Romanian FM 2012 Story — The Big Step

Hello my friends and welcome back to virtual Romania for the latest episode of my Football Manager 2012 story! As you know my Viitorul Constanta made the step towards the top flight at the end of my first season in charge, then we brought in a wide range of free young players but I had no idea whether we were prepared to face the biggest teams in the nation or not. Let’ see…

I surely would have wanted an easier debut game but my wish didn’t matter, we were facing reigning champions Dinamo Bucharest in the opening match of the season!

Dinamo vs Viitorul (Liga 1)

Starting line up (click the names to view the profiles): Alberto Cobrea — Ionut Peteleu, Chakib Benzoukane, Ionut Rada, Lucian Filip — Mihai Onicas, Alexandru Lazar, Nenad Grumic — Georgian Paun, Valentin Simion, Joabe

Meeting the champions in their own den was not going to be easy, I was fully aware of that, but I have to say that Dinamo were not that impressive in the first half. It’s true that they dominated the game but they were unable to create any clear cut chances until the last minute before the break when they broke the deadlock with a corner kick header. I forgot to say that I started the game with the counter version of my tactic and, given the score at half time, I decided to switch to the attacking version after the break. That didn’t do us much good though, Dinamo made it 2-0 after having been denied by the crossbar a couple of minutes earlier and the game was as good as over. My lads were unable to fight back although we had pretty good possession, the boys were simply unable to create any danger upfront.

I was not too upset though, everybody expected the champions to beat us and I guess the 2-0 scoreline is not too bad for a team of our stature. But I was looking for more in the next game, our first home game in Liga 1. But we had to meet a tough opponent: Astra Ploiesti, a team that finished last season in 5th place.

Viitorul vs Astra (Liga 1)

Starting line up: Alberto Cobrea — Miroslav Sedlak, Chakib Benzoukane, Ionut Putanu, Lucian Filip — Corado Carstoiu, Georgian Marcu, Nenad Grumic — Georgian Paun, Marius Albu, Joabe

We started the game pretty well this time, the lads were looking more comfortable on the ball but that was only until the 23rd minute when some rather poor defending from our part allowed Astra to take the lead. We came close to levelling the score after just two minutes but Georgian Paun squandered a pretty good chance and then, sadly, repeated himself another two minutes later! Things got even worse nine minutes before the break as Astra found the back of the net on a corner kick and we were trailing by two goals. We could have reduced the arrears on the stroke of half time but Georgian Marcu missed a very good chance, our third clear cut chance of the game.

Things didn’t change much after the break, we continued to press forward but striker Georgian Paun kept on missing chances as you will see in the match highlights. Luckily Brazilian striker Joabe was not so wasteful and scored his first ever goal for the club and our first ever goal in Liga 1 to give us some hope of a fightback. There was no hope though, Astra kept control of the game through very good passing and possession so we recorded another defeat…

Match Highlights (including clear cut chances): click here to watch

Two defeats out of two games didn’t sound too promising but luckily our next game was, at least on paper, one that we could win: away at fellow promoted side Snagov, a team that finished second behind us in the Liga 2 group last season. This time I decided to ditch the counter version of my tactic and start with the attacking one, we needed a win!

Snagov vs Viitorul (Liga 1)

Starting line up: Alberto Cobrea — Ionut Peteleu, Chakib Benzoukane, Ionut Rada, Lucian Filip — Mihai Onicas, Alexandru Lazar, Nenad Grumic — Georgian Paun, Valentin Simion, Joabe

I was expecting fireworks but all I got was complete utter boredom, the two teams appeared to have some other things to do rather than play football. In the middle of that ocean of boredom it was the home side who had the chance to score 10 minutes before the break as the referee awarded them a penalty kick… but they smashed it against the post! We were forgiven for our lack of enthusiasm in attack but I was expecting a lot more from my youngsters in the second half.

Well, they did show a bit more impetus after the break and we broke the deadlock on 52 minutes when striker Valentin Simion headed home a corner kick cross. The goal gave the lads more confidence and they created a wonderful move in the 71st minute which ended with a fine first time pass from Simion for Mihai Onicas inside the penalty area and the midfielder didn’t miss the target. The game ended in style as Alexandru Lazar played a nice through pass for Georgian Paun who managed to score his first goal of the season. The game ended 3-0 and that was our first victory in the top flight, I was quite happy :)

Match highlights: click here to watch

The last two league games of the month went fairly well too, we drew 1-1 at home against 2011 champions Otelul Galati and then made another victim among the newly-promoted sides as we beat Gloria Bistrita 2-0 away. It’s curious though that we recorded our two wins away from home :) The month ended with an easy Romanian Cup match against a non-league side, we won it easily.

I was looking forward to our first home win of the season but getting it in the next game was highly unlikely as we were facing Steaua Bucharest, the richest and most successful Romanian club ever (they have won more than 20 titles plus the Champions Cup in 1986 against Barcelona).

Viitorul vs Steaua (Liga 1)

Starting line up: Alberto Cobrea — Ionut Peteleu, Chakib Benzoukane, Ionut Rada, Lucian Filip — Mihai Onicas, Alexandru Lazar, Georgian Marcu — Georgian Paun, Vlad Rusu, Joabe

A capacity crowd was expecting a good fight from my lads but things got off to a bad start as Benzoukane made a foul inside the penalty area and Steaua took the lead from the spot after just 9 minutes. My boys reacted surprisingly well though and Joabe came very close to making it all square on 15 minutes. The goal finally came in the 33rd minute and it was Chakib Benzoukane‘s revenge as he powered in a corner kick header to erase his mistake at the earlier penalty kick. The first half was fairly even overall so the 1-1 was in all fairness the just result at the break.

Unfortunately we were unable to avoid conceding on a corner kick just three minutes after the restart but the reaction was there again as Vlad Rusu was denied by the post on 50 minutes. We started pushing forward after that unfortunate miss and we got very lucky shortly after the hour mark as substitute left back Visan Cretu scored a total fluke, a poor cross turned into a spectacular goal! At that point Steaua started to press forward but we were hanging in there… Unfortunately we didn’t manage to survive until the final whistle as Steaua took the lead again on a free kick. We did put up a good fight though…

After that good display against Steaua we put on a much weaker show in the Romanian Cup match against Liga 2 side Alro but thankfully we managed to pull through to the next round. We did much better in the following league match though as we recorded yet another away win against a fellow relegation candidate, FC Brasov. Midfielder Mihai Onicas was on fire, he bagged a double in that game and he appears to become the leader that this team needs.

We were still chasing that first home win though and it seemed that we had some more waiting in front of us as our next game was against 3rd placed Rapid Bucharest, one of the best teams in the league.

Viitorul vs Rapid (Liga 1)

Starting line up: Alberto Cobrea — Ionut Peteleu, Chakib Benzoukane, Ionut Rada, Lucian Filip — Georgian Marcu, Mihai Onicas, Nenad Grumic — Georgian Paun, Vlad Rusu, Joabe

The first ten minutes of the games showed that we were up against it, Rapid were dominating quite clearly. But lady luck smiled upon us on 13 minutes when our first corner kick of the game was converted into a goal by centre back Chakib Benzoukane! That goal changed the situation completely, we started to keep possession and Rapid were not showing the same determination any more. Well, they did come close on a counter attack just before the break but the first half ended and we were still leading 1-0!

And things got better nine minutes after the interval when we converted another corner kick into a goal! This time it was striker Vlad Rusu who headed the ball into the back of the net to make our small crowd roar! I was expecting a fierce reaction from Rapid but that reaction didn’t come, we kept things well under control and nearly made it 3-0 two minutes from time when substitute Romario Benzar wasted a very good counter attack chance. We won our first home game in the top flight and it was quite pleasing as the result was a major upset!

Match highlights: click here to watch

Confidence was sky-high after that win and my players put on another great show in the next game, the Romanian Cup 6th round match against Otelul Galati. It was a thriller: we led 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 despite playing the whole second half with 10 men due to a red card! (click here to watch the highlights) But the game went to penalties… where we got lucky and won the shoot-out 5-4! That meant we grabbed a fairly thin 5,000 pounds reward but I was pleased to advance to the 7th Round (last sixteen).

The last game of the month was a tough one, away at 3rd placed CFR Cluj, but it got even more difficult as I was unable to field my best eleven due to fatigue problems caused by the prolonged and intense cup match.

CFR Cluj vs Viitorul (Liga 1)

Starting line up: Alberto Cobrea — Ionut Peteleu, Chakib Benzoukane, Ionut Rada, Lucian Filip — Corado Carstoiu, Alexandru Lazar, Romario Benzar — Valentin Simion, Vlad Rusu, Marius Albu

Well, there’s not much to be said about this game: it was a cold-blooded execution! The home side was in full control from the first minute of the game until the hour mark and scored three goals in the process. We finally woke up during the last half hour but that wasn’t enough, not even for a consolation goal…

That cruel defeat wrapped up the month of September but I guess I can feel better after looking at the league table: we are in 9th place after two months! But we surely are not out of danger, the relegation zone is just four points away…

October will be quite interesting and revealing too because we won’t meet any high-profile teams in the league, we’ll have three matches against «normal» teams and I guess that’s the occasion to see exactly where we stand. The month will end with a «mission impossible» cup match against strong FC Vaslui but at least we’ll be playing that one at home. Oh, you should also know that I have signed another interesting youngster but this one comes from overseas: Uruguay youth international Alvaro Casanova (click the name to see his profile).

One more thing before wrapping up: the financial situation shows no signs of improvement, we’re losing around 150,000 pounds every month so I guess our balance will be more than 2 million in red at the end of the season. I have to do something about it but I don’t know exactly what… Well, I have found a parent club as Ana suggested, it’s Shakhtar Donetsk, but the yearly fee coming from them is like a drop in the ocean…

That’s about it folks, thanks a lot for stopping by to read this. And please don’t leave before letting me know what you think about our progress ;)