A Victory at Last for San Marino, the World’s Worst Soccer Team
San Marino scored its first competitive win. “To beat Liechtenstein has been an incredible joy,” one player said.Take a look at the men’s world soccer rankings. At the top, you will find the giants of the sport, Argentina, France and Spain.Then descend, past good teams like the United States and Australia, past decent teams like Honduras and Armenia. Keep going, past Mongolia and Djibouti. Even past the tiny island nations like Guam and Anguilla. And at the very bottom, below all of them, you will find San Marino, ranked 210th and last.When you are the worst team in soccer, you lose. A lot.San Marino had not won a men’s soccer game since 2004. And that game was a friendly match. The team had been playing official competitive games since 1990 and had never won.Until this week. San Marino beat Liechtenstein (ranked 199th) on Thursday, 1-0, finally getting a victory, which was played in San Marino before fewer than 1,000 fans.“We had a great performance,” said Dante Rossi, 37, a defender for San Marino who had never before tasted the thrill of winning at this level. “To beat Liechtenstein has been an incredible joy. It is complicated to find the right words to describe the massive emotions we felt.”Nicko Sensoli, a 19-year-old midfielder, scored the winning goal. He was not even alive when San Marino last won. “I’m over the moon,” he said after the game. “To win at home in front of your family and fans is just something that is priceless.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
