San Marino, makes the sporting news today BUT the country is more famous for its named Grand Prix F1 rather than football in which it is 210th in FIFA's rankings. Actually the F1 race takes place at Imola, not in San Marino. However, there are one or two other special Olympic moments for this small Republic. With a population of nearly 38,000, the country has entered one man in the judo, one of each in shooting, one women in swimming and one male in wrestling. The country's medal total remains at ONE! and today, this matches those powerful sporting nations of Finland, Kuwait, Cuba, Israel, Ivory Coast, Argentina and Portugal on the medals' table.
Alessandra Perilli (born April 1, 1988) is a female, Sammarinese professional target shooter. Her hometown is Borgo Maggiore. She finished 4th after a draw and shoot off for 2nd place with a French and a Slovakian shooter in the Women's Trap at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She won San Marino's first ever Olympic medal, a bronze. Gian Marco Berti also shot, ranked 18th and as a pair they will shoot later in the mixed event.
The Olympic committee sent a "universality" invitation to San Marino to enter a swimmer, so Arianna Valloni swam the 1500m freestyle and was ranked 32nd. Therefore she did not swim after her heat! Myles Amine was also invited to wrestle in the Men Freetsyle 86 kg competition. As yet, no results.
In November 1993, Davide Gualtieri scored the fastest goal in World Cup history (at the time), 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. Who remembers the first few minutes of this game?
The first unofficial soccer 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 since played 177 times, won 1 drawn 6 and lost the rest obviously. Goals For 25 Against 746. The one win was against Liechenstein in a friendly.
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 around 38,000 you would think he could find a temporary barman? Giuoco means "game" and calcio, of course you know...means football.
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