So the last thing I wrote on the now deceased thread was about the fact that the Rapid Steaua derby had been called off after 74 minutes because someone threw something at the ref. The upshot of this was that although Rapid were 1-0 up when that happened, Steaua were awarded the match 3-0. The projectile(s) came from a part of the ground that should have had rapid fans in it, but these things aren't very heavily policed (in terms of who can buy tickets), so the theories are that (1) it was a Rapid fan (this one is believed by Steaua fans); (2) it was a Steaua fan in the Rapid end; or (3) it was someone who had been paid by Gigi Becali to stop the match if Steaua looked like losing (Rapid had just taken the lead when the incident happened). (the latter two are believed by everyone else)

Some extra fall-out from the incident: Mircea Rednic has resigned as Rapid coach. A group of Rapid fans are calling for the rest of the season to be boycotted.

Last weekend, Steaua won away to FC Vaslui, whose president alleged after the game that his players had been paid by Becali to throw the match. Nothing will come of this either. The league seems as bent as a 9 lei note, frankly, and any interest I had had in it has more or less evaporated. There's still a chance that CFR Cluj will win (they won 2-1 away at Dinamo last weekend) but it seems certain to me that Steaua will win it by hook or by crook.

For what it's worth (after 26 matches)
CFR Cluj 59 pts
Steaua 56
Rapid 48
Dinamo, Urziceni, Timisoara 46

In the interest of all that is good and right, I can only say "up the Cluj!" (fnarr)

I don't remember ever having read anything about either a team or a place called Urziceni, Ad Hoc - if you can type through the pain, what's the deal here?

Urziceni is a small town not far from Bucharest. The team (Unirea Urziceni) have been kind of first division hangers on/yo-yoing up and down for years, which given the size of the town is pretty much punching above their weight. This year, however, they've brought in the former general manager of Steaua (who is frankly a bit of a cunt), and former Sheffield Wednesday legend Dan Petrescu as coach (after his disastrous spell at Wisla Krakow), and have moved into the sort-of-challenging-for-UEFA-Cup-spots. Word on the street is that Petrescu will be poached by Steaua in the off-season, at which point he will be dead to me, and I'll start referring to him as ex-Chelsea.

I'm very glad you've brought this back (and even more glad that you presumably are feeling well enough to type).

It really seems to be turning into a classic soul-crushing season. The emergence of CFR Cluj and Petrescu's success created a real sense that things were going to be different, only for the melodrama villian Becali to rise from his demonic lair in the third reel and ruin everything again, cackling all the way.

I share your hope that Petrescu doesn't go to Steaua. Perhaps he could be tempted to come back to Italy (likely in Serie B), as he is still remembered fondly at Foggia.

How is Sixto Peralta getting on at Cluj?

He's only played once so far. So I can't really say.

There is a large article on Romanian football in World Soccer, which I browsed in the bus station.

Has anyone read it?

PM for you, ad hoc

OK, so a nearly three week break from this thread, and things are still very much the same. Except that today at least I have a glimmer of hope somewhere.

CFR Cluj continue to get very odd results (in recent weeks they've beaten both Dinamo and Rapid, but in between lost at home to no-hopers Pandurii Targu Jiu), while Steaua just kept winning - or in the case of the Rapid game, somehow managed to be awarded a victory in a match they were about to lose. As a result Steaua overhauled CFR at the top of the table, and it all looked done and dusted. This week though, Steaua could only get a 1-1 draw at home to Poli Timisoara, while CFR beat Vaslui 1-0. With three games left, then CFR have gone back to the top of the table - on goal difference by one goal.

Top:
CFR Cluj 69 pts (+28)
Steaua 69 (+27)
Rapid 58
Dinamo 52
Unirea Urziceni 52
Poli Timisoara 51

The run in is the thing that gives me some small hope (which obviously will soon be dashed)

Remaining games:
Sat 26th
Univeritatea Craiova vs Steaua (a tough one)
Dacia Mioveni vs CFR (winnable, if they can get over the nerves)

Sat 3rd
Dinamo vs Steaua (this will be the big one)
CFR vs Gloria Bistrita (not a given by any stretch)

Wed 7th
Steaua vs Gloria Buzau (home banker)
U Cluj vs CFR Cluj (on league position an easy one. but it's the city derby and the hatred from U is fairly intense)

So, the possibility is still there. If CFR can play to their potential and not get all nervy as they have been doing of late, then they ought to win all three of their games. And if Dinamo can get something from the big derby match, that would be enough.

Yesterday, by the way, for lovers of weird results Dinamo played Craiova. Craiova took the lead and then had a man sent off in the 34th minute. Undeterred they added two more goals to their tally, before Dinamo scored 4 in 17 second half minutes. Then with ten minutes left Craoiva scored again to finish the match 4-4. (This match highlighted something that has been obvious to most people for some time - that Bogdan Lobont is really past his sell-by date, and if Romania can't unearth someone better by this summer, they're going to get creamed)

It is going down to the last game...

To cap off a fine weekend, footballwise, last night Dinamo beat Steaua 2-1, to leave the title within touching distance for CFR. But...

CFR have a one point lead with one game left to play. That game is away to city rivals U Cluj. Whose fans despise CFR as being (a) upstart nouveau riche types who have come and grabbed the headlines from the traditionally top team in Cluj; (b) "Dirty Hungarians"; and (c) just local rivalry. "U" are bottom and already relegated, but this will not be a walk in the park by any means. In fact I reckon the U players will do anything to beat CFR just because it would send the fans into raptures and actually make up for an otherwise crap season. (Much like happened last night for Dinamo). Steaua finish up with a home match against Gloria Buzau who do need the points so it's not a given, but I cannot see anything other than a home win in that one.

The games are played simultaneously at 14.30 this coming Wednesday. That's 12.30 UK time. It's going to be a massive afternoon in Cluj whatever happens (and the potential for crowd trouble is extremely high - especially if CFR win - the U fans have a fairly revolting reputation)

And a good Jonathan Wilson article written last week: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/apr/29/europeanfootball

Was the last day of the season always set for a mid-week afternoon? Or did the league switch it because of the potential for trouble?

Becali seems to be working from a copy of the Dynamo Berlin playbook. I can only imagine what he has offered U Cluj and the ref.

No it was always thus. No idea why, they do it every year. I think it's the afternoon because not every club has floodlights and they have to have all games simultaneously, but why it's midweek, god knows.

Just in case anyone was thinking of checking livescore around lunchtime today (I suspect ursus is the only one who might be slightly interested, but you never know) the games have been shifted back to 5pm local time (3pm UK). This is because the title is still so close and has got everybody so involved (and the TV audience is potentially huge). Having the games at 5 means that most people will be able to watch them (it's common here for people to work a 7-3 working day). [Sadly this doesn;t apply to me as I have to teach from 4-8, so I'm relient on nipping out of class for a couple of minutes ever now and then to check the scores]