sera

the facts are pretty much spot on in that article but it really only touches the surface of the realities of Romanian football and it's not so much 'the Steaua story' but rather a quick glimpse at 20+ years of Romanian football, summed up in too few words. I think every article in foreign press I have read about Becali must have mentioned the fact that he banned a Queen song from the pre-match music playlist, but it's all very exagerrated. It was something along the lines of: Becali press conference: Becali: (...) and I am against homosexuals. Journalist: But do you know that at your home games during the warmup there is a song by Queen played on the stadium and their lead singer was a homosexual? Becali: Really? I'll ban it then. So yes, the man is a lunatic. Unfortunately the media eats up all his statements and puts them on front pages because it guarrantees ratings. I saw you guys were complaining about how Celtic and Rangers get most of the coverage. It's the same in Romania. Steaua and Dinamo have most of the fans and might get half the pages in a sports newspaper, with the other half being divided between the rest of the teams and the other sports. So when an ignorrant fool like Becali seizes the country's best supported club, you can imagine what kind of coverage he will get. Concerning foreign referees, they have been used on and off in Romanian league/cup games, mostlly for the crucial matches and on request from one club or another since the late 90's. This is a delicate issue though, as on the one hand we know that clubs will try and put pressure on Romanian refs or try to outright bribe them, but on the other hand bringing in foreign refs will block the progress of young Romanian referees. It's delicate

haha i always thought it was more like a nutsack on a spike

it's a bit of wordplay. one of the common chants on many romanian stadiums is something along the lines of lets take the game to theeeem and to their mothers ergo 'pe ei pe motherwell' means lets take the game to them, to motherwell

we're pretty excited about the result because, as mentioned numerous times on this thread, we haven't had any real achievements in the past couple of years and our last season was a bit of a nightmare. the end of the season left the team in a pretty disorganised state, with 3 players not returning to the squad reunion, 2 1st team regulars sent to the 2nd squad etc for an idea of how our last season went, imagine that most of the players were not really finding any pleasure in playing anymore, especially at home, in part due to the lack of motivation provided by the (poor) coach, but mostly because of the hostile/unsettling atmosphere created by the fans challenging the club owner. but in june we finally got a coach who is as much focused on the results and tactics as he is on all other key aspects of the club which had been neglected heavily for the past 2 years at least (club relationship with supporters, with the press, a shield between the owner and the players etc. - basically all the things a manager SHOULD do) the team is much changed now, both in terms of players and attitude. Before last night's match, i wasn't too sure how our current squad plays together, the matches against Ujpest had been the first competitive ones for us this season. we also finally used a lot of youngsters, some of the Romanian press presented the fixture as 'our youngsters against theirs'. that being said, the signs are good, the talent is there and as long as we keep the positive attitude and show a desire to play football and have fun, we'll grow too and who knows where it will take us

the applauding is something that coach Bergodi has brought in this season. regardless of the result, Steaua players will applaud the opposition after their home games Ruddy was good. the commentator kept pronouncing it Rudi. Onicas and Grzelak were top. and Ionescu.

i just heard the well fans cheering furiously for the corner )

yes, romanian channels show adverts during games i wonder how many are on the bevvy AND on the forum right now?

2 chances out of nothing for steaua so far. ruddy on point

is that your way of saying she's fit?

in my office there's no other colleagues with even a remote interest in footie. it sucks to be the only one at work excited about the game. these people just don't understand.. Here's Gannon and 'well fans on Romanian TV yesterday: http://www.sport.ro/calificari/fanii-lui-m...l?autoplay=true

concerning those jokes, it actually says on that site that it's meant to be light-hearted humor as a change after all the tension with the Ujpest hungarian fans. also the jokes in english were picked off google and are a lot less funny than the 4 in Romanian. Except for the one with the tea bag

i have been trying to reply here for ages and by the time my account was enabled one million other Romanian fans joined ) most people who pride themselves as intellectuals in Romania are unanimous about Becali. the man is an idiot and every one of his press conferences is funny for the wrong reasons. his statements are only outdone by his crowbar-on-Maybach antics. his latest comment regarding the Thursday game was something along the lines of 'we can't be scared of motherwell. had they been called fatherwell, we might have had some doubts, but they're only a small mum' now, all of this would be a whole lot funnier if he wasn't chairman of our club. he is the main reason behind our lacklustre last season and the fans chanted and protested against him for the whole 2nd half of the season, which didn't help the team either, as for the most part the fans would just shout and sing abuse at Becali. attendances also dropped significantly, this season is a bit of a new beginning though. our new coach is not willing to let Becali spoil everything and so far seems to know how to deal with the madman. he is also visibly a better coach than our last 3 which Becali appointed based on aspects such as 'ill put X cause he's a fan favorite and maybe the fans will love me too'. so far the season is looking promising but we'll have to see what happens when we lose a few games, that's when Becali usually springs into action. cant wait for thursday!!