Romanian football, in free-fall

The Romanian football team is bottom of the tables in Nations League Group 3

Florin Orban, 15.06.2022, 13:50

A
win and three losses. A goal scored and six received. This is the balance of
the four games Romania played in recent days in Nations League. Romania is currently
ranked 4th in Group 3 with very high chances of playing in the
third-tier division of this competition starting next season. Romania first
played Montenegro in Podgorica on June 4, losing 2-0, in a match when the first
shot on goal for Romania came in extra time. Four days later, Romania travel to
Zenica in Bosnia, where it lost 1-0. Romania played slightly better, although
they lacked scoring opportunities. The only win came last Saturday in
Bucharest, when Romania defeated Finland 1-0, a score that fueled everyone’s
hopes for better future performances.

This Tuesday, however, Romania lost on
home turf 0-3 to Montenegro, one of the most bitter defeats ever sustained by
the Romanian team at home. Beyond the poor results, what is more worrying is
the subpar overall performance of the team, the lack of strength, accuracy,
discipline and ambition. Headcoach Edward Iordănescu, who is coaching a national team for the
first time, took full responsibility for the underpar performances, although he
didn’t say what needs to be done, neither did he mention he might step down. A
possible resignation would put the Romanian Football Federation in a tight spot
again, after long-standing difficulties in finding valuable and experienced
coaches to train the national squad.

For many years now, the poorly inspired
coach choices have led to a string of poor performances, failure after failure
to qualify in European and World championships and growing fan disgruntlement.
The crisis is itself a consequence of the domestic championship. The Romanian
champions, CFR Cluj, last season barely made it past the Conference League
preliminaries, playing in Group D and eventually ranking last. The other
Romanian clubs didn’t’ even get past the preliminaries. The new football season
is soon expected to kick off, with new ambitions and hopes. CFR will play in
the Champions League first preliminary round against Pyunik Yereven of Armenia.
(VP)