Article by Narcis Drejan – published Monday, June 9, 2025, 10:47 / Updated Monday, June 9, 2025 10:47
Is Lucescu guilt? Or are we, those who at each final tour we get drunk with cold water and turn a normal qualification into a national miracle, then hide quickly after beautiful words and “reconstruction” when the first failure comes?
Romania went to Euro 2024 without defeat, winning the group and feeding a collective illusion of rebirth. There, we defeated Ukraine and, for a few days, we dreamed big and strong.
Then I shook the ceiling head in the optimum and returned to reality. Let's not forget about Tata Puiu in 2016: the perfect preliminaries, but the final tournament again exposed our weaknesses.
In a repetitive loop
Edi, his son, with good and evil, brought a team spirit, a state of belonging that mattered more than speeches. And yet, Romania brought the great Lucescu to the bench. A difficult name, a CV coach, a manual speaker, but also a man who seems to believe that no one can contradict him and can leave anytime if something does not suit him.
With your luggage prepared at the door, do you rebuild football? And let's be honest: the locker room doesn't help him. Stanciu also lives from the match with Ukraine, as if he had marked in the Champions League final.
Rațiu? He no longer paints his blue hair, he does not call his sonic, but he quarrels with his colleagues and plays individually, as if he were the star of a Hollywood team, a kind of character from Ted Lasso. Maybe here the press was wrong, which transferred daily to Barcelona, Liverpool, City, I am surprised that they did not appear PSG and Inter.
The colors of the national team seem more and more, the perfect background for selfies and hashtags, instead of being a symbol of sacrifice and pride.
Mircea Lucescu, at the match Austria – Romania 2-1 Photo: Ionuţ Iordache (GSP)
We love to lie
Maybe Lucescu is just another episode of our eternal series of illusions and failures: a renowned coach, but with a message that is lost among pompous conferences and a locker room in which everyone seems to be a star, but fails in mediocrity.
The real question is: When will we be honest? When will we have the courage to admit that we have fundamental problems, that our football does not go with marketing and “yellow wall” and that beyond banners and can-cans remain a big goal? We like to lie, we like self -sufficiency and we never discover real problems, and this is not only valid in football, but throughout society.
And there is something else: at Euro, out of 53 European nations, 24 go to the final tournament. A drum! And then how many places should Fifa have to invent the World Cup, after 28 years of privilege? They will be 32, maybe even 36, who holds the string? Maybe we should have a Wild Card for memories, on the system: do we know, we are Romania and we have not been to a world championship before the 2000s, do you not give us an ex officio invitation?
