Groundhopping24

 Bucharest's answer to the Arc de Triomphe If you've read part one of this two-part Romanian blog, you'll know that my trip to Farul Constanta was a bit of a disappointment. Perhaps I should have seen it coming given that both teams were struggling for form at the lower end of the Romanian SuperLiga, and that both have a goal deficiency. Thankfully I did at least get to see a goal at the very end of the game, even if the game really didn't deserve one. As Saturday drew near, so too did the main reason for heading out to Romania - to see a team I'd won two unexpected Romanian SuperLiga titles with on FM24, Dinamo Bucharest. By pure chance, it was Farul they would be hosting, before the big Bucharest derby away at FCSB next weekend. I picked up a ticket for around 40 lei (roughly 8 euros), which seemed good value for what would hopefully be a better standard of top level football. Given the 8pm KO time, I made a point to wrap up extremely warm - I'm talking two pa...

Think of Romanian football, and what's the first thing that springs to mind? Adrian Mutu? The bleached hair of France '98? Andrei Ratiu's blue hair at Euro 2024? Perhaps even the fact that two clubs are at war over who owns the Steaua Bucharest name, or the fact the same seems to be true of Universitea Craiova who also have two clubs? Rather than get into the gritty details of both of these cases, both of which seem well-documented elsewhere (if you can wrap your head around the insanity), I wanted to explore the country firsthand and take in a few games while out there. It was a frustrating wait for the fixtures around the weekend of the 15th February to be announced, given that my priority was seeing my Football Manager darlings, Dinamo Bucharest. I saw that Farul Constanta, some two and half hours away on the Black Sea coast, were also playing on the Monday of the previous weekend, meaning I could turn a potential weekender into a full week exploring two Romanian cities....

  It's often said that January goes on forever, and if you happen to enjoy attending football matches and live in Central Europe, a truer word could not be spoken. At least those in England, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, wherever else have the luxury of football to attend. Here, you've got the occasional friendly but little else worth making the effort for. Having said that, there is some mild regret at my having not attended Admira Wacker 4-5 Horn in a mid-season battle between top and bottom of the Austrian 2nd tier. But still, hey ho... Since I last wrote on my wonderfully enjoyable adventures in Celje back in December, I've seen a grand total of three matches - all with my beloved and very  mid-table (at the time) Stevenage side. This is best summarised by the fact I saw a 0-3 defeat (Wycombe at home), a 3-0 win (Bristol Rovers at home), and of course a goalless draw (Lincoln away). I did briefly think about writing a piece on Stevenage and my response to these game...