2024-03-22 11:13:10
At the end of the national team break, San Marino footballers drew unprecedented attention. The worst team in the FIFA World Rankings launched an attack on their first victory in 20 years, but their first attempt failed on Wednesday night.
The streak of San Marino, the last (210th) team in the international ranking, has already stretched to 137 games without a win. On Wednesday, the football players of the city-state lost 1:3 in a duel against the Caribbean archipelago of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
At the same time, the team had so much soul that this time the time had finally come.
“I have no idea what will happen if we win,” midfielder Lorenzo Capicchioni mused in an interview with the Guardian. “It was always something completely unattainable for us, but this time we can definitely do it,” he believed.
The only win from the 202 official matches so far was recorded by San Marino players in April 2004 in a friendly match with Liechtenstein, which they won 1:0.
“We were then more than a football team, than a group of footballers. We were a group of friends who sacrificed and fought, gave everything to achieve the goal”, recalled the then defender Simone Bacciocchi for the Guardian.
In the following years, the San Marino suffered heavy debacles in the European and World Championship qualifiers. In 2006, they lost a record 0:13 against the Germans, a month later they lost to the Czechs 0:7 in Liberec, which is still a Czech record (shared with three other matches).
The Czechs have played against the San Marino selection six times and won each time, with a total score of 31-0. Almost before every mutual encounter, the civil professions of the San Marino players were discussed in the Czech media. Lawyer, ceramics salesman, TV repairmen.
To this day, Serie C, the third highest Italian competition, is usually the maximum that San Marino’s representatives can reach in club football. Most of them work in the domestic “city” league, football does not support them.
But the results have gone up in recent years. Also thanks to the new League of Nations, in which the Sanmarines meet more often with other European dwarves. They reached a 0:0 draw with Gibraltar, for example, but they also bite strong opponents. High defeats are no longer common.
Last fall, the Sanmarins had a series in which they upset the Danes at home (1:2), also scored in Kazakhstan (1:3) and then again reached for a point gain against Finland (1:2) at home.
That is why there is so much optimism before the current block of preparatory matches.
San Marino entered the home friendly with the islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis even as odds-on favorites according to bookmakers, and some users of the X social network literally lived for the match in Serravalle.
After 20 minutes, Filippo Berardi opened the scoring with a converted penalty and the “San Marino fan account” posted a jumble of capital letters as evidence of the joyous euphoria.
Soon after came another status written in capitals: “We scored in four games in a row. We rewrote history!” Which is true, because San Marino really doesn’t remember such a streak.
However, Saint Kitts and Nevis turned the game around in the first half and eventually won 3:1. The fan account went from euphoria to traditional begging for bad luck, as X presents himself as a supporter of the “unluckiest team in the world” on the social network.
“The role of favorites has gone to their heads,” wrote user Johnny Utah.
“Normally we try to keep the score 0-0 as long as possible, but now we have to play differently. We have to be the ones who try to score and attack,” midfielder Capicchioni said before the match.
The same will probably apply on Sunday, when the rematch will be played again in Serravalle, San Marino, from 20:45. In June, the Slovaks and Cypriots are waiting for the worst ranked team in the world rankings.