Sports Club RRI – 20 years ago in America

The World Cup in Brazil is drawing to an end. The last few weeks have seen top-level matches, many of which had a dramatic ending. The performances put up by nations such as Costa Rica or Algeria prove the world of football no longer has room for “small teams”, and that anyone can aspire to win the competition.

Florin Orban, 09.07.2014, 13:00

The World Cup in Brazil is drawing to an end. The last few weeks have seen top-level matches, many of which had a dramatic ending. The performances put up by nations such as Costa Rica or Algeria prove the world of football no longer has room for “small teams”, and that anyone can aspire to win the competition.

Unfortunately Romania’s representative again failed to qualify to this year’s edition. It has been 16 years since the last participation in a World Cup, more exactly since the World Cup of 1998 in France. This week however marks 20 years since Romania’s best performance in a World Cup.

It happened in 1994 in the United States. Romania’s squad, boasting a golden generation of footballers led by Gheorghe Hagi, was drawn in Group A, alongside Columbia, Switzerland and the United States. The opening game on June 18 also brought the first win for Romania, 3-1 against Columbia. Hagi’s goal from 40-m sent under the crossbar of Cordoba’s goal remains legend to this day.

On June 22 Romania lost 1-4 to Switzerland, but the defeat was meant to stir the determination of Romanian footballers, who had never before advanced to the knock-out stage. To reach the round of 16, Romania needed a win against the home side, the USA. The scoreboard read 1-nil for Romania at full time, owing to Dan Petrescu’s goal.

In the round of 16 Romania took on Argentina. With the opposite team’s top star Diego Maradona off the first team, after being eliminated for testing positive in a drug test, the path was clear for Romania to shine. It was a difficult match, but eventually our side grabbed the win. The goals were scored by Ilie Dumitrescu on 11 and 18 minutes respectively and Gheorghe Hagi on 58 minutes.

In the quarterfinals Romania went up against Sweden. It was a dramatic face-off. Brolin scored the first goal on 76 minutes for Sweden, but Romania came back into the game following a superb effort by Florin Raducioiu on 88 minutes, so the winner was to be decided in stoppage time. Anghel Iordanescu’s trainees scored a goal in the first half of extra time, but Sweden managed a late-minute equalizer in the second half. Sweden eventually won the penalty shoot-out 5-4, with Miodrag Belodedici failing to score the last attempt for Romania.

In the semifinals Sweden lost to Brazil 1-nil, and eventually Selecao went on to win the trophy after brushing aside Italy 3-2 in the penalty shoot-out.