June 30th 2002 will forever be remembered in the world of soccer as the day Brazil beat Germany 2-0 in the World Cup final and added a 5th star to its' crest. It is not as remembered, however, that on that same day another match was played between FIFA's two worst ranked nations: Bhutan and Montserrat.
The story of how this match came to be begins with the fact that Netherlands failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Two Dutch ad-agents then had the idea to promote a friendly match between the two worst nations in the world, hoping that the juxtaposition would call attention the alternative encounter.
Bhutan played its' first official match 1982 and up until that point had yet to win an official game. They had seen a decrease in popularity in the sport and hoped that a novelty such as this could spark the flame back up. Montserrat on the other hand had recently suffered a devastating volcanic eruption which forced two thirds of its' population to evacuate the island and needed the awareness.
The initial talks were slow, there was a lot of worry about match becoming a joke and doing more damage to the image of the nations than good. Eventually an agreement was made, FIFA sanctioned the friendly, and just a few hours before Brazil x Germany the world witnessed (or not) the clash between Bhutan and Montserrat.
Bhutan hosted the match and won by 4-0 in front of a crowd of 15 thousand fans. The Caribbean nation clearly suffered the effects of the approximately 2,300 meter altitude. The historic victory, which was also Bhutan's first clean sheet, was just enough to keep Montserrat in last in the FIFA rankings and also surpass Turks & Caicos, American Samoa and Guam, putting Bhutan in 199th place.
This whole saga was well documented and released as a movie called "The Other Final" in the following year.