10 Sporting Blowouts That Made Us Say 'Ouch!'

Australia dominates rugby. The two-time world champs played Namibia in a 2003 World Cup match at home. Namibia sought its first win in 15 attempts on the biggest stage. The African team holds an odd spot in international rugby. The Welwitschias lack talent and local competition. Neighboring South Africa is a different level; developing as a rugby nation proves hard for Namibia.

Namibia decided to face the defending world champions in the match.Namibia rested several key players.They knew they had little chance against the Wallabies. The final group stage match against Romania offered a better shot at that first win. The Aussies rotated their squad, yet even a second-string Australian team remains top-tier. Namibia could only aim to play well.

The Australian team played.The Australian team did not play kindly. They scored twice in the first ten minutes and kept scoring. The game happened at the Adelaide Oval, usually for cricket. This heavy score matched the venue. One Namibian player played cricket and competed in two World Cups that year.The Namibian coachgave an honest take on the mismatch:

The Australians were bigger, faster, and quicker. It was a boys-versus-men situation. This shows the gap between top teams and lower-level sides. Brutally, the Australians treated it like a practice session.

Some players seemed to enjoy the game. Prop Neil du Toit spoke positively after the match.

The experience gained there is unique. Yes, we got a big beating. But you physically feel you can measure yourself against those players and know where you stand.

After the Wallabies hit hard, the Welwitschias played better against Romania but still lost. They are still hunting for that first rugby World Cup win.A typhoon hit.A typhoon stopped Namibia from getting their first win against Canada in 2019, a game where Namibia had a real chance.

In a 2001 qualifier for the 2002 World Cup, Australia overwhelmed American Samoa. The goal blitz left the scorekeeper lost, initially recording the result asAustralia's National Soccer Team defeated American Samoa 32-0.before changing it to 31-0. Though the gap between the teams was large, certain factors helped the Australians win big.

American Samoa has a small population, just over 55,000 people. The nation struggles to field good teams. Limited home opportunities push many young people into the US military, and they do not return. Other players face work demands and playing costs. These tough conditions become much worse.

In February 2001, American Samoa’s coach learned the eligibility rules changed. Players now needed US passports to play. Of the 20-man roster chosen, 19 players failed the rule. Only the goalkeeper, Nicky Salapu.(pictured) still played. American Samoa could not even use its under-20 team because many players had school exams. After desperately searching for anyone with the right passport, they put together a makeshift 16-player roster. This group included two 15-year-olds who never played a full 90-minute match. Some did not evenown the right shoes. Since most players could not kick a ball more than a few yards, Salapu faced a busy schedule.

The game American Samoans kept the Australian Socceroos away for seven minutes. After the first goal, the Aussies scored freely. At halftime, with the score 16-0, a distraught Salapu, only 20 at the time, recalled.:

Mentally, at halftime, I was completely drained. I said a short prayer and cried a bit while thinking about what I could do better for my team. God gave me the strength to finish the game.

But the Australian team kept increasing the score in the second period as their tired opponents barely moved. Australia’s Archie Thompson, who scored 13 goals in the match, explained.:

I felt bad for those players; we had to try. Scoring felt wrong and easy, but we had to do what was necessary. I did not know the final score would be like that, but representing your country means you must push hard.

Such a humiliating loss would make many question their future in sports. But Salapu was tough. He promised to keep playing and achieve the impossible: win an international match with American Samoa.

Nine years later, he played a key role in the tiny nation’s first win: a 2-1 victory against Tonga. The goalkeeper cried at full-time as he broke down in tears. The 2001 nightmare match is now in the past:

I feel like a champion now. I will finally leave the past behind.

For this strange game, Georgia Tech's football team, known as theYellow Jackets., had John Heisman (pictured, 1918) as the coach.The John Heisman.He coached baseball and basketball too. A rout against the Cumberland Bulldogs in the former set the stage for the football defeat. Cumberland brought in minor league players to beat Heisman’s team 22-0. Heisman wanted to match the score against the Tennessee school.

The Cumberland Bulldogs planned to play Georgia in October 1916 but canceled after the 1915 season ended. Heisman did not let Cumberland having a team no longer stop his revenge. Georgia Tech forced Cumberland to play anyway. Cumberland's manager gathered players for the trip to Atlanta under the threat of a large forfeit fee and a $500 bounty from Heisman. Reports differ on how many players were sent, but only 20 showed up, and three missed the last train.

Football was much more dangerous then, so not wanting to play made sense. Most players did not even want to touch the ball.John Heisman touched the ball.A strapping young man nicknamed “Pee Wee” took a snap unwillingly and ran out of bounds scared.

Georgia scored on their first play and scored easily after that. The first quarter ended 63-0; at halftime, the score was 126-0, and Heisman gave a facetious team talk.The team talked facetiously.:

We are ahead, but we do not know what those Cumberland players have planned. They might surprise us. Be ready, men.

Georgia kept scoring while the weak Bulldogs struggled to move the ball out of their own red zone. They failed to get a single first down all game and rushed for -42 yards. Of Georgia's 32 touchdowns, the strangest one happened when the kicker caught his own kick-off for a touchdown.

Heisman finally agreed to cut the second half to 15 minutes. This still added nearly 100 points to the final score.

In the run-up to the 1940 NFL ChampionshipThe game (the Super Bowl started in 1967) looked like a close match between the Chicago Bears and the Washington Redskins (now the Commanders). Three weeks earlier, Washington beat the Bears 7-3 in the regular season. Legend says Washington owner George Preston Marshall called his team “quitters” and “crybabies” before the game. Bears coach George Halas used those words to motivate his team to a huge win.

No proof exists that Marshall actually said those insults; a researcher found an anonymous letter on the Bears’ bulletin board with those words. The writer thought Halas might have written the letter. Whatever the truth, Halas used the words to inspire his players in hisThe pre-game talk happened.:

George Preston Marshall thinks you are a great football team, the greatest ever assembled. Go out there on the field and prove it!

Chicago scored an early touchdown. Washington should have tied later, but a dropped pass ended the game. Another story says when asked if that chance changed things, Washington star Sammy Baugh just scoffed, “then it would have finished 73-7.”

The day was bad for Washington, but it could have been worse. A lack of footballs kept the score low. Because the Bears kicked many points into the stands, officials ran out of balls to keep the game going.Bob Snyder recalled:

We scored 11 touchdowns. The referee asked if we would run for the extra point. People rang the field, and every time a pass or kick went to the crowd, they kept the ball. They ran out of footballs.

They stopped us four times trying to run the extra point. They did not change the ball every play like they do now for today's dandies.

Each Bears team member got $873.99 (about $18,000 in 2022). That is a good payday, but it is far from the $150,000 the Super Bowl champs pocket today. More important, the team earned sporting immortality and memories that last a lifetime. Former running back George McAfeeGeorge McAfeereflected 50 years later:

I would not trade my years with the Bears for all the money they make now.

Canadian ice hockey standards are high. Until 1963, Canada sent senior amateur club teams to international tournaments. Sudbury Wolves from Northern Ontario, the team pictured, played in the 1949 World Championships in Sweden. Sportswriters did not highly regard the team; they went to Stockholm to prove themselves.

Denmark played the opposition for that opening pool match. Logic suggested a Scandinavian country would play well at ice hockey, but the Danes were weak in the Nordic group then. They formed a team that year and played on the ice with shoddy wooden skates.shoddy wooden skatesThe big Wolves crushed the hapless Danes mercilessly.

Canada led 13-0 after the first period and refused to slow down the pressure. Reports noted the Danish team could barely move the puck out of their own half. By the end, the Canadians scored 47 unanswered goals. At that time, this was the heaviest loss in international hockey. Denmark's first world championship did not improve in the next match against Austria, finishing 25-1, but they scored at least one goal.

Canada did not dominate the next round. Losing to Czechoslovakia and tying with Sweden and Switzerland forced them to accept silver. Failing to win gold was an outrage. Canadian sportswriterJim Coleman wrote:

If a team worse than the Sudbury Wolves has represented Canada in international hockey, we have never heard of it.

Czechoslovakia's win felt sharp because of a tragic air crash wheresix players diedin 1948. The Danish national team finally avenged its beating witha shock victoryover Canada in 2022.

A 7-1 score in soccer is astonishing at any level. However, in the World Cup's later stages, it is unheard of. The 2014 semi-final put soccer's two most successful teams against each other. Five-time champs Brazil played at home, aiming for the final in front of a huge crowd at the Estadio Mineirão stadium. Four-time champions Germany faced them, having reached the final in 2002, but lost to Brazil.

Brazil lacked star forward Neymar and key defender Thiago Silva. Yet, they had not lost a match at home since 1975. Germany looked stronger on paper, but few could have predicted the carnage. Brazil remembers this as theAgony of Mineirão.

Germany scored first at 11 minutes and ruthlessly used Brazil's backline weaknesses to build a 5-0 lead with under half an hour played. The Germans finished the half and chose not to make Brazil's suffering worse in the second half. With the result clear, the German team aimed to remain professional. DefenderMats Hummels explained:

We made it clear we had to stay focused. We decided not to try and humiliate them. We needed to stay serious and concentrate at halftime. You do not show that on the pitch if you are playing.

In the second half, Brazil pushed for something—anything—for the fans. This created openings for the Germans to punish twice more. The German team showed clinical finishing, scoring seven goals from only 14 shots. Brazil scored in the 90th minute to make the score 7-1. The crowd did not really cheer for that one.

The result still haunts the Brazil team years later; in a nation where football is 'God,' losers face no tolerance. The unlucky Brazil goalkeeperJúlio Césarknows the defeat's stain will never leave him. After retiring from international football following the World Cup, he said:

Even now, when I lie down, I think about it. I picture the day I die, years from now, when the news announces: 'Júlio César, the goalkeeper in the 7-1, has died.'

In tennis terms, a "bagelA set finishes 6-0. A double bagel means two sets finish 6-0, 6-0. This is the shortest path to victory in women's tennis. At the highest levels, seeing one set finish 6-0 is rare. Seeing two is rarer still. These events usually happen in early tournament rounds, not against top seeds.

Natallia “Natasha” Zvereva, a 17-year-old Belarusian tennis star, played in the 1988 French Open final. She beat No. 2 seed Martina Navratilova, an all-time great. Zvereva faced Steffi Graf (pictured, 2010) in the final. Graf was only 18 years old then. Graf held the world No. 1 ranking for nearly a year and was the defending champion. The German ace won all the Grand Slam titles in 1988. The French Open win was the most dominant performance of the modern tennis era.Graf won the French Open in 1988.Graf won the French Open in 1988.

Zvereva never started in the biggest match of her singles career. The first game ended in 72 seconds, setting the tone. Rain caused a break, making the nightmare longer as she lost in just 32 minutes of play. Zvereva won only 13 points in the whole match.

Graf was almostGraf seemed apologetic about the final's lack of spectacle.The final lacked spectacle.

I regret that the match went so fast for the public. I cannot recall winning a 6-0, 6-0 match recently. Today, everything went well.

After declining a post-match interview, aTearful Zverevasaid simply:

I just wasn't in the game. Steffi is the best.

Zvereva's singles career did not take off, but she found success as a doubles player. Alongside Gigi Fernandez, she was part of one of the most dominant women’s doubles teams ever in the 1990s. She beat Graf ten years later at Wimbledon in her only singles win over the German.Gigi Fernandez, she joined one of the most dominant women’s doubles teams in the 1990s. She beat Graf ten years later at Wimbledon in herZvereva's only singles win over the German.Zvereva won her only singles match against the German.

On August 22, 2007, two major league teams with poor seasons delivered baseball's biggest blowout. The Texas Rangers defeated the Baltimore Orioles 30-3. William McKinley was president the last time a team scored over 30 runs in a game.The Texas Rangers defeated the Baltimore Orioles 30-3.William McKinley was president the last time a team scored more than 30 runs in a game.

The Orioles played normally for the first four innings. They led 3-0 going into the fourth.leading 3-0The Rangers went into the fourth. Things got wild at the sixth. The Rangers' offense hit in the eighth and ninth; hit after hit shocked Baltimore players, making them shake their heads, asFreddie Bynum recalled:

You ask if they have a mercy rule. You know there isn't one, but you hope for one.

The Rangers' celebrations were quiet. Several players had career-best days while boosting their stats. Baltimore players had no time to think about the loss; it was the first game of a double-header. The Rangers won a much closer second game 9-7.9-7.

Madagascar is probably known more for itslemursStade Olympique de l'Emyrne holds the record for the most lopsided soccer result in history, not just for its sporting wins.The loss was 149-0.Stade Olympique de l'Emyrne lost 149-0 to rivals AS Adema in 2002. Before that match, SOE needed a win against Antananarivo in a tournament for the Malagasy champions to keep its title.

A late, controversial penalty ended the game 2-2, letting arch-rivals AS Adema win the championship. Outraged SOE coaches and players showed their anger in the next game against AS Adema in the pettiest way possible.

After gaining the ball, SOE scored into their own goal repeatedly. Adema players, already set for the Malagasy championship, just watched the self-inflicted disaster unfold with surprise.The paying supporters were less amused.Newspaper reports show the enraged supporters went to the ticket booths to demand refunds.

The reprimands were severe.The SOE coach faced a three-year suspension. The team captain and other main SOE culprits each got one-year suspensions. The referee at the center of the issue avoided blame for the mess.The SOE coach's protest reprimands were severe. The SOE coach received a three-year suspension. The team captain and other main SOE players each got one-year suspensions. The referee responsible for the controversy took no blame.

In 2019, Turkey played in the Continental Cup, a Twenty20 cricket tournament in Romania. T20 cricket shortens the game used for international matches. Test matches take many days; T20 lets both teams bat for 20 overs (six bowls) in about three hours.

Under those limits, big scores like a century (100 or more runs at-bat) or five wickets (bowling out batsmen) happen rarely. If you want to know the top teams in international cricket, check an old map of the British Empire.An old map of the British Empire shows who the top teams are in international cricket.Europe is not a major cricket area, so the Czech Republic's historic match played with little attention.

Visa issues kept several Turkish team members out of the tournament. Turkey faced a tough start preparing for its first T20 cricket outing.The Turkish team coordinator explained the situation.

Unfortunately, the team was on the wrong side of history that day. Seven regular players lacked visas due to various issues, forcing them to field a makeshift team because they love cricket.

This team fielded every player from the local talent pool. All players on the team had Turkish heritage.

The Czechs used a South Asian community in Prague for support. Most European teams use immigrants from Australia, England, and South Asia to fill their rosters because the game is still growing in those countries.

The Czechs got a turkey shoot because they setThe Czech Republic broke multiple world records against Turkey's cricket team.The Czechs set multiple world records in one day. They achieved the largest score, the heaviest winning margin, and the quickest-ever century for a batsman. They bowled the Turks out for only 21 runs. The novice Turkish batsmen got 8 ducks, meaning they scored zero runs. Sudesh Wickramasekara earned his "Beast" nickname with his performance.The Czech Republic broke record-breaking achievements against Turkey's cricket team.The Czech Republic turned at-bats.

The Turkish side lost badly in every game it played in the tournament. Turkey holds five of the lowest-ever scores in T20 cricket.Three of these records were broken.. For this growing cricket nation, the only path is upward.