Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romania’s national team

  • RRI Sport Club– Women’s handball

    RRI Sport Club– Women’s handball

    At the end of next month, a new edition of the European Women’s Handball Championship is scheduled to start. Matches will take place in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland. The Romanian team was drawn in Group B, alongside Montenegro, Serbia and Czechia. Group matches will be played in Debrecen. Romania will make its debut on Friday, November 29, against Czechia. The match against Montenegro is scheduled for December 1, while the final game against Serbia will be played on December 3. 24 teams have qualified to the European Championship, divided into six groups. The first two teams from each group will advance to the main stage, where they will be divided into two groups of six teams each. The top two teams in the main groups will qualify for the semi-finals.

     

    Romania’s national team aims to rank among the top 12 teams. Given that coach Florentin Pera will have at his disposal a young team, with an average age of 23, the relatively modest expectations of the Romanian Handball Federation are understandable. Valuable players such as Cristina Neagu, Crina Pintea and Eliza Buceschi have recently retired from the national team, and their absence could leave a gap in the mechanics of the first lineup. Young players are promising, but not enough to convince, for example, the top clubs in the National League. One of Romania’s great coaches, Gheorghe Tadici, a silver medalist with the women’s national team in 2005 at the World Cup in Russia, criticized the attitude of Romanian clubs in an interview to Prosport: “Foreign players play on the field, and our Romanian players are in the stands. Only about three Romanians managed to catch the first lineup. Is that normal?”, Tadici asks, adding: “We invest thousands of EUR in foreign players. In Norway, the maximum salaries are somewhere around 6,000 – 7,000 EUR [e.n. – per month]. We offer them from 10,000 EUR to 20,000 EUR and we still don’t win Champions League”. As a solution, the coach suggests the establishment of a minimum number of Romanian players who are permanently on the playing field.

     

    Let’s further note that, ahead of the European Championships, this weekend the Carpați Trophy tournament will take place in Cluj. North Macedonia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey and Brazil will play alongside Romania. On Friday, Romania faces North Macedonia, on Saturday it will take on Switzerland and then it will play Brazil on Sunday. (VP)

  • Athlete of the week – Table tennis player Bernadette Szőcs

    Athlete of the week – Table tennis player Bernadette Szőcs

    Last week, the European Table Tennis Championships were held in Linz, Austria. Romania was represented by 11 athletes: six girls and five boys. The most successful athlete enrolled in the competition was a Romanian, Elizabeta Samara, whose track record at European level includes 5 gold, 3 silver and six bronze medals. At this edition, however, the best results were grabbed by Bernadette Szőcs, who won two silver medals, which is why Radio Romania International has designated her Athlete of the Week.

     

    In Linz, Bernadette Szőcs fought for the gold medal in two competitions – the women’s doubles and the women’s singles. In the doubles final, Bernadette and the Austrian player Sofia Polcanova were defeated by the Czech-Slovak couple Hana Matelova / Barbora Balazova, score 3-2. In the singles competition, the Romanian player lost to her doubles colleague, Sofia Polcanova, who prevailed 4-1.

     

    Bernadette Szőcs was born March 5, 1995, in Târgu Mureş (central Romania). She took up sports at the age of 8. The results in cadet and junior competitions came relatively quick. Bernadette won several medals in European and world competitions, quickly climbing the international rankings. In 2016, at the European Championships in Budapest, she won bronze in the mixed doubles, alongside Ovidiu Ionescu. A year later, at the European Championships in Luxembourg, she grabbed her first European title, with the Romanian team. In 2018, in Montreux, Switzerland, she prevailed at the European Top 16 tournament, a competition reserved for the best players from Europe. A year later, in Nantes, France, she defended her European title with the Romanian team. In Munich, in 2022, she won the European title in women’s doubles, together with Sofia Polcanova, and won silver in the mixed doubles event, together with Ovidiu Ionescu. At the Olympic Games in Paris this year, in the singles competition, she was also stopped in the round of 16 by Polcanova. In the mixed doubles, she ranked 5th jointly with Ovidiu Ionescu. (VP)

  • RRI Sports Club – Football

    RRI Sports Club – Football


    Romanias national football team will play the last matches in this years Nations League. Thus, on Friday, Romania will play Finland away from home, while on Monday it will go up against Bosnia Herzegovina at home. Right now, Romania is ranked is bottom of the tables in Group 3. Our objective was to avoid relegation to League C, the third-tier division of Nations League.




    Under these circumstances, it is key Edward Iordănescus trainees must secure a good result in Helsinki. Finland also seeks to avoid relegation, now ranking 3rd, one point above Romania. A win would make Romanias mission a lot easier ahead of Mondays match against Bosnia Herzegovina, the number one favorite to win the group and secure promotion to League A. Should Bosnia win Fridays home match against Montenegro, they will have a four-point lead in the group tables prior to the last group fixture, which will mean Mondays match against Romania will present no stake for them.




    In the upcoming two matches, Edward Iordănescu had to operate some last-minute changes in the defense line, as team captain Vlad Chiricheș will be unavailable after having sustained an injury in the match his club, Cremonese, lost at home to Lazio, 0-4 on Sunday. In order to replace him, the headcoach has called up the central defender of Universitatea Craiova, Bogdan Mitrea, who will be returning to the national team after a two-year break. Midfielder Nicolae Stanciu will also return to the first-team lineup, his first selection after he left Slavia Prague to play for Wuhan in China. Ianis Hagi will also be unavailable as he is still recovering after a serious injury. (VP)




  • RRI Sports Club – Football

    RRI Sports Club – Football


    Romanias national football team will play the last matches in this years Nations League. Thus, on Friday, Romania will play Finland away from home, while on Monday it will go up against Bosnia Herzegovina at home. Right now, Romania is ranked is bottom of the tables in Group 3. Our objective was to avoid relegation to League C, the third-tier division of Nations League.




    Under these circumstances, it is key Edward Iordănescus trainees must secure a good result in Helsinki. Finland also seeks to avoid relegation, now ranking 3rd, one point above Romania. A win would make Romanias mission a lot easier ahead of Mondays match against Bosnia Herzegovina, the number one favorite to win the group and secure promotion to League A. Should Bosnia win Fridays home match against Montenegro, they will have a four-point lead in the group tables prior to the last group fixture, which will mean Mondays match against Romania will present no stake for them.




    In the upcoming two matches, Edward Iordănescu had to operate some last-minute changes in the defense line, as team captain Vlad Chiricheș will be unavailable after having sustained an injury in the match his club, Cremonese, lost at home to Lazio, 0-4 on Sunday. In order to replace him, the headcoach has called up the central defender of Universitatea Craiova, Bogdan Mitrea, who will be returning to the national team after a two-year break. Midfielder Nicolae Stanciu will also return to the first-team lineup, his first selection after he left Slavia Prague to play for Wuhan in China. Ianis Hagi will also be unavailable as he is still recovering after a serious injury. (VP)




  • Athlete of the Week on RRI – Footballer Florin Andone

    Athlete of the Week on RRI – Footballer Florin Andone

    It is a little over two months until the European Football Championship kicks off in France. Romania will play the opening match against the host country France, on June 10, on Stade de France stadium in Paris.



    Until then coach Anghel Iordanescu must decide on the membership of the team capable of moving past the group phase. Iordanescu’s favourite for the position of striker has lately been Florin Andone, a footballer playing in the second-tier league in Spain. In the matches against Lithuania and Spain, Andone didn’t have a stellar performance, but he did pull his weight. His selection to the national team boosted however his morale. Proof thereof was his remarkable performance in Sunday’s match his club, Cordoba, played against Gimnastic de Tarragona. Andone scored a hattrick and was close to scoring a fourth goal, the ball he sent hitting the post. His solid contribution helped his team draw against Tarragona, final score 4-all.



    For his excellent performance, we have designated Florin Andone Athlete of the Week on Radio Romania International.



    Florin Andone was born in Joldesti village, Botosani County, northern Romania, on April 11, 1993. When he was 12, his family moved to Spain, close to Valencia, where he enrolled with a local junior football team. He made his senior debut at Castellon, in 2011. He played in lower tiers until 2014, when he was signed by Cordoba. He made his debut in Primera Division in January 2015. He remained with Cordoba after the team had relegated to the second division, and was among the top goal scorers of Segunda Division in the 2015-2016 season.



    His first official match for Romania was on June 13, 2015, when he played 18 minutes against Northern Ireland as part of the 2016 European Championship qualifiers.


    (Translated by V. Palcu)