Sports weekend

Florin Orban, 10.01.2020, 13:53

Romanian women’s
basketball team Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe has got through to the EuroCup’s round of
16. On Thursday, in the second leg of the play-offs, Romanian title holders
grabbed a 79-71 away win against Polish opponents Artego Bydgoszcz. In the
first leg, Sepsi sustained a 61-70 home defeat, being nine points down from the
opponents. In Bydgoszcz, the fate of the tie was sealed eight seconds before
the final, when Artego Bydgoszcz’s US player Brianna Kessel’s free throw added
a point to her team’s record sheet. Sepsi’s top basketball players for the
game were Simina Andra Mandache, with 26 points, 8 balls retrieved and 2 assists, and her US teammate Kris Givens, with 22 points, 9 retrievals and 6 assists.

Corona Brasov’s
handballers who allegedly used a procedure that was banned by the anti-doping
regulations will each face six-month suspensions, according to sources quoted
by AGERPRES news agency. WADA stipulates a four-year suspension period for blood
manipulation, which is part of intravenous laser therapy. Having admitted to
using the aforementioned procedures, Corona Brasov’s handballers may benefit
from less harsh sentences.

In news from
football, Romanian keeper Ionut Radu was a full-timer for his team Genoa, for
the first time this year, in Genoa’s away fixture against Turin FC. The latter
team won the game, 5-3, after the penalty shootouts. The match counted towards
the Cup of Italy’s round of 16.

This past Thursday, the members of the Romanian
Football Federation’s Technical Commission nominated Adrian Mutu as the new
head-coach of Romania’s Under-21 team. The Technical Commission’s nomination
will be subject to debate this coming Tuesday, as part of the Federation’s
Executive Committee’s meeting. Adrian Mutu boasts 77 caps for the national
squad. He was the national team’s most efficient scorer, standing on a par with
Gheorghe Hagi, with a record of 35 goals. Mutu first played for FC Arges, then
he had a stint with Dinamo Bucharest. In 2003, Mutu got transferred from Parma
to Chelsea, for 16 million GBP, a record sum at that time. In 2004, however,
Mutu got the sack from Chelsea on allegations of drug-taking, after only
one season. Following an eight-month suspension period, Mutu was transferred to
Italian team Juventus Turin. When his team was relegated from Serie A, Mutu played
for Fiorentina, where for long he had been rated as one of the team’s leaders.
Adrian Mutu had stints with Cesena, French team Ajaccio, Pune City of India.
For the final part of his career, Mutu played for ASA Targu Mures. As a
head-coach, Mutu was at the helm of FC Voluntari and of UAE club Al Wahda’s
under-21 team.