Saturday 26th September 2015 ko 17.00

4 Liga Bucuresti

CS ELECTRICA 5 (Dumimica 24 64 Gata 53 86 90)

VK SOCCER 0 M. Constantin sent off (2nd booking) 75

Att 37

We travelled by metro south to Piata Sudului and from there should have caught a bus to the Stadionul Rocar. The trouble was that in the mad rush the day before to get to Buftea we’d neglected to buy passes for Bucharest’s bus, trolley, and tram network. The irony of that omission was yet to be revealed to us though…

Like just about every suburban metro station Piata Sudului has a shopping centre at the top of the stairs. Here it’s slightly shabby, but does have an unofficial market too, and you could easily pick up walnuts or home-grown beans. However Andrei had spotted a stall selling something more interesting, that staple Romanian snack- Mici.

The dish, also called Mititei is a half kebab, half meatball snack made from a mixture of beef, and pork, and is served with mustard, pickles, and of course a beer! It’s cheap, it’s tasty, and with Romania suffering from an obesity problem, the government were seriously thinking of taxing it. Perhaps the 20 minute walk to the ground was no bad thing!

If you want to go to see a game at Stadionul Rocar, you probably should be aware that it is now called Stadionul ANEFS, but since every single piece of information on this game referred to Rocar I’ll use that name! Rocar were the firm that produced Bucharest’s trams and buses from the 1950’s to 2002, and ran their own football club near to the plant. The club reached the 1-Liga but were liquidated in 2009, 7 years after their parent company. The stadium was bought by ANEFS, the Acadenmia Nationala de Educatie Fizia si Sport, and nowadays two 4th division sides use it, Compest G.I.M. and CS Electrica.

Electrica is Romania’s principle supplier of electricity, and like Rocar before them have their own sports club. They were formed in 2003 and are Romania’s only club affiliated to CSIT, the International Confederation of Sport for workers and sport for the workforce is virtually a motto for the club.

Their opponents VK Soccer were no less interesting either, VK stands for Viorel Kraus, their president and coach. He’s played as a forward for the likes of Rapid Bucharest and his son also called Viorel Kraus, has coached in the USA, and decided in 2012 to form a football club to help those suffering socio-economic deprivation in their country’s capital.

With all that background it seemed a shame there wasn’t much interest in the game, just a few parents, girlfriends, and a jogger who forewent further exercise in favour of watching the game. Still the lack of people did allow plenty of time to explore the old stadiums metal bleachers, and pick my spot.

From the outset it was obvious that Electrica were more proficient in just about every department. 5-0 was deserved even if Mihai’s Constantin’s dismissal opened up the floodgates. Cristi Gata’s delicious free kick was a fine coda to a fine win for them.

We headed off for a meal in Bucharest’s Old Town. It felt civilized, and was tasty and excellent value despite the fashionable location, but I did miss the Mici. That, I felt was the real taste of Romania.