The life of a football manager is often tinged with disappointment, as Stoke City boss Gudjon Thordarson was reminded on Wednesday night when The Potters were on the receiving end of an eight-goal thrashing by Liverpool in the Worthington Cup. However, it is sometimes worth remembering that no matter how bad things may seem, there is always somebody worse off than you. Take for example, Tom Renfro, manager of the Guam national team, whose record so far in Group 2 of the Asian Football Confederation World Cup Qualifiers reads:
Played - 2
Lost - 2
Goals for - 0
Goals against - 32
Guam's 19-0 loss to Iran, is a World Cup record, as is Karim Bagheri's six-goal tally from that game, and this was followed, two days later, by a 16-0 thrashing at the hands of Tajikistan.
Guam is the southernmost and largest of the Mariana Islands in the West Pacific, with a population of around 150,000 and the national team manager Tom Renfro is a former biology teacher from New Mexico. He has almost twenty years coaching experience and gained his 'A' coaching licence from the United States Soccer Federation in 1986.
Still, looking on the bright side, Guam are not the lowest ranked team in the world. That dubious honour belongs to American Samoa, currently ranked at 203 in FIFA's list, with Montserrat at 202 and Guam sharing 200th place with Bhutan.
Worse still was the fate of Myanmar, formerly Bhurma, who withdrew from Guam's World Cup Qualifying group in November, without giving a reason to FIFA, hence the existence of only three teams in the group.
So, when Peter Taylor and Steve McClaren come to pick the squad for England's friendly with Spain in February, they should spare a thought for Mr. Renfro, whose team are presently 184 places behind England.
|
