Strong characters will be needed to cope with a January in Miercurea Ciuc, but the Superliga must go on. We start the year at home, as FC Botoșani – who spent the winter break in third place – visit the Municipal Stadium.

Strong characters will be needed to cope with a January in Miercurea Ciuc, but the Superliga must go on. We start the year at home, as FC Botoșani – who spent the winter break in third place – visit the Municipal Stadium.

In the heart of winter, during an exceptionally cold January in Miercurea Ciuc, the “spring” part of the Superliga season gets underway, paying little attention to climatic reality – namely that this year winter is truly winter, not only in regions accustomed to it, but across the entire country. Thus, in Round 22 of the regular season, one of the league’s biggest surprises, FC Botoșani, arrives at the Municipal Stadium. Throughout the week, the pitch was cleared of a thick layer of snow with considerable effort, and with the help of the under-soil heating system – consuming around 1 megawatt per hour – we tried to prepare it for the match. How successful this operation has been will be revealed at kick-off. What is certain is that even the pitch in Mioveni, which hosted the opening match of the round, was not ice-free, despite the fact that they did not have to contend with mornings around –20 degrees there.

The Moldavian side, however, is not among the teams that chose to prepare in warmer climates. They held their training camp at home and played two friendly matches on snowy and icy artificial pitches, beating Farul Constanța 1–0 and second-division side AFC Câmpulung Muscel 5–1. They have not been particularly active on the transfer market so far, although the window remains open until February 9.

By contrast, FK Csíkszereda prepared for the restart in a training camp in Turkey, playing three matches on good-quality grass pitches: a 0–0 draw with Nyíregyháza, a 1–1 draw against Polish top-flight side Arka Gdynia, and a 3–3 draw with Azerbaijani club FK Zira. Our goals were scored by Eppel Márton (2), Dusinszki Szabolcs and Szalay Szabolcs. Four new players joined the squad during the camp: Argentine defender Mariano Bettini (29), Brazilian midfielder Gustavo Dos Santos Cabral (24), Swiss-Kosovar defender Arian Kabashi (29), and Romanian defender Răzvan Trif (29). We also reached an agreement with Swedish midfielder Wilhelm Loeper (27), although he did not take part in the Turkish camp. The good news is that he has now joined the squad this weekend, after some delays, arriving in Miercurea Ciuc on Saturday, where we hope – and all signs point in that direction – that he will make a significant contribution to achieving our objectives.

As for departures, although several players from the autumn squad did not take part in the training camp, so far only one contract termination has been finalized, that of former captain Kelemen Dávid. We wish him every success in his future career. At the same time, two young talents have moved to Satu Mare: 18-year-old striker Gergely Alpár and our academy graduate, 22-year-old goalkeeper Karácsony Márk, who will strengthen the second-division Partium-based side for the remainder of the season. Another young goalkeeper, Deáky Zsombor (18), has returned from Satu Mare, where he had been on loan during the first part of the season, and will now work with our Superliga squad.

At the pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s game, head coach Ilyés Róbert pointed out that one of the toughest matches of the season awaits us, while players Veres Szilárd and Pap Eduard spoke optimistically about our chances.

The match is scheduled to kick off at 3:30 PM and will be broadcast live on Digi Sport 1 and Prima Sport 1. Although forecasts suggest that the frost is unlikely to ease significantly by kick-off, we hope that the sunshine – and above all the team’s performance – will make up for this challenge, considered relatively mild in Miercurea Ciuc. The stadium ticket office will be open from 2:00 PM.

Rédai Attila