The members of the Tahiti soccer team took their beating like men, according to their rivals.
Spain annihilated Tahiti in Confederations Cup play 10-0 on Thursday in Rio de Janeiro, showing no mercy - at least until after the beatdown during the game was over, according to Goal.com.
Striker Fernando Torres, who scored a whopping four goals himself during the contest, had nothing but praise for the outmanned Tahiti team.
"What we take from this game is the example the Tahiti team, who played with 100 percent passion and fair play until the end," said Torres. "They try to play properly, they try to enjoy themselves. They don't try to stop the game or kick players - they enjoy their football and that is the big thing we take from the game today.
"We were taking pictures with their players after the game. They are happy people and I really enjoyed seeing them smiling and enjoying themselves until the last minute."
Tahiti, which lost 6-1 to Nigeria on Monday, knew what was about to happen against the dominant Spaniards, according to its coach, Eddy Etaeta.
In a story by The Associated Press prior to Thursday's game, Etaeta was quoted as saying, ""We are highly realistic. It's impossible for us to win against Spain. Our objective it to try to score, or not to be scored against, for half an hour. But maybe we can score one goal and against Spain, even if it's 15 or 20 against one. It's impossible, yes quite impossible.''
The AP story went on to say that Tahiti has just one professional player, Marama Vahirua, a striker with Greek club Panthrakikos. He is the only Tahitian to ever play professionally outside the island. Nine of the 23 players on the Tahiti team are unemployed, including Etaeta. Others have day jobs as delivery boys, truck drivers, physical education teachers and accountants.
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