Politehnica Timișoara recorded today the first defeat in the winter tests, in the company of second division CSC Dumbrăvița. The guests won 3-1 (1-1) after two goals scored in the last quarter of an hour of the match at the “Știința” arena.

The White-Violets returned to the city center after 644 days (practically after the last official game in League 2). Today’s friendly match was only the third for Cristian Gălan’s pupils and also the first one on natural turf in this competitive break.

Dumbrăvițenii started more offensively and opened the scoring in the 13th minute, when Nicu Modan scored with a cross-shot into the corner of the net from an easy position on the right. The young Poles reacted almost immediately, Istratie sending a back-heel into the box for Denis Boariu (15th minute), who scored with a short-corner shot for 1-1, a score that would stand for more than an hour of fairly even play.

In the last 13 minutes, with more changes in the Timisoara camp, the green-and-whites scored twice more. The first time Dragan Paulevici (77) speculated on a set-piece to put his team ahead again. And in the last seconds, the ball that the goalkeeper had turned back to Răzvan Purlea fell into our goal once more.

Politehnica Timișoara: Mosoarcă – Nagy, Tătaru, Vlaicu, Krista – Militaru, Rotariu – Prună, Popa, Boariu – Istratie (first half) Mosoarcă (60, Enășescu) – Miclăuș, D. Roșu, Huminic (75, Lazăr), R. Ciurel – Pureca, Rotariu (60, Fazekaș) – Marincu, D. Ciurel, Mihăescu – Avramescu (75, Moș) – Coach: Cristian Gălan.

CSC Dumbrăvița: Iliescu – Butnărașu, Scutaru, Zurbagiu, Ghinescu – Sofran, Ignea, Ailenei, Gladun – Cibi, Modan. The following also entered: Curea, Anișorac, Purlea, Sima and Paulevici. Coach: Cosmin Stan.

“We took very good care of this aspect during this period (of playing on natural pitch), because we didn’t train on it at all, we protected it, just to have good ground for friendly games. Really, we met a good League 2 team, they tried to run their players they rely on a lot in the league. It was a very nice game. I really enjoyed it“, said Cristian Gălan, head coach of Politehnicii, about today’s game.

“We are aiming to play as well as we can, so that after our games we have very good possibilities to enter the play-offs. I think it’s realistic what we are thinking, because our players, young as they are, are showing enough maturity in the game and are really playing a beautiful game. I would very much like to see that happen. If the team plays, it will definitely happen. Because it’s all down to us as a group, how we handle situations during the games and how we will get the results. The group started to homogenize towards the end of last year, because basically a new group was created. It was quite a heterogeneous group considering that we brought in youngsters from the Academy plus players who stayed on plus from other sides coming in. Now we have the 26 players that were on the pitch today, we have them in the squad, that’s the squad we are going forward with and I think we’re going to do well. We never talked about the play-offs as a team objective. We knew from the start what squad we had, a young squad, and it was very difficult to set that as a goal when we took over the group,” said the ‘main’ White and Blue about the goals for the spring.

“We have seven very full days coming up, because we play Peciu on Wednesday and Alba on Friday and then it’s going to be a busy couple of days, and then we have the last friendly in Kikinda, a week before the league starts. We are still picking players for the first leg against Viitorul. We are still dividing the minutes, because they all need to grow, whether they are 15-16 or 27 – the oldest,” said Cristi Gălan.

Poli have a busy week of games ahead. First, on Wednesday, February 12, from 14.00, also at the “Știința” arena, a friendly is scheduled against CSC Peciu Nou (leader in C9), then on Friday, February 14, from 15.30, we will play a test against Unirea Alba Iulia (2nd place in C7), also in Timișoara. Next week will of course end with the last event organized at the old “Dan Paltinisanu” stadium, where we will take part in a demonstration triangular with Politehnica Femina and Poli Old Boys.