The first half of the regular season ends by the seaside for our Superliga team, where we hope to continue our unbeaten run that started at the end of August, in the away match against Farul Constanța.

The first half of the regular season ends by the seaside for our Superliga team, where we hope to continue our unbeaten run that started at the end of August, in the away match against Farul Constanța.

The Superliga has reached its halfway point, as the 15th round is being played this weekend. Róbert Ilyés’s side is travelling to face the last opponent they haven’t yet met in the competition: Farul Constanța.

As for previous encounters, it’s both true and not true that there’s a record between the two clubs. Back in the 2019–2020 season – our first in Liga 2 – we met a team called Farul in Constanța and lost 0–2 (the return match was cancelled due to the pandemic). However, that Farul is not the same club as today’s Farul, which now plays its matches on the central pitch of the Gheorghe Hagi Academy. At that time, the top-flight team was called Viitorul, and in 2021 it merged with the second-division Farul, reviving the historic name of the club – a reference to the city’s symbol, the lighthouse. The original Farul club, which represented Constanța for decades, went bankrupt in 2016.

Constanța football has always been strong, being one of the traditional centers of Romanian football. The first local football club was founded 105 years ago, in 1920, and the name Farul was first used in 1958. Throughout its history, the team has alternated between the first and second divisions but has always played an important role in the coastal region’s football. In the 1960s and 1970s, Farul was often among the top Romanian clubs, relying mainly on homegrown players. After merging with Viitorul, the club even won the national championship in the 2022–2023 season, under the guidance of Gheorghe Hagi.

FK’s players travelled to the seaside in an unusual way – by train. They boarded in Brașov rather than Miercurea Ciuc, and on Saturday afternoon they held their final training session at the charmingly old stadium in Năvodari.

Head coach Róbert Ilyés expressed his satisfaction that after the latest match – Tuesday’s Romanian Cup fixture against Sepsi OSK – the busy schedule finally eased a bit, allowing the team to rest and take part in a team-building activity:

“The team is fine. You could tell the boys were mentally tired after so many matches, but now we’ve had more time to prepare for the Constanța game, so hopefully we can get some points. The key will be to defend compactly because they have strong attacking players who are excellent one-on-one and dangerous on the counterattack. We’ll need to stay focused and organized defensively, and from there, we can build our play. It’ll be a tough match, but I hope we’ll be ready in every aspect,” the coach said at the pre-match press conference in Miercurea Ciuc, where Erwin Bloj and Szabolcs Szilágyi also shared their thoughts.

The match Farul Constanța – FK Csíkszereda will kick off on Monday at 17:30 on the main pitch of the Gheorghe Hagi Academy in Ovidiu and will be broadcast live on DigiSport 1 and Prima Sport 1.

Text and photo by Attila Rédai