San Marino national soccer team ends 176-game winless streak

Tiny San Marino delivers the feel-good sports story of the day.

Nicko Sensoli is playing semi-professional soccer in Italy’s fourth-tier league and on Thursday became a national hero in San Marino.

In the 53rd minute of San Marino’s game against Liechtenstein in the UEFA Nations League, Sensoli scored what turned out to be the decisive goal. It wasn’t just big in the context of this one particular game, it was historic: the 1-0 victory is San Marino’s first ever in a competitive setting.

In fact, the country’s national team has left the pitch victoriously only once before. In 2004, 14 months before Sensoli was born, San Marino beat — you guessed it — Liechtenstein 1-0 in a friendly match.

More than 20 years later, the country has finally earned a “real” win. The reactions looked the part:

San Marino’s first competitive win sure was a long time coming.

The country’s men’s national soccer team was established in 1990, and entering Thursday had appeared in 176 competitive games between World Cup qualifiers, European Championship qualifiers, and the Nations League. Of those games, 171 ended in defeat, with the other five resulting in draws of either 0-0 (4) or 1-1 (1). Along the way, San Marino scored 23 goals while surrendering 750.

As a consequence of the team’s inability to play any sort of competitive soccer, San Marino found itself at the very bottom of the FIFA World Ranking before Thursday. The tiny country was ranked 210th out of 210 national teams.

Compared to this, 199th-ranked Liechtenstein entered Thursday’s game looking like a powerhouse. In the end, however, it did not matter.

For once, San Marino can call itself a winner.