I rarely include any sports in my news round-ups, but this item warrants mention.
American Samoa was ranked 204th in the world in FIFA rankings, joint last with Andorra, Montserrat, Samoa, and San Marino. They hadn't won a FIFA World Cup match in 12 previous tries and hadn't won a FIFA match since the 1983 South Pacific Games when they beat Wallis and Futuna, 3-0. They hold the record for futility, which they established by losing to Australia 31-0 in a 2001 World Cup qualifying match. In that game, Australia's Archie Thompson scored a record 13 goals. That game led to the establishment of a preliminary round in the Oceania zone qualification for future World Cup qualification.
But it happened. American Samoa upset favored and 202nd ranked Tonga, 2-1, to win their first international match in 17 years of international play, a span that involved 31 defeats, by a combined score of 229-12. Player of the game, inexpertly labeled "Man of the Match", was Jonny "Jayiah" Saelua, a fa'afafine, which is the word used to describe Polynesian members of a "third sex". Fa'afafine are biological males who are raised as women.
I've really got a female starting at centre back. Can you imagine that in England or Spain?
--Thomas Rongen, American Samoa head coach
Rather than play soccer, the 23-year-old
Saelua wanted to join a dance company and "travel the world just performing". She is a performing arts major at the University of Hawaii. In the game against Tonga, she assisted on the first goal and saved the victory by clearing a Tonga shot off the line at the end of the match, when the American Samoa goalkeeper was out of the play.
Jonny is believed to be the first transgender to compete in a World Cup stage.
To be fa’afafine you have to be Samoan, born a man, feel you are a woman, be sexually attracted to males and, importantly, proud to be called and labeled fa’afafine.
The fa’afafine are culturally accepted. They have a role in Samoan society. They are the caretakers of the elders because their brothers and sisters get married, but the fa’afafine traditionally don’t.
--Alex Su'a, head of the Samoa Fa'afafine Society
In Samoa the fa’afafine are very reliable. We can do what the boys do and what the girls do.
--Jonny Saelua
Rongen, who coached the American under-20 team to three World Cup finals and won the MLS title with DC United in 1999, was hired to coach American Samoa in early November. He immediately promoted Saelua to the starting lineup.
I just go out and play soccer as a soccer player. Not as transgender, not as a boy and not as a girl. Just as a soccer player.
I think I add a third dimension to the team, collect my energies and keep the team together, that’s my responsibility as the fa’afafine, the feminine.
--Jonny Saelua
He’s like a brother to us and he’s like a sister to us.
In the Samoan way, lots of people are making jokes about them. It’s difficult for their situation. I let people do whatever they want. It’s their life. He’s part of our family right now.
--American Samoa goalkeeper, Nicky Salupa
They don’t make me feel different because I am the way I am. It is what anybody needs to feel wanted within a team. That is why I always do my best. I can’t let them down.
I hope I can inspire people. Not only transgender but anybody who feels different in their society or community. If there’s something you love to do, go out and don’t let anybody stop you from chasing after your dreams.
--Jonny Saelua
American Samoa tied 196th-ranked Cook Islands 1-1 in their second stage match before losing to Samoa 1-0 in stoppage time after AS striker Diamond Ott's effort in the 90th minute struck the upright and bounced away. Thus American Samoa failed to advance to Round Two of Oceania qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Samoa will be grouped with Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Tahiti. The other group in Round Two will be New Zealand, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea. Australia competes as an Asian team.