Guam, a country with a population of 165,000, just beat India in a football game

Yep, you heard it right.

As if Indian soccer fans weren’t depressed enough already, our national football team went down to a humiliating 2-1 loss to Guam in FIFA 2018 World Cup qualifier.

Just to put things into perspective, Guam has a population of 165,000, which is 1/54th of the population of Delhi alone. The area of this tiny island in the Pacific Ocean is just over 540 square kms, which about one-third of the size of India’s capital city.

Some might blame it on India’s apathy towards sports other than cricket and even argue that the national football team’s failure often receives more coverage than the actual sport. But it’s interesting to note that Guam is currently ranked 174th in the FIFA rankings, more than 30 places behind India, who are 141st.

The loss comes days after India’s 2-1 defeat against Oman, which actually earned them a bit of praise for a spirited performance against a higher ranked team. Naturally, the defeat against Guam was not well received.

Lesson: Most of the Guam team have played competitive football outside the island (mainly in the US) – India had one #IndvGua

— Joe Morrison (@joefooty) June 16, 2015

#Guam was beaten 19-0 by #Iran in the past. #India play Iran next. If we lose by less than 19 goals we're the better team @fni #IndvGua #WTF

— Dave Swami (@Deviouswami) June 17, 2015

"@Sportskeeda: India haven't won a single World Cup or Asian Cup qualifier away from home in 14 years. #INDvGua" and we give bafana HELL!

— Authaniel Mokwena (@emanwell) June 17, 2015

Its sad to see India losing to a country any ones hardly ever heard off #IndvGua

— Ashwin Kumar (@ashwinv_kumar) June 17, 2015

#IndvGua a tiny island beat the nation of 1.2 billion people

— Bhupendra Singh (@B_Singh_Chauhan) June 17, 2015

Gr8 eg to see how hypocrites we Indians are is Indian Football. One lost match; everyone goes berserk & starts watching cricket. #IndvGua

— Aniket Rai (@Tell1Tale) June 17, 2015

we need to be patience with this team, more than 1/2 of the team have played <5 matches, c'mon Indian football #IndvGua

— bhogtoram mawroh (@bhogtoram99) June 17, 2015

The only thing comparable between India and Guam is the no. of letters in the name. We better them in that too, yet they trumped us #IndvGua

— Haseen Rahman (@haseenrahman) June 16, 2015

There has been needless emphasis on the 'population of Guam' in analysing #INDvGUA. 11 vs. 11 and being small has its own advantages. @fni

— Sameer Shirodkar (@SameerSh29) June 16, 2015

Well, India’s next qualifier is against Iran, who are 41st in FIFA rankings. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into another embarrassment.

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