Derby of the championship or derby of sufferance?

Rapid - Steaua breeds unprecedented prides every season. But this year, the situation of the two teams is not very good.



Rapid has big problems with respect to the leadership; George Copos announced long time ago that he will retire from the team and Fatih Taher doesn’t want to hear about the players from Rapid. The result, the football players haven’t received their money since more than one month. 



More than that, the payers from Rapid fall upon hard times, the Portuguese coach, Jose Pesiro, being very close to be dismissed few stages ago.  Since then, the players from Rapid are on a climbing slope and they haven’t lost any match lately. The team evolution was criticized, especially after the match from the last lap, with Gloria Buzău, when Rapid gained only with 1-0. Jose Peseiro speaks about the tensions from Rapid



The situation at Steaua isn’t very good either.  With a new coach, Dorinel Munteanu, the players from Steaua reached at 9 games without victory and they are coming after the defeat from Champions League, 0-2 with Lyon. The red-blue have problems with respect to team organizing, especially with the post of goalkeeper. Zapata doesn’t stand high in the sponsor and the supporters favour anymore. There are problems with the offense, too where the only efficient player which was the Greek Kapetanos. Dorinel Munteanu speaks about Zapata’s mistakes





The two teams are separated in the classification by only one point but they are at a big distance from the Championship leader, Dinamo, 6 points. After the so much discussed match from the last season, when the party was stopped in the 73 minute by the referee Deaconu (because he was hit with a   lighter in his head), CCA delegated at this match the best referee  from "Mitică’s" League, Alexandru Tudor. Would the scandals be avoided?



In these conditions, the match will be very interesting but the stake is not the same every year. If not long-ago they were fighting for a place in the semifinals of UEFA Cup, Rapid and Steaua are dueling now to come back in the tour for title, not a very daring aim if we look at the names of the two teams.