Being a Romanian and being soooo familiar with everything that is happening in this country’s football, I was pretty sure that Romania – Finland will end up in a heavy defeat, for the Nordics. What I did really underestimate was the atmosphere from Giulești, the newly rebuilt Rapid’s stadium. This is the exact purpose for…
Category: Football
UEFA Champions League Final 2022: pure disgrace
I have written here a preview of the UEFA Champions League final 2022 which, coincidently, was played on Stade de France, a stadium on which I took part at a different sporting event only one month before. I am watching football less and less, because the quality of this sport doesn’t deserve my attention, but…
Stade de France, the other perspective: Champions League final 2022, Liverpool – Real Madrid
Six weeks before the Champions League 2022 final, FC Liverpool – Real Madrid, I’ve stepped on Stade de France, Saint-Denis, for Spartan Stadion. The experience, here. Now, the big match is about to be played. Everybody expected to have a pure English final, but the proverbial luck of Real Madrid played, once more, a big…
Rapid Bucharest, 2021/2022 season – one year before the big celebration
OK, so the football season is over for Rapid Bucharest. Even though the fans hopped for a qualification in the Europe Conference League, a kind of Intertoto Cup, this never happened, after two brutally abnormal defeats in the last two matches, against FCU and CS Mioveni, two “umplutura” teams, as we say in Romania. Of…
Rareș Ilie, the fans and a flag that has nothing to do with football
About Rareș Ilie I’ve spoken to everybody I know since almost two years ago. When I saw him in his first matches at Rapid Bucharest and after hearing him talk and watching him act. His physique is impressive, his technique outstanding. He was only 17 years old back then. Two seasons on and he topped…
World Cup 2022, Qatar – what to expect?
Football became more and more weak in terms of expression, of quality, of color. Already wrote about this, now I’ll point my finger on the World Cup 2022 from Qatar, which will be played in an unusual place, in an unusual time period. For more details linked to the way the tournament was awarded, go…
New Giulești opening day: expectation
26th of March 2022 will remain always and forever in the history of Rapid Bucharest, as the day when the new Giulești stadium will be officially opened, with an 8 hour event, topped by a friendly game with Poli Timișoara, a second tier squad about which I will discuss separately why I don’t consider to…
Adrian Mutu, the giant with legs of dust – about Rapid Bucharest
Fists pressed in the air, Adrian Mutu celebrates the third victory in a row as Rapid Bucharest coach. The percentage is beautiful, but the truth is far from glamorous. Rapid beat Academica Clinceni, 1-0, their second victory in the same manner since Mutu joined the club, against the same opponent. In between, there was a…
Gianluigi Buffon will “play” football until 46 years. At least!
Recently, Gianluigi Buffon signed a contract extension with Serie B, Serie C wanna be, Parma. His childhood club… OK, it is nice, in some aspects, that Buffon, the legendary Italian keeper will be active for so long. Not really… I mean, OK, it is nice to remember Buffon from 2000, 2003, 2006, even 2012 or…
Adrian Mutu coach at Rapid, before the inauguration of New Giulești Stadium
Rapid Bucharest is about to play its first game on Giulești Stadium, the new version, on 26th of March. It will happen with Adrian Mutu on the bench, the new coach. After 29 matches in Liga 1, with one more game to go from the regular season, Mihai Iosif was changed. OK, no big deal…