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San Marino Names Unheralded Frenchman as New Manager
San Marino today announced that their new National Manager would be Marcel Doun. Doun, a 43 year old who had managed several smaller sides in France, was a surprise choice over several native coaches vying for the position. Reportedly, the infighting among San Marinen candidates eventually caused the selection committee to look beyond the borders. Apparently the selection committee was impressed Doun's ability to transition clubs from older players to younger ones- and he still maintain a level of success while doing so.
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I don't know what I really thought when they told me they would like me to manage San Marino. I had put my name into the application process- never expecting to get the position- mostly because I wanted to be able to say that I had applied for managing several smaller Nations' Clubs. I had really believed I would eventually find another position in the National. Still, the challenge was there- the offer was there- and now I badly wanted to accomplish something with them. I knew it wouldn't be easy- after all, my last club in the National could likely have easily beaten them. Still, life is all about hope- and I had plenty of hope with me in taking the job.
MD note- I had originally intended to start unemployed to begin a story in France, but when doing the setup and looking at the option to add players- the idea of managing San Marino took hold. In all the times I had managed the San Marino club in Italian football, I had wondered what it would be like to actually manage the National side- now I can, so the story sprung from that.
Tyrone- Thanks, I think I will need every ounce of luck I can find
Dave- No, this isn't the you-know-whats, that will come sometime this summer as I received some more information for a project I am working on for The Wargamer and trying to make sure my approach jibes with this information. This one is more of a lark than anything, no real goals other to try and keep the job and maybe get a good result or two along the way
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Our World Cup Qualifying Group 7 doesn't look very kind to us. The others in our Group are Spain, Belgium, Bosnia, Serbia & Montenegro and Lithuania. This means that virtually every one of those will *need* to beat up on us- as goals could well be a deciding factor in the Group play. Nevertheless, we will try to play a controlled match and lean heavily on Federico Gasparoni in net.
>>Our 26 man roster going into our first qualifier-
GK- Federico Gasparoni, Marco Pelliccioni, Michele Ceccoli
DEF- Alessandro Della Velle, Mirko Gennari, Carlo Valentini, Matteo Andreini, Roberto Selva, Luca Gobbi, Ivan Matteoni, Simone Bacciocchi
MID- William Guerra, Ermanno Zonzini, Damiano Vannucci, Andrea Mosconi, Riccardo Muccioli, Lorenzo Moretti, Peirangelo Manzaroli, Alex Gasperoni, Michele Marani, Nicola Bacciocchi, Marco De Luigi
FOR- Andy Selva, Nicola Ciacci, Andrea Ugolini, Paolo Montagna
Before my debut as Manager- hosting Serbia & Montenegro in our first World Cup Qualifying Group 7 draw- there is a lot of discussion in the San Marino press about my inclusion of many youngsters on the National side. My thoughts on this are that to have some hope of developing some of the youngsters- we will need to give them a chance.
4.9.04 San Marino (0) Serbia & Montenegro (2)
San Marino- None
Serbia- S.Milosevic 24 D.Stankovic 60
MOM- Savo Milosevic, Serbia
We made a worthy start, but were able to put little pressure on Serbia offensively as we lost 2-0. There were encouraging signs as we played quality, determined defense throughout the match, but their pace advantage was a severe problem for us in the match as we failed to win many loose balls, nor were we able to really try and stretch out their defense. Likely the most encouraging aspect of our defense is that they failed to score from inside the area. Our scrambling coverage in the area worked well enough to thwart some good chances on their part. The flip side of that is that they scored on a 30 yard blast from Savo Milosevic and a 25 yard rocket from Dejan Stankovic. Though Federico Gasperoni played very well overall, it was disappointing that he didn't make saves on those two shots. Our only good chance came on a throw-in as Andrea Ugolini fired a shot that was grabbed off by their keeper.
8.9.04
Lithuania (5) San Marino (0)
Lithuania- R.Viejeikis 27,36 E.Jankauskas 53,69 W.Guerra 79-OG
San Marino- None
MOM- Edgar Jankauskas, Lithuania
A much more disappointing performance for us in our trip to Vilnius. We managed three good scoring chances in the first 10 minutes of play and looked to be playing better- then the wheels came off. Carlo Valentini insisted on hanging on to the ball after he intercepted a throw-in. It was taken away from him and one good cross later- we were trailing. The next goal has to be laid at Federico Gasperoni's feet as he mishandled an easy shot and it was promptly driven past him. Jankauskas had an easy time scoring his 2nd goal when Luca Gobbi wandered up the pitch- away from the rest of our backline- and left him unmarked to walk in and fire it home. The last two goals were more of the same for Gasperoni in net- in both cases he mishandled easy shots and the second time Willem Guerra pushed it past him for an own-goal to cap our 5-0 defeat. Our manhandling caused a stir in the press- but in reality it points out the grim fact that unless Federico Gasperoni does a solid job in net, we are very liable to be blown out.
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The loss to Lithuania has me reconsidering how to set our tactics. We need to find something that allows us to play adequate defense in front of Gasperoni, which has me leaning toward anything with a 4-man backline, since we have enough defenders to hopefully provide support. It would be easy to believe that a 451 might be the approach to take- except that we have three decent forwards and a severe lack of quality midfielders. So, we will try to play a defensive, ball control 433 and see if we can improve both defensively and offensively.
eli- I am not sure to be honest with you- though I did look at their history awhile ago
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It will likely cause a bigger stir as we approach our trip to Serbia next month, but I handled the roster changes quietly. For our match against Serbia we will be featuring two 17 year old starters- which will no doubt shock the press. In all, we added 8 new players to the 26 man roster (we had been carrying only 24 for the first two matches). Joining us as starters are 17 year old SC Matteo Valli and 17 year old MR Nicola Cavalli. Also joining the National side are 22 year old GK Federico Valentini, 23 year old DR Nicola Albani, 20 year old DC Matteo Gorini, 27 year old DC Federico Pelliccioni (also moving into the starting lineup), 22 year old AMRLC Raffaele Moroni and 20 year old SC Manuel Marani. Why the drastic change? Simple. A quick look at our roster showed exactly ONE player on the roster with an International Goal. Given the beating we took at Vilnius, we might as well start seeing if our younger players hold more promise than our 30-somethings who haven't accomplished anything. Experience is a great thing- if it gives you something in return. It sure didn't seem the return was there for the experienced players on the club.
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Due to an injury to Paolo Montagna, I am calling up another first-timer- 24 year old SC Michele Lisi. Lisi likely won't play, but at least will get some valuable training exposure.
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After official announcement of the squad for the Serbia match, I was surprised that the criticism was a bit muted. Perhaps the press and fans were as fed up as I was after the performance against Lithuania. The only real dissension was the inclusion of Lisi- which didn't bother me since he won't be dressed against Serbia.
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...From the mouths of babes. It was interesting to see an ex-International player touting our chances as we travelled to face Serbia. I was heartened to see 17 year old Nicola Cavalli offering caution- a sign of his maturity in my estimation.
13.10.04
Serbia & Montenegro (5) San Marino (3) World Cup Qualifying Group 7
Serbia- D.Stankovic 5 Z.Vukic 8-P,67-P S.Milosevic 10 P.Djordjevic 87
San Marino- M.Valli 57 A.Selva 65 N.Ciacci 90
MOM- Savo Milosevic, Serbia
There was some bad- and also some good to take away from our 5-3 loss to Serbia & Montenegro at Belgrade. The bad was we fell behind 3-0 in the first ten minutes as we completely failed to execute. The first goal I could write off to Dejan Stankovic being a world class player (starts for Inter) and he used his superior pace to burst around Nicola Albani at right back before making a good shot past Federico Gasperoni. The next two goals- the ones that really killed us- were directly attributable to Lorenzo Moretti's poor play. A ill-timed challenge in the area gave them a penalty and Zvonimir Vukic converted it easily. On their 3rd goal, Moretti passed directly to Milosevic and he raced past our stunned defenders before rocketing a shot home. We did get a break though- as Veljko Paunovic earned a pair of yellow cards and was off at 29 minutes. We failed to take advantage of this in the first half and went to halftime outshot 14-1 and trailing 3-0. The second half is the kind of half that gives me hope we are on the right track. An excellent passing sequence saw us find enough space for Mattia Valli to blast a shot inside the left post to score in his International debut. Valli and Nicola Cavalli both played well and proved they belong today. We drew back within 3-2 when Andy Selva scored his 5th International goal after Raffaele Moroni played a wonderful pass to him. Our hope of a comeback lasted less than a minute though as Ivan Matteoni was whistled for tripping Darko Kovacevic in the area and Vukic converted that penalty as well for his 2nd goal. We went down 5-2 as we got caught pressing forward and Kovacevic's cross was headed home by a diving Predrag Djordjevic. I was cheered when Cavalli made a superb pass down the right sideline that resulted in Nicole Ciacci overpowered keeper Dragoslav Jevric and pushed his shot into the open net for his 1st International goal. The press commented afterward that we had never threatened to upset them- but when we had gotten back to 3-2, I know we had them a bit worried.
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In analyzing the match, it was clear we can not play a 433. We got badly overpowered in the midfield. We have no height to speak of and this is also a problem as it was clear that Serbia bombarded us with high balls. Besides Valli and Cavalli having nice debuts- the surprise of the match was Raffaele Moroni. He showed both that he was the fastest player on our club and that he has good ability to create offensively- something we had been sorely missing. We will have to find a way to try and take advantage of that in our next match- a friendly at Qatar next month.
eli- Answer to your question is that San Marino managed a draw against Turkey in 1993 and also managed a draw against Lithuania in 2001. They have lost all their other qualifying matches.
Delusions of Grandeur 
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