Article by David Istrate – Published on Sunday, 22 March 2026 22:22 / Updated on Sunday, 22 March 2026 23:15
The legendary Vasile Stângă (69 years old), double bronze medalist at the Olympic Games with the Romanian national team, harshly criticized the handball team for the unfortunate failure in the “double” with Turkey and appointed George Buricea, the head coach, responsible for this result.
After prevailing in the preliminary round for the World Championship with 37-32, the Romanian men's national handball team had a disastrous performance at home, in Buzau, and lost by 6 goals, 31-37, Turkey's last success coming in the last seconds.
Vasile Stângă, on Romania's elimination: “Buricea panicked and lost the game”
So, Turkey eliminated Romania from the World Cup qualifiers and are set to meet Norway in the final qualifying round for the final tournament in 2027.
“I thought maybe it would be easy after the tour win. Turkey played very well, and we played very poorly. The gate was weak and so I gave them confidence. It's a shame, but anyway, Turkey has no chance against Norway”, said Vasile Stângă, Romania's former great player, quoted by prosport.ro.
The end of the game recorded an amazing moment. When Turkey was leading by 5 goals, George Buricea, the national coach, told his players, at a time-out, that with this score they are qualified.
The problem is that Buricea did not know the rules correctly and if the match had ended with a difference of 5 goals, kicks from 7 meters would have followed. The left designated the Romanian technician as the main person responsible for the failure.
“The main fault lies with Buricea. He panicked and lost the game, that's what happened“, said the double Olympic bronze medalist.
Also, Vasile Stângă spoke about Mihai Popescu, the veteran who retired from the national team after defending the goal of the tricolors at the European Championship at the beginning of this year.
“From what we saw in this match, Mihai Popescu should not have given up. The number one problem was the goal, especially since we also missed Ionuț Iancu,” said the multiple champion of Romania.
