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FOOTBALL365 WORLD CUP COUNTDOWN
ROMANIA
Four years after their sparkling performances at the World Cup in the USA, Romania are older, wiser and ready to prove that their success in reaching the quarter-finals last time out was no fluke.
ROMANIA'S players will feel nothing if not at home during France 98. The nucleus of their squad is almost identical to the one that performed creditably during USA 94 and Euro 96 and the family feel amongst the players is hard to ignore. National coach Anghel Iordanescu remains at the helm at least for this competition - having overseen the most successful period in Romania's history. Iordanescu has already confirmed that he will leave after the World Cup finals to coach the Greek national team.
The coach insists his departure is purely because he wants a fresh challenge, but he is known to be frustrated by the Romanian FA's shaky finances which restricted his preparations for France 98, as well as his disputes with the Under-21 side over the availability of players.
Romania's most promising young players - the likes of Steaua Bucharest's Denis Serban and Catalin Munteanu, and 18-year-old Anderlecht midfielder Alin Stoica - were wanted by under-21 coach Victor Piturca, (who will succeed Iordanescu as national coach) for the European Under-21 Championships hosted by Romania immediately before the World Cup.
And Iordanescu is not happy with the situation. "I don't want to have the young players exhausted in June after a stressful competition in May," he said. Which means he will stick to the players who performed so well at USA 94. "My key players are the same as in 94 - Hagi, Popescu and Petrescu," the coach says. But he will have to do without two stars from USA 94 Florin Raducioiu and Ionut Lupescu, who have clashed with Iordanescu in the past two years when he refused to guarantee them first-team status.
Iordanescu will rely on the players who performed so well for him in the qualifiers for France 98 after being so unlucky at Euro 96, when Romania went out in the first round, partly due to having a clear goal against Bulgaria disallowed. Dorinel Munteanu's shot hit the crossbar and bounced over the line, but it wasn't seen by the referee. If the goal had been given and Romania had won the match, they would still have had a chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
Despite that failure, the Romanians strolled through qualification for France while their reward for their impressive performances at Italia 90 and USA 94 was to be seeded in Group G with England and Colombia, as well as Tunisia.
Yet with such a reliance on several older players, it may be the case that France 98 is a tournament too far for Iordanescu's ageing stars. Playmaker Gheorghe Hagi remains the star man, although if he can get the best from relative newcomers Adrian Ilie and Coventry's Viorel Moldovan up front, then a repeat of 1994 may yet be on the cards.
THE GREATS
Anghel Iordanescu
Gheorghe Hagi
Ladislau Boloni
STRANGE BUT TRUE
1. National coach Anghel Iordanescu is known as 'The General' and there's a good reason for that. He really is one in the Romanian army.
2. Gheorghe Hagi is a trained dentist and owns a dental surgery in Bucharest.
3. Romanian defender Miodrag Belodedici became the first player to win the European Cup with two different clubs when he was a member of the 1991 Red Star Belgrade side. He was first a winner with Steaua in 1986, when they beat Barcelona on penalties.
4. Romania were the first European country to qualify for France 98.
5. The Romanians have been knocked out of the last two World Cups on penalties.
BIGGEST WIN
9-0 v Finland, October 14, 1973
MOST EMBARRASSING DEFEAT
9-0 v Hungary, October 24, 1948
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WORLD CUP HISTORY
ROMANIA are preparing to take part in their seventh World Cup finals, but it took them until four years ago in 1994, when they reached the quarter-finals, to fulfil their potential. They competed in the first three World Cup finals, but won only one of their five matches, against Peru in 1930, and failed to reach the second round.
In their next appearance in the finals, in 1970, Romania again bowed out after the first round. They beat Czechoslovakia, but were then defeated by holders England and eventual winners Brazil. They then had to wait until 1990 for their next crack at the tournament, which saw an exciting new generation of highly skilled players including Gheorghe Hagi, Gica Popescu and Ilie Dumitrescu coming through. In Italy, the Romanians emerged from a tough first-round group that also contained holders Argentina, the USSR and Cameroon to reach the second round for the first time. But after a goalless draw with the Republic of Ireland, Romania lost on penalties.
Four years ago in the USA, with the same nucleus of players, Romania produced their best World Cup performance yet. They topped their first-round group after victories over Colombia and the USA, and then beat a Maradona-less Argentina 3-2 in a second-round encounter which was one of the best matches of the tournament. There was another thriller in the quarter-final against Sweden. The match ended 2-2, with both sides taking the lead, but Romania were again on the wrong end of a penalty shoot-out defeat.
WORLD CUP FINALS RECORD
Year Round reached
1930 1st round
1934 1st round
1938 1st round
1950 did not enter
1954 did not qualify
1958 did not qualify
1962 did not enter
1966 did not qualify
1970 1st round
1974 did not qualify
1978 did not qualify
1982 did not qualify
1986 did not qualify
1990 2nd round
1994 quarter-finalists
Total games played 17, won 6, drawn 3, lost 8, goals for 26, goals against 29
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HOW ROMANIA QUALIFIED
ROMANIA were the first European country to qualify for France 98 after they sailed through qualifying. Admittedly Group 8 was amongst the world's weakest, but Iordanescu's men swept aside minnows Macedonia, Iceland and Liechtenstein and took four points from the Republic of Ireland to finish their group unbeaten.
EUROPEAN SECTION GROUP 8 (including scorers for Romania)
31.08.96 Romania 3 Lithuania 0 (Moldovan, Petrescu, Galca)
09.10.96 Iceland 0 Romania 4 (Bergsson og, Hagi, G. Popescu, Petrescu)
14.12.96 Macedonia 0 Romania 3 (G. Popescu 3)
29.03.97 Romania 8 Liechtenstein 0 (Moldovan, G. Popescu 4, Hagi,
Petrescu, Craioveanu)
02.04.97 Lithuania 0 Romania 1 (Moldovan)
30.04.97 Romania 1 Rep Ireland 0 (Ilie)
20.08.97 Romania 4 Macedonia 2 (Moldovan 2, Galca, Dumitrescu)
06.09.97 Liechtenstein 1 Romania 8 (Moldovan, Dobos, Munteanu 3, Craioveanu 2, Barbu)
10.09.97 Romania 4 Iceland 0 (Hagi 2, Petrescu, Galca)
11.10.97 Rep Ireland 1 Romania 1 (Hagi)
Top scorer: G Popescu (8 goals)
P W D L F A Pts
*Romania 10 9 1 0 37 4 28
Rep Ireland 10 5 3 2 22 8 18
Lithuania 10 5 2 3 11 8 17
FYR Macedonia 10 4 1 5 22 18 13
Iceland 10 2 3 5 11 16 9
Liechtenstein 10 0 0 10 3 52 0
*Romania qualify as group winners
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FRANCE 98 FIXTURES
v Colombia, 15 June, Lyon
A replay from four years ago, when Romania surprised virtually everyone by beating Colombia 3-1, after the South Americans had been among the pre-tournament favourites. Romania love hitting attacking teams like Colombia on the break, but how much have the South Americans learnt from 1994?
v England, 22 June, Toulouse
The big one, for both sides. Avoiding defeat will be the key for both teams, especially if England have already beaten Tunisia. Last met in a friendly at Wembley in October 1994 and drew 1-1.
v Tunisia, 26 June, Saint-Denis
A game Romania will expect to win and will probably need to triumph in to have any chance of qualifying for the next round and justifying their seeded status.
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Features 5 
