Nicky Salapu

Nicky Salapu (born September 13, 1980 in Pago Pago) is an American Samoan association football goalkeeper who currently plays for PanSa East. He previously played for PanSa East, whom he left in December 2008 to sign for the Austrian amateur SC Mauerbach. He played in American Samoa's 31–0 loss to Australia, where he was the only player from the senior squad due to his teammates' passports' issues.[1]

Nicky Salapu
Personal information
Full name Nicky Vitolio Salapu
Date of birth (1980-09-13) September 13, 1980
Place of birth Pago Pago, American Samoa
Height 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2000–2011 PanSa East
2012–2013 Mitra Kukar
2013– PanSa East
National team‡
2001– American Samoa 22 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 18 July 2019

He played in the OFC FIFA World Cup Qualifications for World Cup 2002 and World Cup 2006. American Samoa lost all of these eight matches, and conceded 91 goals.

He was the goalkeeper, under whom the American Samoa National Football Team registered their first ever official FIFA World Cup qualifiers win. After the game, Salapu said: “I feel like a champ right now. Finally I’m going to put the past behind me.”[2]

Club career

Salapu played for PanSa East for eleven years, beginning in 2000 and terminating in 2011. In 2012 he went to play for Mitra Kukar, a club playing in the Indonesia Super League (ISL), which is a fully professional football competition as the top tier of the football league pyramid in Indonesia.

International career

He conceded 31 goals to Australia in a World Cup qualifying match on April 11, 2001 and this score Australia 31–0 American Samoa still counts as the official world record.[3][4]

In 2007, he missed his flight from Hawaii to the South Pacific Games in Samoa. Because he could not make it on time he was replaced by the 17-year-old Jordan Penitusi. He was not eligible to play until he arrived for the last match of American Samoa in the South Pacific Games with Tonga, but there he was an unused substitute. In November 2011, he was the goalkeeper when American Samoa won its first ever full FIFA match, a 2–1 win over Tonga during the first round of the OFC qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. In 2015, he was called up as Sub goalkeeper for the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers. American Samoa won their last two matches, but failed to qualify to the second round.[5]

National team statistics

[6]

American Samoa national team
YearAppsGoals
200140
200210
200440
201180
201950
Total220

References
  1. "Nicky Salapu". worldfootball.net.
  2. Montague, James. "American Samoa, Winless and at Bottom of Rankings, Wins a World Cup Qualifier". Retrieved 2018-10-01.
  3. "31-0 - The plight of American Samoa - Back Page Football". Back Page Football. 2015-03-13. Retrieved 2018-10-01.
  4. Cockerill, Michael (2011-11-25). "Finally making history for all the right reasons". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2018-10-01.
  5. "The waters part in the Pacific: After 30 straight losses, American Samoa wins a soccer game", Associated Press, 23 November 2011
  6. Nicky Salapu at National-Football-Teams.com

[[Category:]]

  1. Next Goal Wins, retrieved 2018-10-01
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