The USA doesn't always win in international American football, but when they do, they win big. Canada, too.
Today, I saw this:
GET IT TOGETHER, KUWAIT. RT @RedditCFB: Yowsa... "@IFAFinsider: Canada-Kuwait 91-0. End of game. #IFAFU19WC"
— TEDDY GOOALSEVELT (@edsbs) July 7, 2014Canada beat Kuwait NINETY-ONE to nothing! I realized upon seeing this that I didn't even know 91 was a multiple of 7. And just to confirm ... yup, 91-0:
Such a blowout (USA had a pretty good day, too) had us SB Nation friends searching to learn more about IFAF, and here's what we found:
- First of all, how do you drop 91 points with just 367 total yards? Kuwait's total offensive yardage of -62 helped, and so did Canada returning 2 of 10 punts for touchdowns. Canada basically played the whole game on a short field, and they failed to score a touchdown exactly three times, twice because the half ended:
- The current competition is the Junior World Championship. It's the third of its kind, and the first held outside of the U.S. Kuwait are making a debut apperance because they are the host country, as the 91-0 score might have given away. The USA and Canada split the previous two U-19 championships.
- The IFAF hosts a yearly U-19 USA vs. the World "International Bowl" game. USA is 3-1 in these games, so a quick refrain:
- The Senior Championships have been going on for a little while longer, taking place every four years since 1999. Japan won the firsttwo, then the USA decided to participate for the first time in 2007 and pulled off a come-from-behind win to dethrone the champs in double overtime *in Japan*. So, ditto on the above image.
- The 2011 USA team, which throttled Canada to become champs again, included some borderline and actual NFL talent, including current Carolina Panther tight end Richie Brockel and a number of current and former practice squad types (other countries, too).
- Ultimately, this was a quest for blowouts. While the Senior and Junior Men's Championships over the years include a number of scores in the 70s and 80s, the most impressive score comes from the Women's Championships. The USA team has dominated both, and their performance against Germany during group play in 2013 stands out as the pinnacle of whooping. You can watch all two hours of it here...
...or I can cut to the chase:
As you can see, the USA was leading 0-7 before returning an interception and scoring on the next play to take a 7-7 lead:
Why am I saying leading? Oh, only because the score was ACTUALLY 107-7 AT THE END AND THE SCOREBOARD JUST COULDN'T HANDLE IT. Here, let me fix that for you:
This was on July 4, by the way, and the only thing the coach had to talk about following the greatest blowout in IFAF history was that the USA Women's team had let an opponent score for the first time ever (and only time since).
The Men's U19 team meets Germany on July 10. One-hundred is your benchmark to beat, gentlemen.