The World Cup Playoffs

Romanias national football team on Monday was summoned for the double legged-tie ahead of the qualifying playoffs counting towards the World Cup in Brazil next year.

România Internațional, 11.11.2013, 12:30

The return tie of the Brazil World Cup playoff session is due this week. Romania’s national football team will be taking on the Greek national squad. The first leg is scheduled for this coming Friday, November 15, away from home, while the return leg will be played on Tuesday, November 19 in Bucharest.

A quick look back at the Romanian national team’s record reveals that nearly two decades ago the national squad reached as far as the World Cup‘s quarter finals, with Gheorghe Hagi at the helm. Back then, Romania ranked as favorite in all its confrontations. Since then, the level of Romanian football has plummeted.

One possible explanation for the national team’s downfall is rampant corruption in domestic football and the lack of investment, to provide support for quality football. So Romanian sports commentators, have no other choice than to admit that in Romania’s forthcoming confrontation, Greece ranks as favorite.

Surprisingly enough, in 2004, the Greeks were the European champions and have been a constant presence in the last decade’s final tournaments. In contrast, the last tie when the Romanians participated in a World Cup final tournament was in France in 1998, when the then so-called “Gold generation” were about to retire. The Romanian national squad’s present status is similar to what happened in 2001: with Gheorghe Hagi at the helm, the Romanians were sunk by Slovenia in the World Cup’s playoffs.

We shouldn’t forget, however, that the Romanian national squad were just about to rub shoulders with the world football elite, since in 2000 and 2008, respectively, they made it to the European Championship’s final tournament. Back then, however, the national team’s performance was totally lackluster. In 2000 and 2008, Romania’s national squad manager was Victor Piturca, who is also at the helm of the national squad ahead of the playoff tie against Greece.

A stubborn man, completely lacking charisma, Victor Piturca has many times been subject to criticism because of his player- selection- options, his training methods, the unaesthetic performance he came up with on the pitch, as well as because of the rather tense relationship he had with the press. Yet even those who vilified him had to admit that Piturca has been an example of efficiency.

We recall that in 2000 Romania’s national football lineup still had a string of top-notch footballers, and the squad’s former record would strongly motivate the team’s subsequent performance. In 2008 and especially in 2013, the Romanian national squad’s lineup is a far cry from the likes of Hagi, Dumitrescu, Stelea, Popescu, Dan Petrescu, Raducioiu.

Right now, Romania’s best footballer is a left-back, Vlad Chriches, who has recently been transferred from Romania’s champion team Steaua to Premiership strongholds Tottenham Hotspur, for the sum of some 9 million euros.

This past Sunday, Chiriches sustained an injury, one day ahead of Romania’s national squad getting together. The other Romanian footballers are signed up by minnows from across Europe, or by Bucharest strongholds Steaua, who have been reigning supreme in the domestic championship, but who have been lagging behind in the Champions’ League.

Considering all that, for most of Romanian football commentators the national squad’s making headway into the playoffs is a success in itself. Once their favorite team gets there, the fans can once again dream of qualification and the white nights of the Brazilian World Cup next year. But to achieve that, it takes a hell of a lot of hard work, ambition and discipline, which are exactly the ingredients that booked Greece their presence into the world football elite.