Ramsdale stays focused despite action-free night
AARON RAMSDALE made a point of grabbing the ball for a good rub after the pre-match coin toss, perhaps fearing he might not touch it again all night.
A goalkeeper being handed an England debut against San Marino is like being given a gleaming silver tea set but having no-one to share a cuppa with. Exciting but a little deflating at the same time.
Keepers like to be involved like anyone else, but against a side that has only scored 26 times in 181 internationals it can be a lonely vigil.
Communication with team-mates is largely by megaphone or semaphore with the biggest challenge maintaining focus through the void of inactivity.
It took 33 minutes for Ramsdale, above, to be called upon to make a save, and in sprawling to his right to tip Nicola Nanni’s shot around the post, he passed his strange test.
By that point England were already 4-0 up and stocking up on the sun cream for Qatar. It was the only save he had to make all night.
It doesn’t do to be too blase of course. In 1993 David Seaman suffered the embarrassment of being beaten by Davide Gualtieri after eight seconds – the second-fastest goal in World Cup qualifying history. But an intimidating baptism on some hostile foreign field this was not, with a lot more red and white flags of St George than San Marino blue and white in the house.
With only 33,000 inhabitants and a terrain more fit for mountain goats than football pitches, it is no wonder San Marino are ranked 210 out of the 210 teams on the international ladder.
For Gareth Southgate, with the actual business of keeping goal almost redundant, last night was about taking a look at Ramsdale’s distribution – an area of the game in which Jordan Pickford excels – but the 23-yearold had almost nothing to redistribute. Maybe on a slippery park-quality pitch that was just as well.
While the Arsenal goalkeeper wouldn’t have swapped places with Elia Benedettini at the other end, he may have harboured a tinge of jealousy at all the action the Sammarinese stopper saw.
The Benedettini clan hold a monopoly on the San Marino goalkeeper’s jersey. Elia’s cousin Simone was his back-up on the bench last night and his uncle Pierluigi kept goal 29 times for his country, leaking 10 himself against Norway in 1992.
They must have a family death wish but at least they are guaranteed a busy night.