Romanian Liga 1 Thread [2006/2007]

[Fallen]

Season 2006-2007 - The teams:
Steaua Bucureşti - Official site
Rapid Bucureşti - Official site
Dinamo Bucureşti - Official site
CFR ECOMAX Cluj - Official site
FC Naţional Bucureşti - Official site
Farul Constanţa - Official site
Politehnica Timişoara - Official site
Oţelul Galaţi - Official site
Politehnica Iaşi - Official site
Gloria 1922 Bistriţa - Official site
FC Argeş Piteşti - Official site
Jiul Petroşani - Official site
FC Vaslui - Official site
"Pandurii-Lignitul" Târgu-Jiu - Official site
Ceahlăul Piatra-Neamţ - Official site
Universitatea Craiova - Official site
UTA Arad - Official site
Unirea Valahorum Urziceni - Official site


Season 2005-2006 - Standings:

Season 2005-2006 - Top goalscorers:

Liga I Sponsors:

This season will be a very interesting one.
With romanian football getting better every year, the battle for the 1st place will be tough. The champions will be qualified in the CL group stage and the runner-up will play in the CL 3rd qualifying round. Teams ranked 3rd and 4th + the winner of the Romanian Cup will play in the UEFA Cup.

2004-2005 was the first step of this beautiful journey we're on now.
Steaua qualified in the UEFA group stage, got through to the 1/8s where they lost against Villareal (after passing Valencia in the 1/16s).

2005-2006 season was an even better one: CFR Cluj reached the UEFA Intertoto Cup final at its first ever european participation, but lost to Lens. Steaua, Rapid and Dinamo qualified in the UEFA group stage. Dinamo stopped there, but Steaua and Rapid went on and played a memorable 1/4, after which Steaua advanced to the 1/2, where it was denied by Middlesbrough.

2006-2007 season started very well for the romanian teams. Steaua qualified in the Champions League group stage and both Dinamo and Rapid are in the UEFA group stage. Let's hope for a long european season for our teams.

The battle in the romanian top flight is tighter than ever. Steaua, Dinamo, Rapid, CFR Cluj, Poli Timisoara and Farul Constanta are all involved in this battle. The team that wins is granted a place in the CL groups next year.

For the moment, we just have to wait and see what will happen...
_

 

[$teauA]

Well we don't automatically get that place in the CL groups, there is a catch to the whole thing. In order to get that place automatically, the winner of this year's CL will have to have also qualified automatically from their league. If the winner is someone, say like Liverpool two years ago who finished 5th in their league, then the winner of Liga I would have to play a round of qualifying. I hope that made sense.

Anyway, this season is already really good. Cluj have been absolutely great and I don't think this is a fluke either, I believe they will be there till the end contending for the title (speaking of flukes, Poli Iasi is gonna end up being just that, watch). Dinamo have played well too but other than the Timisoara game they had pretty crappy competition. Timisoara won't finish any better than 5th this season imo and that's a strech, I actually think Farul might finish higher. Rapid is sort of in a slump right now but they'll recover eventually, they always do let's just hope it won't but against us. Speaking of us and by us I mean Steaua, we have had a great start, we sit in 3rd place, two points back and have conceeded only 1 goal in 4 matches while scoring 9 , 3 in each of our last three games. The game coming up against Farul is gonna be a tough one but I think our players will ride on the wave that carried them into the CL groups and get a victory.

Steaua for three in a row? Could be, but I believe it will be a harder road than many predicted before the season started (myself included).

 

[Fallen]

While surfing the net i've stumbled upon something very interesting ...

www.romaniansoccer.ro

This website is fantastic. It has a lot of info about every team in the top 3 romanian leagues. Results in all internal competitions. All the games they played in europe, even full game reports, from as early as 1960s ...
I can't describe the website well enough, but give it a try ... it's (in a good way)

 

[theo]

(speaking of flukes, Poli Iasi is gonna end up being just that, watch).

Ionut Popa truly did wonders with the team.

Edit: Could you include the teams, last year's standings and last year's top goalscorers in the first post?

 

[Fallen]

Edit: Could you include the teams, last year's standings and last year's top goalscorers in the first post?

will do

 

[theo]

What the hell is Tiberiu Balan doing in Liga II?
I'd really like to see him in a team like Farul or CFR Cluj, what a great talent and player.

 

[Fallen]

I know
Many of Sportul's players are forced to stay at the club by the owner V.Siman

 

[$teauA]

Well I mean that is wrong but can you really blame the owner? He wants to get back in the topflight as soon as possible.

---

Ceahlaul Piatra-Neamt - Unirea Urziceni 2-1
Poli Timisoara - Gloria Bistrita 1-0
Pandurii - CFR Cluj 1-3
FC Vaslui - FC Arges Pitesti 1-0

results so far in matchday 5

 

[Fallen]

Steaua - Farul Constanta 3-0
25' Nicolita
39' Oprita
58' Oprita

 

[$teauA]

Steaua - Farul Constanta 3-0
25' Nicolita
39' Oprita
58' Oprita

I say we leave the discussions for the Steaua games in the Steaua thread and talk about the matchday as a whole in this one

 

[$teauA]

What did I tell you about Iasi? Nobody who loses 3-1 to Jiul Petrosani is a team that will finish anywhere near the top 5, they'll survive the drop but thats about it.

I can't believe f*cking Ganea scored 4 , Dinamo's attack is good but a good team (like us) will be able to exploit what I believe is a weak defense no matter what the "specialists" say.

As for Rapid, wow...11th after 5 games with only 6 points and one victory is something isnt it . I think that if Lucescu Jr. doesnt qualify them into the UEFA Cup groups he's out of there.

And finally, Steaua is just rolling right now, other than that 0-0 result to start off the campaign we have won 3-0, 3-0, 3-1 and 3-0 since then. Our next game is against FC Arges who is last, we have always had a sort of complex against them but hopefully they players won't think about that and Dica will score two or three .

CFR Cluj is starting to scare me just a little bit

edit: btw add this in the opening post

 

[Fallen]

by this you mean the Burger Logo? No way :P I hate Burger ... i hate it's name and the fact that it's the main sponsor of the national league ...

 

[theo]

Our next game is against FC Arges who is last, we have always had a sort of complex against them but hopefully they players won't think about that and Dica will score two or three .

No, Dica always had it. Remember that peno in the last minute at 2-2 .

 

[Fallen]

This year the competition will be tough ...
And the "battle" for the last 4 places will also be interesting.
At first i was against going back to 18 teams (instead of 16), but then i realized that 4 relegating (instead of 16 teams and 2 relegating) would do the job better So it'll be a nice season

 

[theo]

Always thought that 18 teams rather than 16 is a good step towards having a competitive and modern league.

 

[Fallen]

Yeah, but it would be good to have a single Second Division, not 2 series, and not 8 or how many 3rd divisions we have
A single 2nd division would look very good. Teams like FC Bihor, Petrolul Ploiesti, FCM Bacau, Sportul Studentesc, FC Brasov, "U" Cluj, FCM Resita, Forex Brasov, Apulum Alba-Iulia, CS Otopeni would make the 2nd divison stronger. A single Second Division with 18-20 teams would be best. Top3 promoting, and #4,#5,#6 going for a playoff for the 4th promoting place.
But i doubt this will happen anytime soon

 

[$teauA]

Yeah, but it would be good to have a single Second Division, not 2 series, and not 8 or how many 3rd divisions we have
A single 2nd division would look very good. Teams like FC Bihor, Petrolul Ploiesti, FCM Bacau, Sportul Studentesc, FC Brasov, "U" Cluj, FCM Resita, Forex Brasov, Apulum Alba-Iulia, CS Otopeni would make the 2nd divison stronger. A single Second Division with 18-20 teams would be best. Top3 promoting, and #4,#5,#6 going for a playoff for the 4th promoting place.
But i doubt this will happen anytime soon

Yeah I never understood why they switched to this new format

PS: CS Otopeni , I used to play soccer with my friends on their field when I was like 6, they didnt' even exist back then. BTW for those of you that don't know Otopeni is a small city right outside of Bucharest, some even call it a suburb, that has the biggest airport in Romania. That's where I lived when I was in Romania.

 

[Fallen]

Hehe, Otopeni will be "eaten" by Bucharest soon ... I've been to the airport a few days ago, to say g'bye to an ex-schoolmate of mine, which was accepted to a university in the US. The city looks great (if what i saw from the bus was Otopeni). Very very clean, very very nice, flowers everywhere, fountains, new houses etc.
CS Otopeni was very close to a promotion last year. They finnished 4th in B1 division... good luck this year

 

[$teauA]

Hehe, Otopeni will be "eaten" by Bucharest soon ... I've been to the airport a few days ago, to say g'bye to an ex-schoolmate of mine, which was accepted to a university in the US. The city looks great (if what i saw from the bus was Otopeni). Very very clean, very very nice, flowers everywhere, fountains, new houses etc.
CS Otopeni was very close to a promotion last year. They finnished 4th in B1 division... good luck this year

Yeah it is a very very nice city

 

[Fallen]

My mind is still at how the Liga 2 would look like with only 18 teams... @-)
No more teams like Prefab Modelu, Chimia Brazi, Auxerre Lugoj, Building Vanju-Mare...