 3-0 to China, setting up a meeting between teams coming off sharply contrasting results.
Six goals after the 63rd minute
DiMaria's contribution stood out even within a 17-goal performance. The 17-year-old did not score her first goal until the 63rd minute, yet finished with six to her name. That timing makes her individual return especially striking: her entire scoring haul came in the closing portion of the contest.
A high-school student from St Louis, DiMaria is committed to playing college football at North Carolina. In Morocco, she supplied more than a third of the United States' goals, turning an emphatic team result into a significant individual headline as well.
Her six goals alone would have represented a commanding winning margin. Yet the American attack was far from dependent on a single scorer, with nine other players also finding the net against Samoa.
Ten scorers share the goals
Reyna, the younger sister of United States men's international midfielder Gio Reyna, contributed a brace. Paletta, who is 15, also scored twice, giving the Americans another multiple-goal contributor alongside DiMaria.
Between them, those three players accounted for 10 of the 17 goals. The other seven were shared among seven additional scorers, underlining the breadth of the scoring contribution rather than simply the scale of DiMaria's performance.
For Samoa, the final score was a severe setback. For the United States, it was a result of exceptional proportions, with both the winning margin and the spread of goalscorers defining the story. The Guardian's description of the victory as a World Cup record adds a wider significance to the group-stage match.
Kenya next for the Americans
Attention now turns to Thursday's meeting with Kenya. The Americans will approach that fixture after a prolific attacking display, but the Samoa result does not determine how their next match will unfold.
Kenya's 3-0 defeat by China provides the immediate context for the next contest. For now, the United States' campaign has produced an extraordinary scoreline, a six-goal performance from DiMaria and a match in which 10 players shared the scoring responsibility. Following that result is the next challenge.
