The US Under-17 women's national team scored 17 unanswered goals against Samoa in their Group E opener at the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Morocco, the most goals ever scored by any team in a FIFA Women's World Cup match at any age level.
Forward Maddie DiMaria scored six goals, setting a new U-17 World Cup single-match record for an individual player, while midfielder Loradana Paletta and forward Carolina Reyna each added two. In all, ten different American players found the net as the US kept Samoa, playing in just its second U-17 World Cup appearance, pinned inside its own defensive third for the entire match.
The 17 goals were the most ever scored by any team in a FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup match or a FIFA Women's World Cup match at any age level.
US Soccer's official match recap
The result immediately drew comparisons to past lopsided World Cup scorelines, though US Soccer's own recap stopped short of claiming it as an outright victory-margin record across all levels of the tournament, framing it specifically as the highest-scoring match in the competition's history. Samoa, a Pacific nation with a tiny pool of registered youth players compared with traditional soccer powers, had never faced a team of the Americans' depth and speed at this age level.
The lopsided scoreline is unlikely to worry US coaches heading into tougher group tests. The Americans next face Kenya on 22 October in Salé, a match expected to offer a far better gauge of the squad's title credentials than an opener against a heavily overmatched opponent.
For Samoa, the result is a reminder of how uneven global development remains in the women's game even as FIFA continues to expand the U-17 tournament's field; officials with the Oceania Football Confederation have pointed to matches like this one as part of the case for continued investment in grassroots programs across the Pacific.