U.S. women’s soccer is no stranger to making history. On Monday, the next generation made its mark, thrashing Samoa 17–0 at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Rabat, Morocco. It signified the biggest win at any level in World Cup history, surpassing a mark set in 2025 by Morocco, who picked up a 16–0 win over New Caledonia at the men’s edition of the U-17 tournament.
The U.S. youth squad had 10 different goal scorers, led by Maddie DiMaria, who scored six, including the first of the night just 63 seconds into the contest. With her scoring barrage, she became the first to score six times at any World Cup since Manchester City star Erling Haaland scored nine in a single game for Norway at the 2019 U-20 World Cup.
“That means everything; he’s an inspiration,” DiMaria said post-match about following in Haaland’s footsteps. ”Watching his desire and ruthlessness around the box ... to be the next player behind that is just such an honor. I’m super blessed to have all those girls finding me in the right places.”
DiMaria is also the first U.S. player to bag a double hat trick in a competitive match at any age level.
Outside of the goals record and DiMaria’s impressive output, the U.S. peppered the Samoan goal with 58 shots across the 90 minutes. Carolina Reyna, the younger sister of USMNT star midfielder Gio Reyna, and Lordana Paletta each scored braces, in addition to single goals from Mia Corona, Grace Murray, Amari Manning, Deus Stanislaus, Isa Ortiz, Melia Brewer and Gianna Hanf.
U.S. Chasing World Cup Glory
Despite ample success from the U.S. women’s national team, who has won four titles on the senior World Cup stage, the nation has never triumphed at the U-17 edition of the tournament. It has only advanced to the final once in the inaugural 2008 edition, where the team fell to North Korea.
The North Korean program remains the tournament's headlining force, and the country has dominated the women’s youth soccer tournaments, winning the 2024 and 2025 U-17 tournaments as well as the 2016 and 2025 U-20 tournaments. North Korea also advanced to the 2026 U-20 final where it fell to Spain in penalty kicks.
After the confidence-boosting 17–0 win to open the tournament, the U.S. will look to continue its dominance in its next Group E matchup against Kenya, before wrapping up group stage play against China.
The top two teams in each group of the 24-team tournament as well as the four best third-place finishers will advance to the knockout stages, culminating in the Nov. 7 final at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium.
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