Romania - Liga 1

Just in case anyone is intersted I'll put results and videos from Liga 1.

Matchday 18:

Friday 27 February:

Poli Iasi -Universitatea Craiova 1 - 0
56: 1 - 0 Bratu(Poli) Video

Steaua - FC Vaslui 1 - 1
8: Wesley(Vaslui) Video
28: Stancu(Steaua) Video - great goal

Matchday 18:

Saturday 28 February:

Otelul 3 - 1 Gaz Metan
G. Paraschiv (13) 1-0 Video
Todea (19) 1-1 Video
L. Iorga (38) 2-1 Video
G. Paraschiv (44) 3-1 Video

Farul Constanta 2 - 0 Gl. Buzau
Rusmir (20) 1-0
Alibec (51) 2-0

FC Timişoara 2 - 1 FC Arges
Năstăsie ( 0-1 Video - a nice goal
(OG)Lăcustă (19) 1-1 Video
Stancu (85) 2-1 Video

Urziceni 0 - 0 FC Brasov

Can you tell us more about the league - teams (apart from Steaua), players to look out for?

M=Games Played, V=Wins, E=Draws, I=Loss, P=Points

Unirea Urziceni has been the revelation of the last season when they finished 5th and played the cup final. Before they 2006-2007 season they never played in the first division. They are coached by Dan Petrescu (former Steaua and Chelsea player) and their only player to watch is Giedrius Arlauskis, 21 year old goalkeeper from Lithuania.

perhaps arlaukis is something for a Dutch team... Feyenoord and PSV are screaming for a new goalkeeper!

BTW How's Ogararu doing...?

Did Cluj pull a mini Chelsea and City move? Seems like they suddently got money and bought at least 3 or 4 players from my own domestic league + other leagues in Scandinavia.

Ricardo, Ogararu is playing good, as he always did for Steaua. Maybe it's also because he has very had working midfielder (Nicolita) on the right side that helps him alot in defense. I think he will return to Ajax in the summer.

Riviera, yes. About 5 years ago a rich guy (Paskany) bought them and invested alot of money. From the 3rd division he got them to win the title. The players to watch from CFR: Sebastián Dubarbier (very fast argentinian mf), Alvaro Pereira (very strong RB from Uruguay) and Juan Emmanuel Culio (MF from Argentina).

Matchday 18:

Sunday 1 March:

Gl. Bistrita 1 - 3 Rapid
Djalovic (25) 0-1 Video
Cesinha (33) 0-2 Video
J. Silva (69) 1-2 Video
J.P. Andrade (86) 1-3 Video

CFR Cluj 1 - 0 CS Otopeni
Ruiz (87) 1-0 Video

Dinamo 3 - 0 Pandurii Tg. Jiu
M. Niculae (2) 1-0 Video
Niculescu (29) 2-0 Video
Zicu (92) 3-0 Video

M=Games Played, V=Wins, E=Draws, I=Loss, P=Points

It's very close between the first 10 teams... How has Steaua done so far? They are 6th but only 8 pts behind.

Steaua is again in trouble because of the owner. Lacatus started the season as coach, he was fired and then reinstated in just 2 month. Now there is an open conflict between the fans and Gigi Becali, the owner. At the game against Vaslui there were only 15 000 fans in the stands shouting "Becali leave" for 90 min. It has gotten so bad that some fans wish Steaua will go to the second division just to see Becali leave the club.

Dinamo, Timisoara and CFR look the strongest (money, stability at the team) and I think they will fight for the title. Rapid and Unirea Urziceni have problems with money but I think they will fight for a UEFA Cup spot.

yes yes! I remember something about that. Didn't the Steaua fans boycot one of the UEFA cup games due to the coach issues?

It was the CL games last year (Arsenal, Sevilla and Praga). There where around 10-15 000 people in the stands for those games while a year before that it was sold out months before.

Matchday 19:

Friday 6 March:

FC Vaslui - Poli Iasi 2 - 0
24: 1 - 0 Farkas(Vaslui)
35: 2 - 0 Farkas(Vaslui)

Rapid - Farul Constanta 1 - 0
76: 1 - 0 Fernandes(Rapid)

Saturday 7 March:

Gaz Metan Medias - Dinamo 1 - 1
4: 1 - 0 Parvulescu(Gaz Metan)
18: 1 - 1 Ndoye(Dinamo)

CS Otopeni - Otelul Galati 0 - 1
42: 1 - 0 Pena(Otelul)

Gloria Buzau - CFR Cluj 0 - 1
53: 0 - 1 Y. Kone(CFR)

Universitatea Craiova - Gloria Bistrita 0 - 0

Sunday 8 March:

FC Brasov - Steaua 1 - 0
73: 1 - 0 Abrudan(Brasov)

FC Arges - Unirea Urziceni 0 - 0

Pandurii Tirgu Jiu - FC Timisoara 0 - 1
72: 0 - 1 owngoal Cardoso(Pandurii)

Code:


#    Team         M     W    D    L     Gol       +/-    P
1    Dinamo      19   12    3    4    29 - 14     15    39
2    Unirea Urz.  19   11    3    5    28 - 14     14    36
3    FC Timisoara 19   12    5    2    35 - 21     14    35*
4    CFR Cluj     19   10    5    4    26 - 13     13    35
5    Rapid       19   10    4    5    26 - 18     8    34
6    Steaua      19    7    9    3    25 - 15     10    30
7    U Craiova    19    7    8    4    23 - 17      6    29
8    Otelul       19    8    5    6    26 - 21      5    29
9    FC Vaslui    19    8    5    6    22 - 17      5    29
10   FC Arges     19    8    4    7    25 - 23      2    28
11   FC Brasov    19    6    9    4    15 - 13     2    27
12   Gloria Bist  19    6    4    9    18 - 20     -2    22
13   Farul       19    6    4    9    16 - 25     -9    22
14   Pandurii     19    5    6    8    17 - 26     -9    21
15   Poli Iasi    19    5    4   10    14 - 27    -13    19
16   Gaz Metan    19    4    4   11    20 - 35    -15    16
17   CS Otopeni   19    2    3   14    14 - 33    -19     9
18   Gloria Buzau 19    0    3   16     6 - 33    -27     3

Timisoara was deducted 6 points


@ Gone: What do you think of Yssouf Kone? Cluj looked pretty good at least in parts against Chelsea, especially at start of second half.

Kone is good striker for Romania. I don't think he'll make it in a bigger league. CFR got him to replace Fabbiani who plays now for River and was better then him imo (a goal scored by him for river
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpyWNfHTJBQ ). CFR is doing ok this year. FC Timisoara is also doing great, they would be first but got a 6 points deduction because they used the name and colours of Poli Timisoara. They might get the points back and win the title witch would be the first in their history.

Kone doesn't have more potential than he's showing atm. so I agree with Gone, he wouldn't do in a bigger league. Kinda surprised he's doing so well in Romania, as he did alright here but not good, and let's face it, Romania > Norway.

In 2 years time he only played 15 games (3 goals)

Fair enough. Only saw him against Chelsea and he looked deent, caused their defence a few problems and got the goal at Stamford Bridge. Thought he might have attracted some interest because of that.

Matchday 20:

Friday 13 March:

Unirea Urziceni - Pandurii Tirgu Jiu 2 - 0
60: 1 - 0 Rusescu(Urziceni)
84: 2 - 0 Varga(Urziceni)

CFR Cluj - Rapid 0 - 0

Saturday 14 March:

Otelul Galati - Gloria Buzau 1 - 2
33: 1 - 0 Viglianti(Otelul)
36: 1 - 1 Axente(Buzau)
67: 1 - 2 owngool Cirja(Otelul)

Gloria Bistrita - FC Vaslui 0 - 3
43: 0 - 1 pen Wesley(Vaslui)
85: 0 - 2 Kirovski(Vaslui)
90: 0 - 3 Kirovski(Vaslui)

FC Timisoara - Gaz Metan Medias 0 - 0

Steaua - Politehnica Iasi 1 - 0
7: 1 - 0 Stancu(Steaua)

Sunday 15 March:

FC Brasov - FC Arges 1 - 0
46: 1 - 0 Ilyes(Brasov)

Dinamo - CS Otopeni 0 - 0

80: Farul Constanta - Universitatea Craiova 0 - 3
18: 0 - 1 F. Costea(Universitatea)
70: 0 - 2 M. Costea(Universitatea)
75: 0 - 3 F. Costea(Universitatea)

Code:


#    Team         M     W    D    L     Gol       +/-    P
1    Dinamo      20   12    4    4    29 - 14     15    40
2    Unirea Urz.  20   12    3    5    30 - 14     16    39
3    FC Timisoara 20   12    6    2    35 - 21     14    36*
4    CFR Cluj     20   10    6    4    26 - 13     13    36
5    Rapid       20   10    5    5    26 - 18     8    35
6    Steaua      20    8    9    3    26 - 15     11    33
7    U Craiova    20    8    8    4    26 - 17      9    32
8    FC Vaslui    20    9    5    6    25 - 17      8    32
9    FC Brasov    20    7    9    4    16 - 13     3    30
10   Otelul       20    8    5    7    27 - 23      4    29
11   FC Arges     20    8    4    8    25 - 24      1    28
12   Gloria Bist  20    6    4   10    18 - 23     -5    22
13   Farul       20    6    4   10    16 - 28    -12    22
14   Pandurii     20    5    6    9    17 - 28    -11    21
15   Poli Iasi    20    5    4   11    14 - 28    -14    19
16   Gaz Metan    20    4    5   11    20 - 35    -15    17
17   CS Otopeni   20    2    4   14    14 - 33    -19    10
18   Gloria Buzau 20    1    3   16     8 - 34    -26     6

Timisoara was deducted 6 points


Steaua finally wins a game.

Timisoara was deducted 6 points for stealing someone else's colours?

Who are Timisoara, and why were they deducted 6? If not, they'd be top right now !

Before WW2 Timisoara was, along side Bucharest, the most important city in romanian football. They had 2 great teams, Ripensia (4 titles) and Chinezu (6 titles), that challenged the Bucharest teams. Now after WW2 the communist regime killed the 2 teams and Poli Timisoara was left as the main team in the city. By the early 2000 the teams was in Liga 3 owned by an italian business man from Timisoara, Claudio Zambon. In 2001/2002 a small Bucharest team, AEK Bucharest, gain promotion to Liga 1. Having no supporters in Bucharest (Steaua, Dinamo and Rapid have a monopoly here) the teams owner, Tony Dobos, moved the team to Timisoara hopping to merge with Poli Timisoara. He changed the teams name to Poli "AEK" Timisoara (later FCU Politehnica Timişoara and FC Politehnica 1921 Ştiinţa Timişoara) and the colours to purple - white. The merger never happened and Poli Timisoara sued this team and won at CAS. Poli "AEK" had to changed the name and colours before this season started. They didn't do that so romanian federation had to deducted 6 points.

You can read more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCU_Politehnica_Timi%C5%9Foara#Protest_for_club_record

Interesting...so where is the original Timisoara team, still in Liga 3?

Yes. Ironically they play near Bucharest (there is huge rivality between Bucharest and Timisoara, something like Madrid - Barcelona. they consider themselves banateni first and romanians second, Timisoara is the "capital" of Banat).

Matchday 21:

Friday 20 March:

Politehnica Iasi - Gloria Bistrita 1 - 0
2: 1 - 0 Bilba(Iasi)

FC Arges - Steaua 2 - 2
17: 1 - 0 Tanase(Arges)
44: 1 - 1 Petre(Steaua)
86: 1 - 2 Kapetanos(Steaua)
88: 2 - 2 Bazzi(Arges)

Saturday 21 March:

Gaz Metan Medias - Unirea Urziceni 1 - 0
60: 1 - 0 Bud(Gaz Metan)

Pandurii Tirgu Jiu - FC Brasov 0 - 0

FC Vaslui - Farul Constanta 4 - 2
10: 1 - 0 Hugo Luz(Vaslui)
31: 2 - 0 Wesley(Vaslui)
39: 2 - 1 Pahor(Farul)
40: 3 - 1 Ljubinkovic(Vaslui)
43: 4 - 1 Ljubinkovic(Vaslui)
73: 4 - 2 Chico(Farul)

Rapid - Otelul 4 - 0
33: 1 - 0 Herea(Rapid)
52: 2 - 0 Grigore(Rapid)
82: 3 - 0 Spadacio(Rapid)
90: 4 - 0 Grigore(Rapid)

Sunday 22 March:

CS Otopeni - FC Timisoara 2 - 2
18: 1 - 0 Caramarin(Otopeni)
71: 2 - 0 Ganea(Otopeni)
73: 2 - 1 Parks(Timisoara)
89: 2 - 2 Parks(Timisoara)

Gloria Buzau - Dinamo 1 - 3
12: 0 - 1 pen Niculescu(Dinamo)
30: 0 - 2 Niculae(Dinamo)
57: 0 - 3 Danciulescu(Dinamo)
90: 1 - 3 Mansour(Buzau)

Universitatea Craiova - CFR Cluj 4 - 1
1: 1 - 0 F. Costea(Universitatea)
7: 2 - 0 pen Stoica(Universitatea)
43: 2 - 1 Alcantara(CFR)
68: 3 - 1 F. Costea(Universitatea)
70: 4 - 1 M. Costea(Universiatea)

Code:


#    Team         M     W    D    L     Gol       +/-    P
1    Dinamo      21   13    4    4    32 - 15     17    43
2    Unirea Urz.  21   12    3    6    30 - 15     15    39
3    Rapid       21   11    5    5    30 - 18     12    38
4    FC Timisoara 21   12    7    2    37 - 23     14    37*
5    CFR Cluj     21   10    6    5    27 - 17     10    36
6    U Craiova    21    9    8    4    30 - 18     12    35
7    FC Vaslui    21   10    5    6    29 - 19     10    35
8    Steaua      21    8   10    3    28 - 17     11    34
9    FC Brasov    21    7   10    4    16 - 13     3    31
10   FC Arges     21    8    5    8    27 - 26      1    29
11   Otelul       21    8    5    8    27 - 27      0    29
12   Gloria Bist  21    6    4   11    18 - 24     -6    22
13   Pandurii     21    5    7    9    17 - 28    -11    22
14   Poli Iasi    21    6    4   11    15 - 28    -13    22
15   Farul       21    6    4   11    18 - 32    -14    22
16   Gaz Metan    21    5    5   11    21 - 35    -14    20
17   CS Otopeni   21    2    5   14    16 - 35    -19    11
18   Gloria Buzau 21    1    3   17     9 - 37    -28     6

Timisoara was deducted 6 points


Thanks for this, Gone - it is great to be able to follow another league on the forums.

Did anything special happen with Mirel Radoi? I was surprised to see that he moved from Steaua to a Saudi club, Al-Hilal (who also have Christian Wilhelmsson, and Fulham's Seol Ki-Hyeon on loan). Did he fall out of favour at Steaua, or was the money too good for him and the club to turn down?

Bashmachkin wrote:Thanks for this, Gone - it is great to be able to follow another league on the forums.

Did anything special happen with Mirel Radoi? I was surprised to see that he moved from Steaua to a Saudi club, Al-Hilal (who also have Christian Wilhelmsson, and Fulham's Seol Ki-Hyeon on loan). Did he fall out of favour at Steaua, or was the money too good for him and the club to turn down?

I seem to remember reading that Radoi was going to sign for Inter...

What happened?

Radoi went to them money. He's making about 3-4 times more money there. Inter was interested in him but nothing happend. He was waiting a transfer in one of the big leagues a long time but he got to manny injuries over the years (he has surgery on both knees).

Matchday 22:

Friday 3 April:

Farul Constanta - Politehnica Iasi 0 - 3
57: 0 - 1 Montiel(Iasi)
72: 0 - 2 Bratu(Iasi)
91: 0 - 3 Cristea(Iasi)

Saturday 4 April:

Unirea Urziceni - CS Otopeni 1 - 0
75: 1 - 0 Balan(Urziceni)

FC Timisoara - Gloria Buzau 4 - 1
9: 1 - 0 pen Bucur(Timisoara)
39: 2 - 0 Maxim(Timisoara)
45: 2 - 1 Vigariu(Buzau)
63: 3 - 1 Bucur(Timisoara)
85: 4 - 1 Karamyan(Timisoara)

CFR Cluj - FC Vaslui 3 - 0
17: 1 - 0 Alcantara(CFR)
61: 2 - 0 Kone(CFR)
93: 3 - 0 Panin(CFR)

FC Arges - Pandurii Tirgu Jiu 2 - 1
20: 0 - 1 Raskovic(Pandurii)
33: 1 - 1 Dulcea(Arges)
58: 2 - 1 Dulcea(Arges)

Steaua - Gloria Bistrita 1 - 0
82: 1 - 0 Kapetanos(Steaua)

Dinamo - Rapid 3 - 0
29: 1 - 0 Danciulescu(Dinamo)
57: 2 - 0 Niculae(Dinamo)
89: 3 - 0 Cristea(Dinamo)

Sunday 5 April:

Otelul Galati - Universitatea Craiova 0 - 2
9: 0 - 1 Costea(Universitatea)
40: 0 - 2 Wobay(Universitatea)

FC Brasov - Gaz Metan Medias 2 - 1
81: 1 - 0 Surdu(Brasov)
85: 1 - 1 Edson(Gaz Metan)
87: 2 - 1 Constantin(Brasov)

Code:


#    Team         M     W    D    L     Gol       +/-    P
1    Dinamo      22   14    4    4    35 - 15     20    46
2    Unirea Urz.  22   13    3    6    31 - 15     16    42
3    FC Timisoara 22   13    7    2    41 - 24     17    40*
4    CFR Cluj     22   11    6    5    30 - 17     13    39
5    U Craiova    22   10    8    4    32 - 18     14    38
6    Rapid       22   11    5    6    30 - 21      9    38
7    Steaua      22    9   10    3    29 - 17     12    37
8    FC Vaslui    22   10    5    7    29 - 22      7    35
9    FC Brasov    22    8   10    4    18 - 14     4    34
10   FC Arges     22    9    5    8    29 - 27      2    32
11   Otelul       22    8    5    9    27 - 29     -2    29
12   Poli Iasi    22    7    4   11    18 - 28    -10    25
13   Gloria Bist  22    6    4   12    18 - 25     -7    22
14   Pandurii     22    5    7   10    18 - 30    -12    22
15   Farul       22    6    4   12    18 - 35     -7    22
16   Gaz Metan    22    5    5   12    22 - 37    -15    20
17   CS Otopeni   22    2    5   15    16 - 36    -20    11
18   Gloria Buzau 22    1    3   18    10 - 41    -31     6

Timisoara was deducted 6 points