The island nation of Tahiti qualified for the 2013 Confederations Cup by winning their first ever Oceania Nations Cup last year. They became the first country either than Australia or New Zealand to win the competition in a historic upset. Tahiti is ranked 138th in the FIFA World Rankings, tied with Syria and just ahead of Afghanistan. They rank behind countries like Burundi, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Turkmenistan, and Belize. Tahiti are 5000/1 odds to win the Confederations Cup with Japan the next closest team at 40/1. They have one, yes, one professional soccer player.
Tahiti also has the best official Twitter account of any national soccer team in the world. Just observe their tweets from the opening 6-1 loss to Nigeria in which Marama Vahiruau is compared to Lionel Messi and the optimistic, exuberant hashtags are aplenty…
