Dan's east european adventure

[Pompey_Dan]

Dan's East European Adventure: The First 5 Years

Welcome to my East European adventure, a story following my journey from unfancied manager to... well who knows where?! I will be playing only in East Europe having loaded up the following leagues: Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine (all as playable) + England, Spain and Italy (as view only - just to keep in touch!)
I am starting with an automatic reputation and as unemployed (but the job app's are in the post!) This is my first story and through out I will try out different approaches to make it interesting, but will stick to a match report type layout. Please feel free to leave me a post and let me know what you think. Here we go...



On 17th June 2009, in what many see as a surprise appointment, the U Cluj board named a virtually unknown English manager as their new boss. Dan Lake was introduced to fans and journalists alike at Clujana this morning.

Founded in 1919, CFM Universitatea Cluj-Napoca are a professional Romanian club currently playing in the Romanian Second League Group 2. The club play their home games at Clujana and is affectionately known as Şepcile Roşii (The Red Caps). It retains a fierce rivalry with FC CFR 1907 Cluj, FC Bihor Oradea and FC Steaua Bucharest.

As a club which enjoyed its best spell of success during the 1940s and their last competition win coming as recently as 2007, Şepcile Roşii are a club with a growing history. U Cluj finished runners-up in the Romanian top division for the only time in 1933, won the Romanian Cup in 1965 and finished runners-up on three occasions, won the Romanian 2nd tier for the only time in 1958, and won the Romanian 2nd tier in 1950 and 2007. It's widely accepted that Lake faces a difficult task as he looks to return U Cluj to Liga I.

 

[Mike]

Good luck!

 

[Pompey_Dan]

Following his appointment as manager of U Cluj football club, Dan Lake has been busy making additions to his playing and coaching staff.

64 year old goalkeeping coach Vasile Stan and the rather younger 30 year old Robert Frusa have joined the backroom team, whilst Emil Szolomajer has exited. Meanwhile, Lake captured the signatures of Ghanian winger Charles Taylor and Australian forward Michael Baird.

Lake saw off a lot of competition to sign Taylor from Ghanian club Hearts of Oak for £100k, making him the highest paid player in the division. Baird arrived from Universitatea Craiova for £190k.

But neither these signings, nor Lake's appointment had an immediate impact on U Cluj's fortunes as the club suffered a humiliating pre-season, winning only 1 game out of 6 and conceding a massive 14 goals!


drew 0-0 v Sumadija Radnicki
won 2-1 v Rilski Sportist
lost 0-5 v Dinamo Bucharest
lost 1-5 v Racing Santander
lost 0-2 v Aerial Turda
drew 1-1 v CSM Sebes



---------- Post added at 12:49 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:23 AM ----------

With the supporters none too impressed by the team's warm up to the new season, Lake and the team faced an uphill battle in their opening game against bitter rivals FC Bihor.

Lake rang the changes for this opening game, switching from 4-4-2 to 4-1-4-1, new signing Baird found himself on the bench and Brazilian anchorman Baiano in the treatment room. In came midfielders Dan Bucsa and Adrian Ionescu.

drew 1-1 v FC Bihor
Midfielder Cătălin Bucur gave FC Bihor the lead with a freekick from the edge of the area in the 27th minute. With U Cluj staring at defeat, there was controversy as midfielder Bogdan Dolha then had a penalty shout turned down. U Cluj's equaliser came through Flavius Băd as he seized on Andrei Tânc's mistake to score a freak goal.

In the next 2 games Cluj started to find their stride and targetman Flavius Bad scored another 3 goals to lift the Sepcile Rosii into third place in the league.

won 3-0 v Simleu Silvaniei
First, midfielder Bogdan Dolha seized on an error by Adrian Serb to score a curling shot from the edge of the area. Striker Flavius Băd then doubled U Cluj's lead with a screamer from the edge of the area on 56 minutes. Dolha completed the rout with a close range header on 63 minutes.

won 3-1 v CSM Ramnicu Valcea
Things did not get off to a good start for U Cluj as CSM Rm. Vâlcea's Bogdan Vişa scored from the spot after Zsolt Szilagyi had given away a penalty. Striker Flavius Băd then equalised for U Cluj in the 25th minute with a real poacher's effort. Băd added another with a freak goal on 66 minutes. Midfielder Rareş Soporan completed the scoring for U Cluj with a placed shot from the edge of the area on 85 minutes.

 

[Jack Fulham]

Good start I'm guessing this is a different Cluj to the one that played in Champions League last season?

 

[Pompey_Dan]

Good start I'm guessing this is a different Cluj to the one that played in Champions League last season?

Thanks Jack,

You're absolutely right mate, that was CFR Cluj from the same city. I knew nothing about Romanian football before I started this "journeyman" game... now I know almost nothing!

 

[Jack Fulham]

Its good too many English based stories atm, it getting a bit tedious

 

[Pompey_Dan]

I know what you mean, I've been meaning to start a journeyman game for a while and eastern europe seemed as a good a place as any to start... might even learn a thing or two along the way?!

This is the first time I've posted my exploits though so I hope others find it interesting... next up is all the excitement of the 4th round of the Romanian Cup!!

 

[Deleted member 79730]

i can barely read the writing, good luck!!

 

[Pompey_Dan]

i can barely read the writing, good luck!!

Cheers Joe, duly noted about the text size, I tried to cram a lot in and so made it smaller.

---------- Post added at 01:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:44 AM ----------

The 4th round of the Romanian Cup and U Cluj were drawn against unfancied Avantul Reghin... the fans didn't just expect a win against such lowly opposition, they demanded it! Could Lake and his team deliver?

won 2-1 v Avantul Reghin
CFM Universitatea Cluj-Napoca did just enough to see off CSM Avântul Reghin's challenge in the Fourth Round match at Mechel. In a dire and largely uneventful first half centreback Zsolt Szilagyi gave U Cluj the lead with a mighty header in the 11th minute. The game picked up in the second half but it wasn't until the 78th minute that an error from Tudor Dobrău allowed striker Michael Baird to score a well timed close range finish.
Five minutes from time vice captain Szilagyi saw red for a vicious foul and U Cluj's position was under question. It was too little too late, however, when Dobrău made up for his earlier indiscretion and scored a consolation for Avântul in injury time with a tasty freekick.

Lake was furious with his defender Zsolt Szilagyi after the game, and the manager locked his vice captain in the changing room for an hour while he gave him the "hairdryer" treatment. Lake will not appeal any ban imposed on the player and Szilagyi has been fined a weeks wages.

---------- Post added at 08:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:56 AM ----------

U Cluj would have to play the next three games without their talismanic centreback Zsolt Szilagyi after the Romanian FA anounced that he was being banned for violent conduct. Rares Soporan would return to the heart of the defence for the first time since the pre-season humilation against Racing Santander.

In other news U Cluj manager Dan Lake came third in August's manager of the month award, striker Flavius Bad came second in the player of the month poll, and midfielder Bogdan Dolha's screamer against FC Silvania was voted goal of the month.

won 1-0 v FC Baia Mare
CFM Universitatea Cluj-Napoca battled to a deserved 1 - 0 victory over FC Baia Mare on a fine summer's afternoon in their Romanian Second League Group 2 game at Clujana. The match started tentatively for U Cluj, however, with captain Bogdan Unguruşan nearly handing the opposition the lead on 14 minutes. But U Cluj finally took the lead when prolific striker Flavius Băd applied the finish to Charles Taylor's freekick into the box on 75 minutes.

won 1-0 v Corbeanca (5th round of Romanian Cup)
U Cluj struggled to impose themselves on a match that should, on paper at least, have been a formality. Unfashionable Corbeanca held the Sepcile Rosii to a goalless 90 minutes and it wasn't until the 110th minute that U Cluj sealed their place in the sixth round draw when Marius Dumitru put the ball past his own keeper. Lake looked extremely concerned when his captain Bogdan Ungurusan was stretchered off on the half hour mark, he was later diagnosed with a twisted knee and will be out for 4-5 weeks.

won 2-0 v Muresul Deva
A controversial match which saw Mureşul Deva denied not one, not two, but three penalty claims! Mureşul Deva came closest to taking the lead in the 14th minute but striker Barna Bajko failed to capitalise on a lapse of concentration by young loanee Adrian Scarlatache's.
U Cluj finally took the lead when midfielder Charles Taylor scored a powerful right foot shot from the edge of the area on 64 minutes. On fire striker Flavius Băd made it 6 goals in 5 league matches when he headed across the 'keeper from Taylor's freekick.

The sixth round of the Romanian Cup sees the countries best teams join the competition. With his team unbeaten and sitting second in the league, Dan Lake attended the draw eager to see if his team would face any of the big names from Liga I.

Not only did U Cluj draw a big name, but they are set to face their biggest rivals CFR Cluj in a showdown that their fan's have long dreamed of! Having won the Romanian title as recently as 2008, CFR Cluj started the current season poorly and find themselves in the relegation places in Liga I.

 

[Jack Fulham]

Cruising the League at the moment, hopefully you can keep it up, your training schedules having much effect on players yet?

 

[Kris]

Nice to see something different. If you see my sig i also have something similar going on. Decided to go for Hungary myself

 

[Max]

This looks interesting and different Good luck, I'll be following

 

[Pompey_Dan]

Cruising the League at the moment, hopefully you can keep it up, your training schedules having much effect on players yet?

It's still early days in the competition Jack, not gonna get carried away... yet!

Regarding the training schedules, I have just seen some real attribute improvements in August. I'm really pleased to see improvements so quickly and with only 2.5 star coaching staff too! I've attached a couple of screenshots, the green arrows illustrate the stat improvements.

 

[Jack Fulham]

Seems to be having a very good effect on physical stats

 

[Pompey_Dan]

Nice to see something different. If you see my sig i also have something similar going on. Decided to go for Hungary myself

Nice one Kris, thanks. Good luck with Ferencvaros, see you've had a good start... Hungary for success perhaps?!

 

[cuddles]

gotta say good luck mate u may need it, i had ionescu on 08 and he was top class and dirt cheap so i think u gotta gem

 

[Pompey_Dan]

gotta say good luck mate u may need it, i had ionescu on 08 and he was top class and dirt cheap so i think u gotta gem

Thank you. Tbh, I didn't even give Ionescu a starting place in the team until the season's first game!

 

[Chris]

Looks interesting mate. Nice to see something different!

 

[Pompey_Dan]

In the sixth round of the Romanian Cup, the holders of the trophy CFR Cluj were drawn against their arch rivals, U Cluj. Both teams hail from Cluj-Napocea in the north of Romania, the country's third biggest city with a population of approximately 400,000.

This local derby has been played out five times in the past six seasons, with CFR Cluj claiming the bragging rights in four of those games. It was also in the cup, in October 2008, that the two teams last squared up. A game full of incident finished 3-3 and had to be decided on penalties, which CFR Cluj won 11-10.

In the build up to the match, the bookies had CFR Cluj down as clear favourites to win (2-5) and the local media didn't fancy the Sepcile Rosii's chances much either. U Cluj manager Dan Lake was in an equivocal mood during the pre-match press conference, however, stating "I think we have a chance if we perform well."

Given all the hype leading up to this game, it was inevitable that the match itself would be a disappointment. CFR Cluj were the more attacking of the two teams, and the Liga I outfit could have scored as early as 5 minutes had captain Costin Lazar not blazed his effort over the bar. But U Cluj fought brave and hard, limiting their opponents to long shots and counter attacks only. It was in the 39th minute when one such counter attack saw Yssouf Kone score to put CFR Cluj ahead. The Burkino Faso striker got on the end of a beautiful pass from Bogdan Mara and placed his shot low beneath U Cluj's keeper, Sebastian Hutan.
Throughout the second half Kone was a constant threat to U Cluj's defenders, but he and his team-mates were unable to put the game beyond the reach of their opponents. And CFR Cluj nearly paid for this sluggishness in front of goal when, in the fifth minute of added time, Charles Taylor layed off a freekick for Dan Busca which he struck with venom, unfortunately his shot clipped the bar and went over.
lost 0-1 v CFR Cluj

After the game U Cluj ultras voiced their anger at losing, and clashes between opposing sets of fans were reported by the local police force.

U Cluj fans at the derby

 

[Jack Fulham]

Like the bit you added to make it more realistic, unlucky but the other Cluj team do have some quality players