Article by Alin Buzărin – Published Friday, 06 February 2026 21:04 / Updated Friday, 06 February 2026 21:28
The fate of a team and a coach can be decided by the completely inexplicable gesture of an experienced footballer, a 30-year-old Cypriot international.
Hermannstadt lost 3-1 at Argeșului (the kind of 5 o'clock match that neutral viewers don't really watch) and this failure could be fatal for them in the battle at the bottom of the standings.
Also, to Dorinel Munteanu, the most selected Romanian footballer, the coach who built teams (Oțelul) and produced class players from nothing (Cisotti), if Hermannstadt falls, it will be given that voluptuous label of the naysayers that it has “relegated two teams in a row”.
What do you breathe instead of oxygen?
So far it wouldn't be a problem, Dorinel, at 58 years old, is a “big boy”, he took it upon himself to go to Sibiu, a club with financial problems, no points and a foot and a half in the hole. He tries to do what he can too.
With Rapid and with Dinamo, they played well and lost, they won the derby of despair in Slobozia and are trying to breathe. But what do you do when, instead of oxygen, you suck in the surrounding mess?
Karo vs Cluj University // PHOTO: Imago Images
A sole on the shin
At Mioveni it was 0-0 in the 28th minute, when Hermannstadt was down to ten men. The ball was 40 meters from the Sibian goal, at Radescu. The midfielder felt the possibility of a semi-counterattack, it's the kind of phase you want, when the opponent, who you suspected was always staying grouped, “gets thin”.
Rădescu did what he had to do, he quickly passed to Yanis Pârvu. At that moment, withdrawn late, the “trier”, central defender, Karo brutally attacked him 40 meters from the goal, in a side area. He put his foot on the shin!
Colțescu didn't see it in the first phase (in his experience he should have seen, or at least felt, anyway Radescu's howl was not to be ignored), but then he went to VAR and issued the mandatory red card. Play, Dorinele, in ten men, from the 28th minute! Good luck!
Why?
Of course, it is not right to speculate without having arguments, but such a phase jumps out. A 30-year-old stopper, also at Lazio (without playing), with 28 caps in the Cypriot national team, at 0-0 away, in the 28th minute, instead of defending side by side with his colleagues in the defensive line, he haunts the middle of the field, on the side, and commits red card fouls. Why?
Time to wander?
Lack of experience cannot be invoked! Not that he “stole the landscape”. So what stole Karo? Only he could explain to us, although the FRF Integrity Commission could also ask for explanations, if there is such a thing. What was the odds on a red card in the first half hour?
Because such a gesture, inexplicable in normal football, can only be justified by a moment of error.
But such moments of wandering are dealt with elsewhere. Only traces remain on the ground. On Rădescu's shin, on the table, in the ranking and maybe in the accounts of certain impresarios and managers who color the landscape of our football with such strays!
Go ahead, Dorinele! And see what your Karo asset explains to you in the locker room!
