By Michael Church
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Guam captain Jason Cunliffe will lead his team out for the second leg of their World Cup qualifier against Singapore on Tuesday aiming to pull off a win he hopes will resonate far beyond the sports fields of the United States protectorate.
Located more than 11,500 kilometres west of the mainland United States and home to 170,000 people as well as two military bases, the Micronesian island hosts the former Southeast Asian champions with the prospect of a shock in the air.
Trailing 2-1 after the first leg in Singapore on Thursday, the 201st ranked outfit will be looking to rekindle the spirit of the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign when they pulled off surprise wins over India and Turkmenistan.
But beyond achieving success on the pitch, Cunliffe believes progress to the next round would enhance the profile of a federation and a squad that rarely gain air time.
“We’re a U.S. territory and people are always confused,” says Cunliffe, whose late freekick ensures Guam trail by only a goal ahead of the second leg. “People still don’t understand Guam and our political relationship and how it works.
“So many of those people who don’t know where Guam is are Americans.
“But Indian football fans know who we are, Turkmenistan football fans know who we are, so getting those opportunities to play against other nations and maybe catch a result here and there, that educates people real quick.
“Getting out there and doing that is the fun part, proving people wrong.”
The opening leg against Singapore was Guam’s first international in two years due to the pandemic and the challenges brought by the island’s distance from the other members associations of the Asian Football Confederation.
“You can train until you’re blue in the face but if you’re not testing your training and your team against real opposition it can be difficult,” says the 39-year-old, who has played a record 65 times for Guam.
“It’s great for us to get to host on home soil and hopefully that can be a catalyst for things to come and we can push to play more in the FIFA windows.”
Cunliffe, also the team’s all-time leading scorer with 26 goals, has been at the heart of the Guam squad since 2006 and he remains hopeful that increasing the island’s profile will go some way towards changing perceptions and raising issues.
Everyone born on Guam is granted U.S. citizenship but, while living on the island, they do not have a vote in presidential elections and have no representatives in the U.S. Senate, leaving many feeling disenfranchised.
“We’re at the whim of usually older, white men in Washington who have no idea about Guam aside from that there’s an airforce base and a navy base here and they don’t care to know more, that’s the reality,” he says.
“The U.S. military isn’t ever giving us up, we’re too important to them, too strategic for them to give up their bases and leave.
“So ideally they keep their bases but we have some sort of way to hold them accountable.
“We’re the Guam national team, we have the Guam flag, we sing the Guam national anthem before matches.
“I’m a U.S. citizen and my grandparents are from Pittsburgh, but I’m Chamorro first. I’m Guam first.”
(Reporting by Michael Church, Editing by Christian Radnedge)
