San Marino, more famous for its named
Grand Prix F1 rather than football is ranked 297th in
FIFA's rankings, equal to Bhutan and the Turks and Caicos islands.
Actually the F1 race takes place at Imola, not in San Marino.
In November 1993, Davide Gualtieri
scored the fastest goal in World Cup history, after Stuart Pearce
under hit a back pass after 8.3 seconds of a qualifier at Wembley.
The goal scorer dined out on that for the rest of his career and at
41, he is a computer salesman, who speaks no English and has his wife
translate for him when he is interviewed, every time his country
draws England in a competition.
So far the two countries have met five
times with scores at 6-0, 1-7, 5-0, 0-8, 5-0 (all England wins, home
and away).
When England thumped San Marino 7-1 in
1993 the team was:
Seaman, Dixon Pallister Walker Pearce
Ripley Ince Platt Sinton Wright Ferdinand. Not exactly convincing is
it?
Today Wayne Rooney scored his 49th
international goal from the penalty spot, to take his country to 1-0
in the Stadio Olimpico and he equals Bobby Charlton's record. It is
half time so we don't yet know what's going to happen next! I suspect
he will score again.
The first unofficial international SM
played was in 1986 v a Canadian Olympic side and the first official
international against Switzerland was in 1990, they didn't win.
They have played 114 times, won 1 drawn
5 and lost the rest obviously. Goals For 19 Against 473. The one win
was against Liechenstein in a friendly.
They did recently draw with Estonian
0-0 in the European Qualifying competition.
San Marino have twins playing in goal
and at centre back-their understanding is not as good as it should
be. One of their players could not play because of a staffing problem
in his bar, so he pulled out!
With a population of only 31,000 you would think he could find a temporary barman?
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