Steaua Bucuresti and Liga 1 2007/2008

I guess not many are interested but here it goes. Today was the first day of the new season.

Vaslui - UTA 2-2 was the first game.

In the second game of the day Steaua - Ceahlaul 2-1. Dica scored 2 goals for us and hit the woodwork 2 time. We also had other 3-4 big chances to score but the ball just didn't want to go in. Here are the goals:

0-1 Vranjkovici (12-penalty) http://www.gsptv.ro/index/id/5562
1-1 Dica (15-penalty) http://www.gsptv.ro/index/id/5563
2-1 Dica (63) http://www.gsptv.ro/index/id/5567

How good are Gloria Bistrita? If they knock Atletico out of the Intertoto Cup I may become an honorary fan.

Jaime wrote:How good are Gloria Bistrita? If they knock Atletico out of the Intertoto Cup I may become an honorary fan.

Not very good. They are the kind of team that can beat anyone at home but away they are awful. I think they only had 3-4 win away from home last year. I expect Atletico to beat them easily in Madrid.

Do you think Cluj will fight for the title along with Rapid and Steua this year?

gone, do you live in Romania?

Protheus, yes, they will. I would put even Poli Timisoara in the fight for the title. Or at least one of the two CL places. BTW, CFR Cluj has a lot of portugues players.

Calidad, yes, I live in Bucharest.

@ gone

Who would Steua like to avoid in the CL qualifiers ?

Raifael wrote:@ gone

Who would Steua like to avoid in the CL qualifiers ?

We have to get past Zaglebie first. After that I guess Spartak Moscow will be the hardest opponent. Sparta Praga, Fenerbahçe, AEK Athens, Toulouse or Red Star Belgrade are also hard opponents.

gone wrote:Protheus, yes, they will. I would put even Poli Timisoara in the fight for the title. Or at least one of the two CL places. BTW, CFR Cluj has a lot of portugues players.

Calidad, yes, I live in Bucharest.

Yeah i know we had some news over here because of the "impressive" number of portuguese players Cjul was buying. Benfica even played with them a couple of days ago in a friendly.
Note that they buy from medium/small clubs, and i must say some have been very good buys and with a big impact in your league. As i was told Cjul was a small club prior to a rich guy bought it and start spending around.
Of course the big rivalry is still the bucarest club's one

As for the qualifiers of the CL i think you guys will make the group phase as usual unless you have a really bad draw in the 3rd round. It would be a surprise if you didn´t.

Jaime wrote:How good are Gloria Bistrita? If they knock Atletico out of the Intertoto Cup I may become an honorary fan.

Bistrita have already started their season, whereas Altetico haven't. A draw will qualify them. Does anyone knows in what shape are Atletico right now? Thay have bought lot's of new quality players.

Atletico started on July 9, so they've had a fair bit of training. And they have Forlan and Aguero coming in as emergencies for this match, so they are relatively match fit after playing recently for their country.

I think they'll pull off the win they need.

Protheus wrote:

gone wrote:Protheus, yes, they will. I would put even Poli Timisoara in the fight for the title. Or at least one of the two CL places. BTW, CFR Cluj has a lot of portugues players.

Calidad, yes, I live in Bucharest.

Yeah i know we had some news over here because of the "impressive" number of portuguese players Cjul was buying. Benfica even played with them a couple of days ago in a friendly.
Note that they buy from medium/small clubs, and i must say some have been very good buys and with a big impact in your league. As i was told Cjul was a small club prior to a rich guy bought it and start spending around.
Of course the big rivalry is still the bucarest club's one

As for the qualifiers of the CL i think you guys will make the group phase as usual unless you have a really bad draw in the 3rd round. It would be a surprise if you didn´t.

Benfica was invited to play them because CFR Cluj was celebrating 100 years of existence. Yes, they always where a small team. U Cluj was the best team in the city for many year. Now things have changed.

I'm glad we are seeded and can't play against the likes of Arsenal, Valencia or Liverpool.

kas, I think so too. Bistrita is a very small team with a budget of 1,5-2 mil Euro.

Gone. Who are the players to watch out for in the Romanian League?

What do you mean? Youngsters that can make a good impresion or the best players in the league?

Both.

Did Steaua manage to retain Radoi? I know he was linked with a lot of clubs (including Real Madrid) last January.

Nice summary from uefa.com

Romania's biggest season ever

The most momentous domestic season in Romanian history kicks off on Friday with champions FC Dinamo 1948 Bucuresti facing contenders from all quarters.

Stakes raised
After several seasons of success in continental competition boosting their UEFA coefficient rating, most predictions in the country suggest six Romanian clubs will qualify for Europe next year. With such huge rewards potentially on offer, the clubs in LIGA I have been raising their ambitions accordingly. Having run away with the crown last season, Mircea Rednic's Dinamo will be eyeing top spot again. The club have lost a few fringe players, but seven summer arrivals - Ianis Zicu, Silviu Izvoranu, Daniel Oprita, Valentin Nastase, Florin Bratu, Flavius Stoican and Hristu Chiacu - have left them with a squad which is second to none domestically.

Opening defeat
Nonetheless, their failure to defeat AFC Rapid Bucuresti in Wednesday's Romanian Super Cup final, losing 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 draw, is a sign that theirs will not be an easy season. Rapid's new Italian coach Cristiano Bergodi, who replaced Razvan Lucescu, has also made some strong signings, while Gheorghe Hagi will hope to be a worthy successor to Cosmin Olaroiu at FC Steaua Bucuresti.

Cluj promise
The three Bucharest clubs are traditionally the front-runners in the title race - no side from outside the capital has been crowned champions since FC Universitatea Craiova in 1990/91 - but they can expect demanding competition from the provinces, not least from CFR Ecomax Cluj-Napoca who finished third last season under Bergodi to qualify for the UEFA Cup for the first time.

Portuguese presence
In their centenary year Cluj have shown enormous ambition, setting aside a €20m budget for the season which will include a major investment in their stadium. Ioan Andone, who won three Romanian Cups and one league title as Dinamo coach, will lead them this season as they look to make overseas talent count. Cluj have 19 foreign players - 10 of whom are Portuguese.

Uhrin arrives
FC Politehnica Timisoara have failed to make much progress despite huge investment in recent seasons, but after hiring Czech coach Dušan Uhrin Jnr after a successful spell at FK Mladá Boleslav, they are ready to try again. The club have lost some good players over the summer, but a new strike-force of veteran Romanian Ioan Viorel Ganea and Slovenian Dare Vršič could yet pay dividends. The season kicks off tonight with SC Vaslui's meeting with UTA Arad, while Steaua play FC Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt in the late fixture.

Samba de Baiano wrote:Both.

From Steaua: Dica (SS), Radoi(DM), Nicolita(RM) and Goian(CB).
Dinamo: Zicu(AM), Radu Stefan(CB), Lobont(GK)
Rapid: Mazilu(CF), Lazar (CM), Bozovici (RB), Coman (GK)

From CFR or Poli Timisoara I can't say as they have a lot of new players.

@gone

Do you know anything about a player called Dobrescu from UTA Arad? There was a small excert from AS today that mentioned Real Madrid were monitoring this player, 18-year old right winger? Just curious if you heard of him and what you thought.

Jaime wrote:@gone

Do you know anything about a player called Dobrescu from UTA Arad? There was a small excert from AS today that mentioned Real Madrid were monitoring this player, 18-year old right winger? Just curious if you heard of him and what you thought.

Never heard of him. Must be playing for the youth team because he doesn't play in the senior team of UTA.

Second game of the season: Farul - Steaua 0-1 (Dica 62 min)

Some video from the game:

http://www.prosport.ro/index.php?section=articole&screen=index&id=52172