{"id":855205,"date":"2026-08-14T17:34:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T17:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/855205\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T17:34:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T17:34:19","slug":"american-samoa-led-by-taulia-tagovailoa-stuns-u-s-at-flag-football-world-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/855205\/","title":{"rendered":"American Samoa led by Taulia Tagovailoa stuns U.S. at Flag Football World Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"American<\/p>\n

American Samoa’s Taulia Tagovailoa (left) threw five touchdowns in the team’s win over the U.S. and celebrates with Tai Natani-Othoniel Tiedemann. Ina Fassbender \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Aug. 14, 2026 Updated 1:23 pm EDT<\/p>\n

American Samoa, led by Taulia Tagovailoa, stunned during group play at the IFAF Flag Football World Championships in D\u00fcsseldorf, Germany, handing the U.S. its first loss at the event since 2012.<\/p>\n

Tagovailoa, the 26-year-old former Maryland quarterback and younger brother of NFL quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, threw five touchdowns and completed 29 of 36 passes<\/a> for 213 yards in the 38-32 win Friday. The loss ended a 14-year undefeated streak for the men\u2019s U.S. flag football team at the world championships, when Austria defeated the Americans in the final.<\/p>\n

The U.S scored the game\u2019s opening touchdown less than two minutes into the first half, but American Samoa answered with two consecutive touchdowns to take a one-score lead. Later in the half, the U.S. took a 13-12 lead after a touchdown and successful two-point conversion. However, American Samoa returned the favor \u2014 and then some. It closed the half with a touchdown and two-point conversion, then scored an early second-half touchdown to take a 26-13 lead, its largest of the game after a successful two-point try with 15 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n

The U.S. responded with a touchdown on its ensuing possession, but Tagovailoa unleashed two more deep balls that resulted in TDs, sealing the win despite one final U.S. touchdown.<\/p>\n

The U.S. bounced back later Friday with a dominating 40-7 win over Australia to advance to the quarterfinals in its final group-play game. The U.S. women, who\u2019ve won the previous three world titles, are 3-0 in group play and will face Germany on Saturday in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Flag football will make its Olympic debut at the LA28 Games. The U.S. has already secured two spots<\/a> as Olympic hosts, so if the U.S. places in the top two in either the men\u2019s or women\u2019s, the bronze-medal-winning team will automatically receive a bid.<\/p>\n

\"Connections:\"Connections:<\/p>\n

Aug 14, 2026<\/p>\n

Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n

Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n

Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American Samoa’s Taulia Tagovailoa (left) threw five touchdowns in the team’s win over the U.S. and celebrates with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,593,10018,85],"class_list":["post-855205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-olympics","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}