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Dan Coker's Match Preview

Match Preview: West Ham v Astra

The Club

Astra Giurgiu were founded in 1921 as Astra Romana Sports Club in Ploiesti, a city north of the Romanian capital Bucharest. The club was taken over by Ioan Niculae in 1990 and embarked on its first season in Romania’s top flight in 1998/99. Niculae moved the club from Ploiesti to Giurgiu in 2012 and the club finished 4th in the 2012/13 season, qualifying for the Europa League and ensuring continental competition for the first time in their history. 2013/14 saw Astra record the most successful season in their history finishing 2nd in the league to Steaua Bucharest but winning the Romanian Cup by beating Steaua on penalties. ‘The Black Devils’ finished 4th last season.

Astra negotiated their way through the Europa League’s three qualification rounds to reach the play-off for the group stage in 2013/14, only to be defeated 3-1 on aggregate by Maccabi Haifa. The Black Devils went one better last season though, qualifying for the group stage by defeating French giants Lyon on away goals in the play-off. They subsequently finished bottom of a group containing Red Bull Salzburg, Celtic and Dinamo Zagreb, although they picked up points at home with a draw against the Glasgow side and a win over the Croatians. They did lose 5-1 twice in the group stage, in the away matches in Salzburg and Zagreb.

While Niculae remains the club’s owner, the chairman is former Romanian international goalkeeper Danut Coman, a 36-year-old best known for his two spells with Rapid Bucharest. Head coach Marius Sumudica is a 44-year-old who has recently embarked on his third spell in charge of the club. Sumudica, a former striker standing at 5’10, won the Romanian League with Rapid Bucharest in 1999 and the Romanian Cup with the same club in 1998 and 2002. He has previously managed an array of clubs in Romania, as well as enjoying brief spells coaching in Greece and the United Arab Emirates.

The Players

One of Astra’s most notable players is 26-year-old goalkeeper Silviu Lung Junior, who will wear number 1 and stands at 6’2. He is the son of Silviu Lung, who was also a goalkeeper who won 77 caps for his country between 1979 and 1993. Lung Senior represented his country at Euro ’84 and the 1990 World Cup in Italy, where he was captain in all four matches but couldn’t keep out any of Ireland’s penalties as Pat Bonner’s save from Daniel Timofte and David O’Leary’s famous final spot-kick knocked the Romanians out in the second phase. Lung Junior started his career with 57 appearances for Universitatea Craiova between 2007 and 2011, during which time he was the regular goalkeeper for the Romanian Under-21 side. He signed for Astra in 2011 and has since made over 100 appearances for the club. Lung Junior has won six full caps for Romania.

Junior Morais, who will wear number 13, is a Brazilian left-back who first played for Sao Caetano in the Sao Paulo region in the 2008/09 season before moving to Freamunde, a second tier Portuguese club. The 29-year-old signed for Astra in 2011 where he has since scored 5 goals in 140 matches, winning both the Romanian Cup and the Romanian Supercup in 2014.

Constantin Budescu is a 26-year-old forward who will wear number 10. Standing at 6’1, Budescu started his career with Petrolul Ploiesti where he scored 41 goals in 151 appearances. He signed for Astra in 2011 and has since scored 53 goals in 133 matches and grabbed the only goal of the tie in the last qualifying round against Inverness with a dipping, curling free-kick. Budescu has won three caps for Romania.

Blast from the past

Having won the Intertoto Cup by defeating Finland’s Jokerit, Dutch side Heerenveen and French club Metz, and winning through against Osijek of Croatia in the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup first round, the Hammers came up against Steaua Bucharest in the second round.

The first leg in the Romanian capital, a trip which featured West Ham’s players attending the launch of the Romanian edition of Playboy magazine, ended in defeat as goals from Laurentiu Rosu and Sabin Ilie in either half, the second the result of a rare mistake by Steve Potts, put the hosts in charge of the tie on a dreadful pitch. Paolo Di Canio, booked for throwing the ball away in the first half, was substituted on the advice of the Danish referee, who admitted telling Hammers boss Harry Redknapp, “I said for him to be careful of Di Canio because next time he made me angry I would send him off". Frank Lampard almost grabbed what could have proved a crucial away goal on a number of occasions, seeing a late header ruled out for offside, heading against the bar and seeing a free-kick deflected wide.

West Ham United (first leg, 21st October 1999): Shaka Hislop, Steve Potts (Javier Margas), Rio Ferdinand, Neil Ruddock, Steve Lomas, John Moncur, Marc-Vivien Foe, Frank Lampard, Trevor Sinclair, Paulo Wanchope, Paolo Di Canio (Joe Cole).

A frustrating second leg back in London saw the Hammers throw the kitchen sink at Steaua but fail to convert numerous chances into goals. Di Canio was given an injection to play due to an ankle injury and a 17-year-old Joe Cole started with creativity the order of the day but profligacy and a defiant, if unorthodox, performance from goalkeeper Zoltan Ritli ensured the Hammers exited the competition.

West Ham United (second leg, 4th November 1999): Shaka Hislop, Javier Margas, Rio Ferdinand, Neil Ruddock, Trevor Sinclair, Steve Lomas, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Marc Keller (Paul Kitson), Paulo Wanchope, Paolo Di Canio.

Romanian Connections

Bucharest-born Florin Raducioiu arrived at Upton Park from Espanyol for a club record fee of £2.4m in the summer of 1996, having scored his country’s only goal at Euro ‘96. By the middle of winter, however, he was back in Spain, having played just 12 games and scored 3 times.

Raducioiu registered his first West Ham goal in the 1-1 League Cup home draw with Stockport on 27th November 1996. He notched his first Premier League goal against reigning champions Manchester United on 8th December 1996, the Romanian’s strike halving a 2-0 deficit in the 78th minute to kickstart a cracking comeback completed by Julian Dicks’ thunderous penalty.

Raducioiu denies the claim that he went shopping at Harvey Nichols rather than travel north for the League Cup fourth-round replay defeat at Stockport, saying: “It is not true that before a cup game I went shopping and left the team without a striker”. His third and final goal for the Hammers came on 28th December 1996 in a 2-0 win over Sunderland; new Hammers manager Slaven Bilic scored the first goal that day. Raducioiu formed strong friendships with Bilic and club legend Ludek Miklosko before returning to Espanyol for £1.7m in January 1997.

Speaking to the official website in 2009, Raducioiu stated: “I am very sorry about what happened. I was an important signing for West Ham at that time and I remember Harry Redknapp wanted me a lot and Ilie Dumitrescu was a good friend of mine and playing there. I made a mistake, I wasn’t ready for English football. The way of training was completely different and it led to problems. I’d like to say a big ‘sorry’ to the great fans at Upton Park. My character was a bit aggressive. It was something between two people but I don’t want to offend anybody at West Ham. I had my faults, I should have worked much harder to adapt to the English system”.

West Ham United were one of a number of clubs the striker represented in a career that began at Dinamo Bucharest and included spells in Italy (with Bari, Verona, Brescia and AC Milan), Spain (Espanyol), Germany (Stuttgart) and France (Monaco). In doing so, Raducioiu is one of only two professional footballers, alongside Christian Poulsen, to have plied his trade in the top five European leagues (Germany, Spain, Italy, France and England). He is best known internationally for his four World Cup goals for Romania at USA ’94 – in total he won 40 caps for his country, scoring 21 goals.

Raducioiu, now 45, retired in 2004 after a short stint with modest French side US Créteil-Lusitanos. He had a brief spells as a sports agent and as sporting director at Dinamo Bucharest. He has since taken his coaching badges at the Italian FA’s training centre in Coverciano with a view to returning to football and moving back to Brescia, his wife’s home city, permanently.

Referee

Thursday’s officials are from Switzerland, with the referee being 32-year-old Adrien Jaccottet; he was the man in the middle for FC Astana’s 2-0 Europa League qualifying second round second leg victory over NK Maribor last week. Jaccottet showed five yellow cards and one red in that game.

Possible line-ups

Slaven Bilic is likely to name his strongest available line-up. At the time of writing, James Tomkins has not had his appeal heard and remains suspended (this preview was written early – I’ll be on holiday in Cyprus by the time this is published) while Winston Reid is injured so James Collins and Angelo Ogbonna could form the central defensive partnership. Enner Valencia could start and Dimitri Payet should make his first competitive appearance for the club. Martin Samuelsen could also start after Morgan Amalfitano and Matt Jarvis both played for an hour in Tuesday’s win at Norwich. Diafra Sakho remains suspended so Mauro Zarate is likely to play.

Astra are expected to line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation. As well as the aforementioned Brazilian Junior Morais, Astra can boast a few foreign talents to play alongside their Romanian contingent. 30-year-old right-back Pedro Queiros and 34-year-old midfielder Felipe Teixeira both hail from Portugal – Teixera used to play for West Brom and Barnsley. 29-year-old holding midfielder Takayuki Seto is Japanese and has been at the club for eight years. 26-year-old attacking midfielder Fernando Boldrin and 23-year-old left winger William, who scored in the 81st minute of the 1-1 Europa League group stage draw against Celtic last season, are both from Brazil. Astra were accused by Inverness’ David Raven in the last round of underhand gamesmanship and “going down when they hadn’t been touched” – considering the recent dismissals of James Tomkins and Diafra Sakho in European competition, this could be something the Romanians target against the Hammers.

Possible West Ham United XI: Adrian; O’Brien, Collins, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Noble, Kouyate; Samuelsen, Payet, Valencia; Zarate.

Possible Astra XI: Lung; Queiros, Gaman, Dandea, Junior Morais; Teixeira, Seto; Enache, Boldrin, William; Budescu.

Enjoy the game – Up The Hammers!

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