San Marino: Road to World Cup Glory

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seanhrfc

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Introduction
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This story is going to be focused on the San Marino National Team and taking them to World Cup Glory. My current save is a joint San Marino club and national team save and I'm currently in pre-season of the 2019/20 campaign. Although this story is going to focus on the national team, I believe it's important to set the scene with the achievements and development of the club team, which of course are the reason that I am able to compete on an international level.

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As you can see I have won all the honours available at club level and I have developed the club into the most reputable club in the world behind El Classico. We're currently on a 99 match unbeaten run in all competitions. I have developed the facilities as high as they can go and improved the recruitment & junior coaching. The training is all at 4.5/5 stars and I have the best coaches/scouts for recruitment. Overall I have all the foundations in place to develop the Sammarinese youngsters needed to take the National team from the worst to best in the world.
San Marino National Team History

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Here is a brief year by year of screen shots showing the development of the national team from 2012 to 2019.

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National Team - The Present​

First off all I'm going to post a few screen shots of the best re-gens that have come through on my game. All of them have come through my own club team's youth ranks, except Emanuele Bugli who was produced at Padova. The rate of development of these players has been incredible, I've given them the best tutoring and training available and of course plenty of game time!

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The future is looking very bright for San Marino - Andreini, Hirsch and Gasperoni are star players for the national team and Crescentini / Martino are rising stars. Pedini will do as first team keeper for now as he can competently play in Serie B, whilst Bugli is a good striker to have around the squad. Though I may have to sign him to help his development, 2 seasons ago him and Hirsch had similar attributes! Had a set-back in the season just gone where we produced not a single Sammarinese player above one star potential, as well as 3 players still rejecting the call ups (though they would be nothing more than squad players anyway). Our first 11 is pretty good, but original players provide the weak links with Biordi, Palazzi and Vitaioli/Cibelli still being regular starters. With a couple of injuries to key players the team is greatly hindered! Need to get some more quality regens through the ranks asap.

Here's how it stands at the moment in our Euro 2020 qualifying:

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We have a great chance of getting through to the Euro's! I reckon two wins will do it, so we must beat Kazakhstan and pick up a win against one of Wales/Poland/Croatia.

I'm going to give game-by-game updates on the national team as well as player updates. My aim is to win the World Cup by 2030. We've already been handed a tough qualifying group for the 2022 World Cup, we'll be facing France, Greece, Belarus & Latvia.
 
Great job so far, the club has really developed into a top class organization and cracking into Euro 2020 with the NT would be an amazing achievement.

Giacomo Hirsch would be an instant favourite for me - got to love a left footed striker with a somewhat unusual name for SM :)

One thing, not sure you're doing the best thing loaning out that promising left winger: your club has top facilities and I'm sure you could already guarantee him decent playing time between league and cups, that is an ideal situation not sure if Liverpool can offer the same.

Also he only has 11 determination so you might want to keep him at your club to get some valuable tutoring to improve various aspects (determination, personality and PPM). Not that you need any suggestion judging by what you've already achieved ;)
 
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A terrible loss in a friendly to a poor Singapore side, think complacency could have been a big problem here, not good preparation for the upcoming fixtures against Kazakhstan and Wales in September. A team meeting was held after the game to give them a kick up the ****! We tend to not perform well in friendlies against sides we should now be beating comfortably!
 
kandersson said:
Great job so far, the club has really developed into a top class organization and cracking into Euro 2020 with the NT would be an amazing achievement.

Giacomo Hirsch would be an instant favourite for me - got to love a left footed striker with a somewhat unusual name for SM :)

One thing, not sure you're doing the best thing loaning out that promising left winger: your club has top facilities and I'm sure you could already guarantee him decent playing time between league and cups, that is an ideal situation not sure if Liverpool can offer the same.

Also he only has 11 determination so you might want to keep him at your club to get some valuable tutoring to improve various aspects (determination, personality and PPM). Not that you need any suggestion judging by what you've already achieved ;)
Click to expand...

Cheers, I will probably re-call Martino in January from Liverpool, just want to see him playing week-in-week-out and I don't want to drop my first choice LW who is the best left wing in the world (see SS below). As soon as Avilez turns 23 I will get him tutoring Martini.

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EDIT: Just noticed that Avilez and Martino share the same birthday, 8th March!
 
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San Marino 1-0 Kazakhstan
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We secured the vital 3 points in this game, but we were far from out attacking best. Kazakhstan never looked like scoring, but we failed to capitalize on easy chances to make this game more comfortable.

Wales 1-0 San Marino
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Another lacklustre attacking performance as we failed to score and even failed to get an attempt on target. Our first taste of defeat in qualifying.

League Table & Fixtures

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We are still top of the qualifying group but clinging on to it! In all honesty I couldn't give a monkeys if I came 1st or 2nd, qualifying will be a great achievement! Its going to be an exciting end to qualifying, if I manage to pick up a point against Croatia I am guaranteed to qualify. If I fail to do this, I must go to Poland and win to ensure a place. Croatia's & Wales' other game is against Kazakhstan, so I fully expect them to win those games.
 
San Marino 1-1 Croatia
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A great result here that guarantees us a place at Euro 2020. We had the better chances in the game and perhaps should have won, but I'd take a draw any day.

Poland 0-1 San Marino
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We finished the campaign well with a win against a tricky Poland side. This win entitled us to the top spot in the qualifying group, a great achievement and way above my expectations!

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We've been handed an interesting group for the Euros, one I believe with a bit of luck we can qualify from. Its hard to separate them in terms of abilities, they're all pretty similar with 2/3 players playing for top teams, a load of average international players and a few up and coming regens. We start the campaign against hosts Turkey, so we will be playing in the first game of Euro 2020!

Next post is likely to be the build up to the Euro's.
 
So the time has come for the build up to the Euro's. A 30-man squad assembled and 4 friendlies. Interestingly the like of Greece and Switzerland rejected offers for friendlies saying that they wouldn't benefit from playing such a poor team. So I hope they fail miserably in the tournament.

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The squad has some quality players in it who I think are good enough to play at this level. Andreini was part of the Serie A team of the year and Hirsch has been a consistent club goalscorer for 3 seasons. Gasperoni is now a class act for club and country and Crescentini / Martini are forever improving. A player from the latest youth intake, Broccoli, will be straight into the first 11 despite not making a club appearance and he looks promising! However there is a great lack of depth, as expected, so a few injuries and we're screwed!

We come in at 5,000-1 to win Euro 2020. I'd be tempted to put a sneaky bet on.
 
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A great build up campaign to the Euros. Bugli has scored 7 and Hirsch 4, in the Bosnia game neither featured as I rested several key players.

Bring on the group stages!
 
Have to say I'm so into this game, nearly pulled off an all nighter but fell asleep for a couple of hours! Woke up and I just had to finish where I left off.

Group Stages

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We kicked off the group stages against the hosts Turkey and started strong, 3-0 up by half time! Quite incredibly Turkey's goalkeeper managed to score after a mix up between CB and GK and a poor touch from LB Carratoni almost allowed Turkey back into the game when they made it 2-3. We failed to score against Ukraine and found ourselves losing 1-0, despite having the better opportunities. Though we were able to convert chances to goals in the Denmark game which we dominated. Interestingly, Ukraine absolutely thrashed Denmark and Turkey 8-1 and 6-0 respectively. We finished the group in 2nd place behind an on-form Ukraine side.

2nd Round (3-0 Serbia)
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Our second round game saw us drawn against Serbia, it wasn't going to be easy as you never quite know what to expect from a side like Serbia. But I was quietly confident, as they were no better on paper than what we had faced already. A great result and team performance in a 3-0 win, Serbia were hardly given a sniff!

Quarter Final (3-2 France)
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The quarter final saw us provide a world shock, beating France and deservedly so from the stats. Giacomo Hirsch got the winner in injury time - there's no better feeling than that!

Semi Final (1-0 Belgium)
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Another incredible underdog victory as we shunned any attacking threat Belgium posed. A goal seconds before the half time whistle from Hirsch was enough to secure a place in the final.

Final (2-1 Holland AET)
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Well what can I say! We did it! San Marino are the champions of Europe! Holland are the World Cup holders and have some amazing re-gens so I was all ready to take beaten finalists as a consolation after they scored after 5 minutes. However we had a bit of luck when Gasperoni scored from a controversial penalty. We managed to keep Holland out and took the game to extra time. Then came the goal of the Tournament. Parma's Emanuel Bugli sprays the ball out wide to Martino and carries on a great run off the ball. Martino plays one of the best passes I have seen on FM, an aerial through ball into the path of Bugli that splits the whole of the Dutch defence. Bugli uses his skill and composure to round the keeper and slots it into an empty net. And we hold onto the 2-1 to become the winners of Euro 2020!

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We managed to get three players into the Dream Team. Pedini, 4th choice keeper for club and Serie B loanee, was selected as the best keeper, whilst the tremendous performances from young captain Daniele Andreini earned his place in the Dream Team and also Player of the Tournament! A surprise addition in the Dream Team was Mirko Palazzi, who is the all-time most capped Titani with 78 caps. Although he could have been seen as the weak link in the side, he churned out good performances and even grabbed as goal! And as you can see Bugli's goal got Goal of the Tournament. Amongst the substitutes for the Dream Team were Hirsch, Gasperoni and Crescentini.
 
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WTF!? To win a major tournament with SM so early in the game is absolutely shocking, especially seeing the likes of Mirko Palazzi in the Dream Team XD

Out of curiosity, who the **** is Bun Sophea (apparently one of your keepers)???
 
WOW! 2020 with San Marino is amazing, it took me until 2030 to win the Euros with Andorra, and i wasn't contending with dual nationality at every turn. Brilliant job and i eagerly await the world cup :D
 
still can't decide what's more shocking: 1) winning Euro 2020 with SM 2) Mirko Palazzi being selected for Dream Team or 3) the Sammarinese/Cambodian keeper... I'd have to go with Palazzi XD
 
kandersson said:
still can't decide what's more shocking: 1) winning Euro 2020 with SM 2) Mirko Palazzi being selected for Dream Team or 3) the Sammarinese/Cambodian keeper... I'd have to go with Palazzi XD
Click to expand...

I can't wait for the World Cup! Got to get there first, tough qualifiers vs Greece, Belarus & France. Mirko Palazzi is now a living legend - he stepped down to retire from International football after the Euro's but I talked him back into it.

In his career he has played in - Serie D, Serie C2A, Serie C2B, Serie C1A, Serie C1B, Serie B, Serie A, League 1, League 2, Championship and the Campionato Sammarinese. He's also been there the whole way through from worst team in the world to european champions!

I reckon he's got 2 seasons left in him, hoping he helps Cambridge towards the Premier League and is able to be part of my World Cup team.

Funny thing is, he didn't even play DR for me in Euro 2020, he was in DM.
 
World Cup Qualifying
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After winning the Euro's our WC qualifying campaign form has been a bit dodgy. We started well with a 2-0 win over Belarus followed up with a 0-0 draw with Greece, which away from home isn't a bad result. Then France came with revenge in mind and beat us 3-1 though it could have been an absolute thrashing. What followed was a terrible result, 0-0 with a very poor Latvia side. A second win over Belarus 2-1 which puts us in a respectable 2nd place behind France. A win against Greece and Latvia will put us safely into the play offs, which I hope we can get through!

Confederations Cup
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We stormed through the group stages of Confederations Cup in spite of our recent patchy form. 3-0, 5-1, 3-0. Tremendous to watch!

Semi-Final (2-1 Holland AET)
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The final of Euro 2020 repeated itself and the game was scarily similar! Holland went a goal up and Gasperoni equalised from the penalty spot. A goal in extra time from Hirsch, set up beautifully by Bugli, secured us a place in the final.

Final (2-0 Argentina)
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This is the first time we've found ourselves against top quality opposition from outside Europe and we really showed how well we can defend. A few quality regens and Aguero / Messi still showed their quality despite being into their 30s. Another penalty from Gasperoni, though it took him the rebound to score, and an injury time header from a greyed out centre-back was enough to secure the victory.

Confederation Cup Champions!!! (And now ranked No. 1 in the world)
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Here are the two most promising youngsters from the youth intake:

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Interestingly the greyed out players given in the National Team when it is not full are now a lot better than the amateur players I can call up.
 
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