San Marinese appreciation society

Hi guys,
despite being English I have followed San Marino for the past 8 years attending 11 home fixtures in that period.

It is a great (and affordable) day out and gives emotions that many have never experienced. From Valle's equaliser against Poland (irregardless of the fact we lost 1-5) to the 1-2 defeats against Ireland and Wales a couple of years back, both were celebrated as most do when your club sides win the European cup ( sort of like the Premier Legue Arsenal fans, but better  ).

The draw for the Euro qualifiers is in around 10 days and ideally we can draw one of Northern Ireland, Estonia or Azerbaijan which is in all likelihood our best chance of getting a home point during the process.

We were looking pretty decent (for us) a couple of years ago, at one stage we conceded only 6 goals in 4 games which is a pretty impressive stat for us despite the fact that run ended with us conceding 11 in Eindhoven against the Dutch. However with the recent conceding of 17 against Ukraine a few months back things look to be very messy again.

San Marino

 

Robespierre wrote:San Marino

AKA Andy Selva and 9 centre backs  

Andy Selva SPAL legend

I have always hoped to watch Italy-San Marino, a derby pratically, but the drawing never contented me

Robespierre wrote:Andy Selva SPAL legend

I have always hoped to watch Italy-San Marino, a derby pratically, but the drawing never contented me

We played them last year in a friendly (0-4) but really it would be special to play them home and away in qualifying. The 0-4 actually sounds quite impressive but when you remember this is an Italy side which struggles against the Faroe Islands in recent years then it is really not lol.

Genuinely believe we could nab a goal against you if we played you twice though.

I have had the honour of meeting Gualtieri back in 2006 and he get's nowhere near the adulation you would think - he apparently only ever gets asked about that goal but he was wondering around at a match just like one of the crowd with no-one hassling him at all.

Maybe that shows how well behaved the people of San Marino are - they have respect and keep a proper distance. ^^

rwo power wrote:Maybe that shows how well behaved the people of San Marino are - they have respect and keep a proper distance. ^^

They are folk who emphasise the saying 'keep yourself to yourself' - It is only through being one of the only English supporters of the Nat'l side (3 others that I know are 'regulars') that I am interesting to them and get welcomed accordingly.

It is easier to get citizenship of Mars than it is there also  

Well, I have visited San Marino a while ago and while it is beautiful, it is also pretty small, so I guess they will think twice before letting their piece of paradise get overcrowded

On the minus side, this means they only have a rather limited pool of football players, so all they can do it just to put all of their heart and soul into their game, if technique and skill doesn't match their opponents. (And of course it doesn't help that they are amateurs and can only train part time).

rwo power wrote:Well, I have visited San Marino a while ago and while it is beautiful, it is also pretty small, so I guess they will think twice before letting their piece of paradise get overcrowded

On the minus side, this means they only have a rather limited pool of football players, so all they can do it just to put all of their heart and soul into their game, if technique and skill doesn't match their opponents. (And of course it doesn't help that they are amateurs and can only train part time).

Well we have seen Bonnini and Selva ( down the years ), but we can always hope that we produce a real top player to inspire others in the way we have seen other smaller nations do ( Wales with Bale etc, Liechtenstein had Frick, Malta had Mifsud etc ).

The problem with us is we get criticised for defending for 90 mins but when we do try and play expansively we get hammered (0-13, 11-0, 10-1). The big thing however for us is scoring. If we could get 4-5 goals in the next qualifying period but get 0 points then that would be seen as a great success.

Another trip to Wembley then - Would be happy to contain you to 5 again.

lol Why do we get San Marino everytime

RealGunner wrote:lol Why do we get San Marino everytime

94, 12 and 16 groups are hardly every time lol.

Should be the potential of a couple of points against Lithuania and Estonia at home as we could restric them to 1-2 goals with a bit of luck, but it just depends if we can get a bit lucky further up the pitch and grab a goal.


Gutted we didn't get the Italians