Radio România Internațional

Tag: European Champions’ Cup

  • RRI Sports Club – Handballer Cornel Oţelea

    RRI Sports Club – Handballer Cornel Oţelea

    This January, the only Romanian handball player to win the world title three times passed away. Cornel Oţelea died aged 84, after an impressive career as a player and coach. The announcement was made by the club where he spent most of his life, namely Steaua Bucharest Army Sports Club. Here, Cornel Oţelea performed as an athlete, coach and commander.

     

    Cornel Oţelea was born November 19, 1940, in Şeica Mare, Sibiu County (center). At the age of 18, he was already playing in the 11-man handball team of the army club, at the time called CCA (the Central Army House). In 1961, the club changed its name to Steaua Bucharest, and around that time, handball switched from fielding 11-player teams to 7-player teams. Romania too was one of the nations that established themselves in the new discipline from the very beginning. At the 1961 World Championship, hosted by West Germany, Romania, with Oţelea in the lineup, won first place. In the final held in Dortmund, on March 12, the Romanian handballers defeated Czechoslovakia 9-8 at the end of stoppage time. Just three years later, on March 15, 1964, in Prague, Romania won a new world title, this time beating Sweden, 25-22. After a world bronze in 1967, when Romania defeated the USSR in the bronze final of the World Championship in Sweden, a new gold medal followed in 1970. The competition was held in France, and on March 8, in Paris, Romania defeated the German Democratic Republic 13-12 after extra time. It was the last world title won by Cornel Oţelea as a player. Overall, he gathered 92 caps with Romania’s national team, scoring 147 goals. Romania remained a world superpower in handball and won another world championship, in 1974, when the competitions were held in East Germany, Romania beating the host team 14-12.

     

    After retiring from professional competitions, Cornel Oţelea went on to become a successful coach. His first great achievement was winning the European Champions Cup with Steaua in 1977. Also with Cornel Oţelea at the helm, the Romanian men’s national team won its last medal at a world championship, bronze at the 1990 edition held in Czechoslovakia, after losing 27-21 in the bronze final to Yugoslavia. Let us further note that in 1983-84 and then between 1991 and 1997 he was the commander of the Steaua Bucharest Army Sports Club. In 1997, the Ministry of Defense in Bucharest awarded him the rank of major-general, the current equivalent of the rank of brigadier general. (VP)

  • Stories from Romanian Sports – Seville, 1986

    Stories from Romanian Sports – Seville, 1986

    This week we
    marked 34 years since one of the greatest achievements ever to be recorded in
    Romanian football. On May 7, 1986, on Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Seville,
    Steaua Bucharest defeated FC Barcelona in the final of the European Champion’s
    Cup, thus becoming the first team from Eastern Europe to win the prestigious
    trophy.


    Steaua had
    reached the finals after brushing aside Vejle Bold Club of Denmark, Hungary’s
    Honved Budapest, the Finnish club Kuusisi Lahti and Anderlecht Brussels of
    Belgium. The match against the latter was reportedly the best performance of a
    Romanian football team in European inter-club competitions.


    The final
    against Barcelona was played away from home. Steaua played before a 40-thousand-strong
    Spanish crowd that had come to cheer their team towards its first victory in
    the Champions’ Cup. Steaua’s lineup included Helmut Duckadam, Ştefan Iovan,
    Adrian Bumbescu, Miodrag Belodedici, Ilie Bărbulescu, Gavrilă Balint, Ladislau
    Bölöni, Ştefan Majearu, Lucian Bălan, Marius Lăcătuş, Victor Piţurcă, Marin
    Radu (also known as Radu 2) and Anghel Iordănescu. Sitting on Steaua’s bench
    was headcoach Emerich Jenei, co-assisted by Iordănescu. The biggest absence in
    the first team lineup was the team captain, the very man who had had a solid
    contribution to the team’s road to the final: Tudorel Stoica.


    Barcelona turned
    out to be a tough nut to crack for Steaua, but our team eventually displayed
    superior technical prowess. The players defended well and mounted good
    counter-attacks. 120 minutes of play went by with no goal scored on either
    side. Then came the penalty shootout, and with it, the miracle. Steaua’s
    goalkeeper Helmut Duckadam saved all four penalty kicks. Few people remember,
    however, that the Spanish goalkeeper, the late Javier Urruticoechea, himself
    saved two penalty kicks, which, alone, was a remarkable feat for a Champions’
    Cup final. Scoring for Romania were Marius Lăcătuş and Gavrilă Balint, and the
    final penalty kick saved by Duckadam committed the match to legend.


    Many of the
    first-team players who contributed to Steaua’s victory in ’86 are no longer
    with us today. Our thoughts dwell particularly on Ion Alexandru, at the time
    the head of the Football Division of STEAUA Army Club, but also players Lucian
    Bălan and Ilie Bărbulescu. Most of the players who made up Steaua’s dream team
    in 1986 are today professional coaches. Some have even compelled international
    recognition, such as Victor Piţurcă, who helped Romania qualify to two European
    Championships.


    (Translated by
    V. Palcu)