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Sunday, July 9, 2017

A NEW NAME ON THE COPPA SERGIO VALCI

The 2017 edition of the Vatican City FA Cup, the Coppa Sergio Valci, concluded at the end of May, and there was a surprise winner. the Rappresentativa OPBG, or, to give them their full name, the Rappresentativa Ospedale Pediatrico Bambin Gesù, won their first-ever honour in their inaugural season in Vatican football competition. 

Rappresentativa OPBG did it the hard way, beating newly-crowned league champions Santos 4:2 on penalties after the game ended scoreless; they also reached the final after winning a penalty shoot-out against Musei Vaticani 3:1 after the match finished 1:1. They finished second behind Musei Vaticani in Group B. This year's competition saw two groups of four teams, with each team playing each other once. The group stage was then followed by the quarter-finals, where the top team in one group played the bottom team in the other group, and so on. 

It has been a good year for the new boys - who represent the Ospedale Pediatrico di Bambino Gesù (the Baby Jesus Pediatric Hospital, which is principally based in Rome but owned by the Holy See) - their first silverware coming on the heels of their finishing third in the league championship behind winners Santos and runners-up Musei Vaticani.

There were some disciplinary problems to contend with during the competition, the most serious being two walkovers being awarded against Gendarmeria during the group stage. The team were then expelled from the competition before their quarter-final match against Santos. One team conspicuous by their absence from the Coppa Sergio Valci was the Associazione SS Pietro e Paolo (Ass. SS P&P); it is to be hoped that they will return to competitive action next season.

Meanwhile, there was a short hiatus during the competition as the Vatican City national team prepared for an international against Monaco, which took place at the Stadio Cardinal Spellman in Rome on 29 April; the game finished scoreless. The final action of the 2016-17 season saw Santos add to their league championship by winning the Supercoppa after beating Rappresentativa OPBG by two goals to nil.


GROUP STAGE

GROUP A

07/04/17 Fortitudo 2007 5:1 Dirtel (Sperati 4, Alonzi; Goxhaj)
07/04/17 Circolo San Pietro 1:0 Santos (Gioacchinni)
11/04/17 Fortitudo 2007 1:3 Santos (Alonzi; Quarta, Cittadini, Mariani)
11/04/17 Dirtel 2:1 Circolo San Pietro (Cataldo, Guadagnoli; Serafini)
08/05/17 Santos 3:0 Dirtel (Quarta, Ioannilli)
08/05/17 Circolo San Pietro 0:0 Fortitudo 2007 


TEAM
P
W
D
L
GF
GA
PTS
GD
Santos
3
2
0
2
6
2
6
4
Fortitudo 2007
3
1
1
1
6
4
4
2
Circolo San Pietro
3
1
1
1
2
2
4
0
Dirtel
3
1
0
1
3
9
3
-6
 


GROUP B

03/04/17 Rappresentativa OPBG 6:2 Gendarmeria (Monaco 3, Albano 2, Orlando; Carilli, Elmi)
03/04/17 Guardia 2:4 Musei Vaticani (Frei, Inches; Panella 2, Marini, Germani)
10/04/17 Gendarmeria 0:3 Musei Vaticani (walkover)
10/04/17 Guardia 1:9 Rappresentativa OPBG (unknown; Monaco 4, Di Cecca 2, Orlando, Mancini, Mele)
09/05/17 Musei Vaticani 1:0 Rappresentativa OPBG (Marini)
09/05/17 Gendarmeria 0:3 Guardia (walkover)




TEAM
P
W
D
L
GF
GA
PTS
GD
Musei Vaticani
3
3
3
2
8
2
9
6
Rappr. OPBG
3
2
2
1
15
4
6
11
Guardia
3
1
0
2
3
13
3
-10
Gendarmeria
3
0
0
1
2
9
-6
-7


QUARTER-FINALS

15/05/17 Santos : Gendarmeria (not played; Gendarmeria expelled from competition)
15/05/17 Circolo San Pietro 1:2 Rappresentativa OPBG (unknown; Monaco, Marcellino)
16/05/17 Dirtel 0:5 Musei Vaticani (Marini, Cara, Paolone, Germani, Magistri)
16/05/17 Fortitudo 2007 7:2 Guardia (Sperati 4, Di Donato, Pellegrini, Mattiacci; Frei, Pfister)

SEMI-FINALS

22/05/17 Santos 3:1 Fortitudo 2007 (Quarta, Perinelli, Casciani; Sperati)
22/05/2017 Rappresentativa OPBG 1:1 Musei Vaticani (Impastato; Scianca) (Rappr. OPBG 3:1 on pens.)

FINAL

30/05/17 Rappresentativa OPBG 0:0 Santos (Rappr. OPBG 4:2 on pens.)


SUPERCOPPA

Santos 2:0 Rappr. OPBG


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AUTHOR'S NOTE: As always, many thanks to the ACDV (Vatican City FA) for assisting with the above article. Apologies for the incomplete statistical details; this problem shall hopefully be rectified shortly. Please note that there was also disciplinary points columns in both of the original final tables supplied by the ACDV; these have been omitted from the final tables above due to the lack of information on how the totals were calculated.

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