San Marino is a mountainous, verdant, and generally beautiful country in the Apennine Mountains, fully surrounded by Italy. It's the fifth-smallest country in the world, home to only 33,000 people. Since 1990, the country has fielded an official FIFA national team. And since 1990, that team had played 176 matches, drawing five and losing 171. Had being the operative word in that sentence, for last Thursday La Serenissima scored a 1-0 win against visiting Liechtenstein in a home UEFA Nation's League match to break one of global sports' most impressive losing streaks.
On his national team debut, teen striker Nicko Sensoli broke a 0-0 halftime deadlock early in the second frame, poking the ball home after a mistake by Liechtenstein keeper Benjamin Büchel to give San Marino the only goal they'd need. After a nervy final few minutes, the final whistle blew, and the most interesting sort of unbelieving pandemonium set in.
San Marino's most fervent supporters call themselves "Brigata Mai 1 Gioia" (Never Any Joy Brigade), and embrace their nation's standing as the 210th-ranked side in the FIFA World Rankings. There are 210 official national teams. Now, they're distant cousins to pre-2004 Boston Red Sox fans, trying to navigate a world they only hoped to ever visit.
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4 comments:
whit's wish is my command. cfb picks post for tomorrow - feel free to add to it gtb nation.
I did a project on Lichtenstein for a 9th grade project. I made a mobile with dentures on it, hailing the nation as the 'false tooth capitol of the world'. My dad had a friend who owned a dental lab, so he hooked me up with the real fake teeth.
This is fantastic. My hometown’s population is 20% bigger than San Marino’s. Good for them.
Kudos to Daniel-san, and this post makes me happy.
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