Last country in the world without a soccer team finally takes to the field, beaten 0-4 in first international match

By George Aluo, with agency reports

The ‘gospel’ of football can now be said to have been preached everywhere in the world.

The round leather game can be said to now be everywhere on earth after the only country without a national team, Marshal Islands played an international friendly last weekend.
The match was watched by a ‘massive’ 3000 capacity crowd.
After decades as the world’s only nation without a national soccer team, the Marshall Islands kicked off its debut match, marking a historic step onto the global stage and fueling hopes of joining FIFA and securing future international competition.

The Marshall Islands, long considered the last country on Earth without a national soccer team, played its first official match last week — a 4–0 defeat to the U.S. Virgin Islands that officials nonetheless hailed as a historic achievement.

“Whatever the score, so proud of what was accomplished. Tonight, we made history,” the Marshall Islands Soccer Federation posted on X after Wednesday’s match, played at a high school football stadium in Springdale, Arkansas, with a capacity of 3,000.