Last night England dispatched the minnows of San Marino with a reasonable if unspectacular performance at Wembley in front of a sell-out crowd. For San Marino that made their record 113 games played, with just one win and four draws to show for their efforts. At one point during the match, the ITV commentary team expressed their disappointment that San Marino hadn’t been a little more ambitious and at least attempted to put some pressure on the England defence, but with that kind of record behind them it’s hardly surprising that they tend to be a little cautious. There are occasions in football when, to use a cliche, attack can be the best form of defence, but for the likes of San Marino who simply don’t have the technical ability to trouble the better sides it’s more likely to lead to an even heavier defeat. Indeed the common consensus was that they would and should be pretty satisfied to have kept England down to a five-goal margin of victory.
Undoubtedly teams such as San Marino need to be encouraged as footballing nations, but it is questionable whether putting them up for one beating after another is quite the encouragement they need. Perhaps a better idea would be to inaugurate a pre-qualifying competition for major championships. A place where the lesser footballing nations of Europe could play-off against each other on a more level playing field and allowing them to taste victory once in a while. Surely there would be more to gain that way, than simply engaging in damage imitation exercises against teams with more skill, better organisation and vastly more resources. Far better for these nations to improve gradually against similar strength sides, earning the right to tackle the big boys and at least allowing them to enter those games with a measure of confidence that some victories would provide. It would also have the advantage of shortening the final qualifying process, meaning fewer games for Europe’s top players and eliminating some of the more predictable results.
San Marino’s only victory came in a friendly against Liechtenstein in 2004. Andy Selva, the nation’s top scorer with a grand total of eight goals (the next best is Manuel Marani with 2), scored the winner that day. I imagine the celebrations from the team and their supporters were superb, maybe it’s now time they were given a little more hope of securing a second win, and celebrating once more.
sportswhofan 